Ship Chandlery The Family Arnold has been operating its ship chandlery here in this location since 1884. In such a place of business, the residents of Brake as well as the crew members of the sailing ships laying over in the harbor were able to purchase everything they needed for their personal use, including colonial goods such as cocoa, coffee and tobacco. Above all, however, the assortment encompassed equipment required in the work onboard, such as buckets, cordage and blocks as well as lamps and oil. A good supplier of ships had to be capable of delivering provisions for 100 daily rations per crew member of a large tall ship within a single day. Today, the Hillrich Arnold GmbH is engaged not only in the shipchandlery, but also in trading mineral oil, and it owns a bunker vessel involved in underway operations. [More]
Maritime Museum - Telegraph The so-called Telegraph was built in 1846 as a station along the semaphore (optical telegraph) line between Bremen and Bremerhaven. Oldenburg´s administration financed the venture. Having a signalmast on their roofs, the merchants and shipowners were now able to conveniently relay messages between ships arriving and departing – at least during the daytime and with good visual conditions. Nonetheless, as soon as 1852, this form of communications was history. The electromagnetic telegraphy distinguished itself in terms of reliability and rapidity. The building subsequently served in various functions, including as a prison and as a firehouse. Since 1960, it has been the parent house of the Maritime Museum of the Oldenburgian Lower Weser. In 2014, following an extensive period of renovation and modernization, it was reopened. [More]
Maritime Museum - Haus Borgstede & Becker The packing house was built in 1808 by the ship broker and the subsequent shipyard owner Hinrich Oltmanns. It served as an interim storage facility of the company “Oltmanns & Seeman”, allowing freight and commercial goods to be temporarily kept until their further transport by ship. On the ground floor, a ship´s chandler store was opened from early on.As of 1818, the British Vice Consul and an agent of the North German Lloyd, John Saville MacNamara, lived here with his wife, who became entwined with countless legends. Following MacNamars death in 1845, Johann Hinrich Borgstede and Julius Ludwig Becker, two businessmen from Brake, purchased the building, and this became the exclusive property of Becker a year later, remaining in the family until 1979. In 1985, this house, known as “Haus Borgstede & Becker”, became the second site of the Maritime Museum of the Oldenburgian Lower Weser. [More]