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BVU (German Shipping Company)

Binnenschiffervereinigung des Unterwesergebietes

image by Ivan Sache, 3 Mar 2006

BVU Elspeth
Binnenschiffervereinigung des Unterwesergebietes

See also:

BVU Elspeth

Binnenschiffervereinigung des Unterwesergebietes GmbH. This firm – the name means something like ‘Society of Inland Shippers of the Lower River Weser Area, Ltd’ – was founded in 1956 and is based at Elsfleth, a town situated between Bremen and Bremerhaven.
BVU typically transports dry goods (sand, gravel, materials for construction, wheat, etc. in bulk; further wood, steel, etc. plus the odd container). The barges in question have a capacity ranging from 700-1200 metric tonnes. Additionally, BVU exploits a gravel works.
Its area of operations includes NW Germany with feelers to Berlin, the Lower Rhine, and the Netherlands.

This information was gleaned from this site. The house flag is blue with a broad red cross throughout and black initials B.V.U. in the centre of the cross. The similarity with the Oldenburg flag is surely no coincidence and current use.
Jan Mertens, 20 Feb 2006

Binnenschiffervereinigung des Unterwesergebietes

image by Ivan Sache, 7 May 2006

B.V.U. at Elsfleth is a German inland shipping cooperative presented here, and although the company website is inaccessible right now, the basis for Ivan’s gif may still be seen here (note the black initials).

Now what should turn up but a table flag with white initials in a rather beautiful script! This is one step nearer the real article.
Source: German eBay offer no. 190276749720 (end 4 Jan 2008) put up by “msluisel”.
Some further thinking led me to this page, showing BVU’s former own gravel extraction site at Stolzenau: Indeed, the second colour photo shows a life-size BVU flag with white initials waving on an impressive dredging craft.
We learn that the floating dredger was bought in 2004, but also that the next year, the extraction site was taken over by the WRM-Reese group which is not, I believe, active in shipping.
Jan Mertens, 2 Jan 2009