Deutsche Forschungsschiffe und ihre Namen. T. 1, Eine Liste deutscher Forschungsschiffe seit 1862

Since the 1860s a variety of ship types and sizes have been made available by the navy and commercial shipping companies for the systematic exploration of the global waters under the respective German flag, usually - in the earlier decades - for isolated research tasks and expeditions. At the same time, a fleet of specially built vessels has developed for longer-term exploration projects. Data on the vessels which have contributed to Germany’s role in the exploration of the oceans from 1862 to the present can be found in a wide spectrum of literature including the annual reports of research institutes, descriptions of the respective research situations and applications for financial assistance, oceanographic and nautical textbooks, expedition reports and the information brochures and monographs of individual ships. On the basis of information gathered from the above-mentioned sources, a list has been drawn up of some 170 research vessels, including the approximately 40 widely different vessels in operation today. The list contains information on the ship types, periods of operation, users, scientific and geographical areas of use. Despite the exclusion of entire vessel groups theoretically classifiable as “research vessels” according to the given definition, the list makes no claim to completeness. The often annual variations in the numbers of exploration ships under German flag can be attributed to political, technical, scientific and discipline-related developments. The names of the vessels, divisible into four categories, and various background factors connected with the name choices will be the subject of a later article