Torfschiffswerft Schlussdorf

The Turf Shipyard (german: Torfschiffswerft) in , Lower Saxony, Germany, is a former boat builder's yard now used as an open-air museum. The yard, operating from 1850 to 1954, was specialised on barges to transport turf, that is dried peat used as fuel. In 1975 the (i.e. Schlussdorf Traditions Club) started to rescue the dilapidated shipyard buildings and reopened the site as a museum in 1977. The Turf Shipyard is about north of Worpswede's outskirts.Barbara Pannewick, „Worpswede, Heimat der Kunst“, in: ''Bremen: Entdeckerhandbuch für Stadt und Umland'', Sabine Gorsemann (ed.), (=Peter Meyer Reiseführer), Frankfurt am Main: Peter Meyer, ²2005, pp. 171–177, here p. 176. .

The Turf Shipyard is the only of its kind preserved in Northern Germany. As a museum it is undoubtedly in the front row of Worpswede's tourist sights.Michael Schön
„Café im Torfschiffswerft-Museum: Kaffee und Kuchen sollen Besucher locken“
in: ''Wümme-Zeitung'', 11 March 2015, retrieved on 18 November 2019. Among the attractions of the artists' village of Worpswede, the Turf Shipyard museum turned out to be a gem. The visit is especially recommended to people with children, as everything is presented very vividly.

Bogs settled, peat cut and shipped

Following Jürgen Christian Findorff's plans for the inner colonisation in the drained mires of the Teufelsmoor the village of Schlussdorf was founded in 1800 with originally 24 colonist families.Hermann Giere, ''Torfschiffswerft Schlußdorf (Museum) in der Gemeinde Worpswede, gegr. 1850, restauriert 1977 durch den Heimatverein Schlußdorf e.V.'', Osterholz-Scharmbeck: Saade, c. 1987, p. 3. (1720–1792), whom on 20 September 1771 George III of Britain and Hanover had appointed as Mire Commissioner (german: link=no, Moorkommissar) for the drainage and colonisation of the Teufelsmoor, included fuel turf sales as the necessary and available financial source for the colonists in their hard initial years.Karsten Müller-Scheeßel, „Die wirtschaftlichen Grundlagen der Findorff-Siedlungen im 18. und 19. Jahrhundert: Landwirtschaft und Torfhandel“, in: ''Die Findorff-Siedlungen im Teufelsmoor bei Worpswede: Ein Heimatbuch'', Wolfgang Konukiewitz und Dieter Weiser (eds.), 2nd, revis. ed., Bremen: Edition Temmen, 2013, pp. 147–169, here p. 164. .

The colonists sold fuel turf (german: link=no, Backtorf) prevailingly in Bremen and cities on the lower Weser,Hermann Giere, ''Torfschiffswerft Schlußdorf (Museum) in der Gemeinde Worpswede, gegr. 1850, restauriert 1977 durch den Heimatverein Schlußdorf e.V.'', Osterholz-Scharmbeck: Saade, c. 1987, p. 5. in order to raise money to make a living and build up their farms. By contract with the mire commission each colonist had to commit himself to replace the initial sod roofed A-frame shack by a solid farm building within the span of one year, however, so many failed that the commission already counted the presence of timber as fulfilment of that obligation, and thus some simple mire cottages (german: link=no, Moorkate }) were still to be found in the 1930s.Johannes Rehder-Plümpe, „Die Gebäude der Findorff-Siedlungen“, in: ''Die Findorff-Siedlungen im Teufelsmoor bei Worpswede: Ein Heimatbuch'', Wolfgang Konukiewitz and Dieter Weiser (eds.), 2nd, revis. ed., Bremen: Edition Temmen, 2013, pp. 125–146, here p. 128. .

As the soil was poor, the farming revenues remained meagre, and their recipients lived in poverty and often suffered from malnutrition and disease such as rickets and tuberculosis.Guido Boulboullé and Michael Zeiss, ''Worpswede: Kulturgeschichte eines Künstlerdorfes'', Cologne: DuMont, 1989, pp. 40seq. . In springtime farmers started to cut peat from a lower peat layer, considered the best for fuel turf. If necessary the farmers compressed the peaty soil before cutting by hours-long barefoot tamping, a procedure called ''petten'' in Northern Low Saxon.Guido Boulboullé and Michael Zeiss, ''Worpswede: Kulturgeschichte eines Künstlerdorfes'', Cologne: DuMont, 1989, p. 42. . Then the brick-formed peat pieces were piled up to stacks for drying in the summer sun to become fuel turf, before the deliveries started from autumn till mid-December.

After 1800 turf prices in Bremen soared.Guido Boulboullé and Michael Zeiss, ''Worpswede: Kulturgeschichte eines Künstlerdorfes'', Cologne: DuMont, 1989, p. 38. . In 1830 fuel turf cost Thaler (Thl.) 4 to 8 (about mark „³12 to 24) per 1 , which is .''200 Jahre Schlußdorf 1800–2000: Festschrift zur 200-Jahr-Feier der Ortschaft Schlußdorf'', Heimatverein Schlußdorf (ed.), Worpswede: Worpswede municipality, 2000, p. 30. No ISBN. In his teenage days the Schlussdorf-born (1847–1912) navigated turf barges to Vegesack and Bremen selling 1 Hunt of fuel turf for Thl. 2â…” to 3 (about ℳ 16 to 18),Hermann Giere, ''25 Jahre Heimatverein Schlußdorf e.V. 1968–1993'', Heimatverein Schlußdorf (ed.), Ritterhude: Diem + Neumann, 1993, p. 48, after Erwin Duwe (erd), „Gedenkstein für Heimatdichter: Vor 139 Jahren wurde Heinrich Schriefer in Schlußdorf geboren“, in: ''Wümme-Zeitung'', 24 January 1986, page unknown. as this author of rustic novels described.Gudrun Scabell, „Der Bauernroman im Teufelsmoor“, in: ''Die Findorff-Siedlungen im Teufelsmoor bei Worpswede: Ein Heimatbuch'', Wolfgang Konukiewitz and Dieter Weiser (eds.), 2nd, revis. ed., Bremen: Edition Temmen, 2013, pp. 249–269, here p. 249. . Between 1866 and 1884 turf prices per Hunt freely delivered rose from ℳ 60 (in 1866 still Thl. 20 circa) to ℳ 72.''200 Jahre Schlußdorf 1800–2000: Festschrift zur 200-Jahr-Feier der Ortschaft Schlußdorf'', Heimatverein Schlußdorf (ed.), Worpswede: Worpswede municipality, 2000, p. 32. No ISBN. Selling fuel turf remained a main source of revenues for mire farmers till the begin of the 20th century, when modern fertilising sharply increased the harvests. Fuel turf experienced a last boom in demand by the end of the Second World War and in the immediate postwar years.Karsten Müller-Scheeßel, „Die wirtschaftlichen Grundlagen der Findorff-Siedlungen im 18. und 19. Jahrhundert: Landwirtschaft und Torfhandel“, in: ''Die Findorff-Siedlungen im Teufelsmoor bei Worpswede: Ein Heimatbuch'', Wolfgang Konukiewitz und Dieter Weiser (eds.), 2nd, revis. ed., Bremen: Edition Temmen, 2013, pp. 147–169, here p. 169. . For their own requirements some mire farmers continued heating with fuel turf until the late 1960s.

All the 20 villages newly founded between 1751 and 1808 stretch as linear settlements along a ramrod straight causeway thrown up from material dug out from the drainage ditches running parallelly.Johannes Rehder-Plümpe, „Die Struktur der Findorff-Siedlungen“, in: ''Die Findorff-Siedlungen im Teufelsmoor bei Worpswede: Ein Heimatbuch'', Wolfgang Konukiewitz und Dieter Weiser (eds.), 2nd, revis. ed., Bremen: Edition Temmen, 2013, pp. 93–123, here p. 119. . The intermediate (fiscal authority supervising and controlling the royal-electoral demesnes) and the provincial Bremen-Verden government in Stade paid for their part the main causeways in each village.

The colonists, again, had to maintain them and to build and to maintain connecting causeways (german: link=no, Communicationsdämme, i.e. communication dams) between the villages on their own, as well as all the hydraulic installations (drainage ditches, navigable canals, dikes, weirs, and bridgesJohannes Rehder-Plümpe, „Die Struktur der Findorff-Siedlungen“, in: ''Die Findorff-Siedlungen im Teufelsmoor bei Worpswede: Ein Heimatbuch'', Wolfgang Konukiewitz und Dieter Weiser (eds.), 2nd, revis. ed., Bremen: Edition Temmen, 2013, pp. 93–123, here p. 98. .), to which each colonist had to commit in a contract with the mire commission.''200 Jahre Schlußdorf 1800–2000: Festschrift zur 200-Jahr-Feier der Ortschaft Schlußdorf'', Heimatverein Schlußdorf (ed.), Worpswede: Worpswede municipality, 2000, pp. 25seq. No ISBN. All royal-electoral causeways were open to everyone for the public good. Such causeways lacked soil compaction and pavement and were thus impassable for wayns and often even for horses, so inhabitants mostly walked them by foot using â€“ if necessary â€“ wheelbarrows for transport.

In rainy seasons or at seasonal floods the ways turned completely impassable, sometimes for days. In the beginning 30 villages in the Teufelsmoor were only connected by watercourses with 20 villages in the eastern mire part linked through the Wörpe and its tributaries, entering the Wümme.Johannes Rehder-Plümpe, „Die Struktur der Findorff-Siedlungen“, in: ''Die Findorff-Siedlungen im Teufelsmoor bei Worpswede: Ein Heimatbuch'', Wolfgang Konukiewitz and Dieter Weiser (eds.), 2nd, revis. ed., Bremen: Edition Temmen, 2013, pp. 93–123, here p. 101. . Until the regulation of the river Wörpe in 1860 the rather narrower navigable watercourses in its drainage basin only allowed ¼-Hunt barges, thereafter then ½-Hunt barges.Johannes Rehder-Plümpe, „Die Struktur der Findorff-Siedlungen“, in: ''Die Findorff-Siedlungen im Teufelsmoor bei Worpswede: Ein Heimatbuch'', Wolfgang Konukiewitz and Dieter Weiser (eds.), 2nd, revis. ed., Bremen: Edition Temmen, 2013, pp. 93–123, here pp. 115seq. . Hardly a farmer in the drained mire had a horse, in Schlussdorf e.g. no family had a horse in 1828,''200 Jahre Schlußdorf 1800–2000: Festschrift zur 200-Jahr-Feier der Ortschaft Schlußdorf'', Heimatverein Schlußdorf (ed.), Worpswede: Worpswede municipality, 2000, p. 28. No ISBN. they were useless lacking made roads. However, Schlussdorfers had some horned cattle reaching a livestock hardly securing their living only in the second generation. A situation accounted for by the traditional local rhyming saying: ''Den Eersten sien Dood, den Tweeten sien Nood, den Drütten sien Brood'' ( Northern Low Saxon for: Unto the first his death, unto the second his need, unto the third his bread).

Lacking sufficient travelways the mire colonists also extended drainage ditches to navigability when clearing them, using the dug-out material to raise and repair parallel causeways.Johannes Rehder-Plümpe, „Die Struktur der Findorff-Siedlungen“, in: ''Die Findorff-Siedlungen im Teufelsmoor bei Worpswede: Ein Heimatbuch'', Wolfgang Konukiewitz und Dieter Weiser (eds.), 2nd, revis. ed., Bremen: Edition Temmen, 2013, pp. 93–123, here p. 120. . Hydraulic engineers and colonists straightened natural rivers and created most of today's watercourses between 1751 and 1799, forming a grid expanding to today's length of to be maintained and financed by the landowners in the drained mire, combined in today's local water board (a public-law corporation), the ''Gewässer- und Landschaftspflegeverband Teufelsmoor'' (or GLV Teufelsmoor). Between 1769 and 1790 Findorff directed the construction of the Oste-Hamme Canal,Johannes Rehder-Plümpe, „Die Struktur der Findorff-Siedlungen“, in: ''Die Findorff-Siedlungen im Teufelsmoor bei Worpswede: Ein Heimatbuch'', Wolfgang Konukiewitz and Dieter Weiser (eds.), 2nd, revis. ed., Bremen: Edition Temmen, 2013, pp. 93–123, here p. 99. . providing for the northerly connection to Bremervörde and Stade.Johannes Rehder-Plümpe, „Die Struktur der Findorff-Siedlungen“, in: ''Die Findorff-Siedlungen im Teufelsmoor bei Worpswede: Ein Heimatbuch'', Wolfgang Konukiewitz and Dieter Weiser (eds.), 2nd, revis. ed., Bremen: Edition Temmen, 2013, pp. 93–123, here p. 97. . The mire farmers used barges (german: link=no, Torfschiff }) with no considerable draught capable to cruise the shallow navigable ditches of the Teufelsmoor mire.Hermann Giere, ''Torfschiffswerft Schlußdorf (Museum) in der Gemeinde Worpswede, gegr. 1850, restauriert 1977 durch den Heimatverein Schlußdorf e.V.'', Osterholz-Scharmbeck: Saade, c. 1987, p. 4.Hermann Giere, ''25 Jahre Heimatverein Schlußdorf e.V. 1968–1993'', Heimatverein Schlußdorf (ed.), Ritterhude: Diem + Neumann, 1993, p. 27, after NN, „Museumswerft wird eingeweiht: Heimatverein Schlußdorf gibt Gebäude zur Besichtigung frei“, in: ''Wümme-Zeitung'', 16 August 1977, page unknown.

Once crisscrossed by drainage trenches, hill moors â€“ like the Teufelsmoor â€“ do not well hold water, thus, in order to maintain a navigable water level manually openable sluices ( N. Low Saxon: ]) were installed every to in all the watercourses.Johannes Rehder-Plümpe, „Die Struktur der Findorff-Siedlungen“, in: ''Die Findorff-Siedlungen im Teufelsmoor bei Worpswede: Ein Heimatbuch'', Wolfgang Konukiewitz and Dieter Weiser (eds.), 2nd, revis. ed., Bremen: Edition Temmen, 2013, pp. 93–123, here p. 108. . In order to pass a Schütt it was to be opened board by board, a time-consuming procedure implying water losses.Johannes Rehder-Plümpe, „Die Struktur der Findorff-Siedlungen“, in: ''Die Findorff-Siedlungen im Teufelsmoor bei Worpswede: Ein Heimatbuch'', Wolfgang Konukiewitz and Dieter Weiser (eds.), 2nd, revis. ed., Bremen: Edition Temmen, 2013, pp. 93–123, here p. 110. . So usually two people manned a barge, one navigating and one opening and closing weirs. In order to balance these losses streams on the geest had to be tapped, provoking disputes with the inhabitants there.Hans-Gerhard Kulp, „Die Natur des Teufelsmoores“, in: ''Die Findorff-Siedlungen im Teufelsmoor bei Worpswede: Ein Heimatbuch'', Wolfgang Konukiewitz and Dieter Weiser (eds.), 2nd, revis. ed., Bremen: Edition Temmen, 2013, pp. 11–40, here p. 37. .

The ''Schlussdorf-Winkelmoorer Schiffgraben'' (Schlussdorf-Winkelmoor shipping ditch) between Schlussdorf and was laid out on expenses of the Royal-Electoral Chamber in 1810,''200 Jahre Schlußdorf 1800–2000: Festschrift zur 200-Jahr-Feier der Ortschaft Schlußdorf'', Heimatverein Schlußdorf (ed.), Worpswede: Worpswede municipality, 2000, p. 26. No ISBN. shortly before the French annexation of the Elbe–Weser triangle. The ''Schlussdorf-Winkelmoorer Schiffgraben'' measures in length and connects via the river Umbeck to the Hamme. Ten sluices regulated its water level which in 1854 were combined in pairs to form chambers similar to locks able to include up to eight turf barges, obliged to pass in queues to reduce water outflow.

Since passing sluices is time-consuming, with â€“ in the 1870s â€“ 1,500 turf barges in the Teufelsmoor making up for 9,000 passages per year at, e.g., the Ritterhude Lock, tinkerers plotted a remedy. The canal steward (german: link=no, Kanalvogt) Müller from invented the (flap weir)Johannes Rehder-Plümpe, „Die Struktur der Findorff-Siedlungen“, in: ''Die Findorff-Siedlungen im Teufelsmoor bei Worpswede: Ein Heimatbuch'', Wolfgang Konukiewitz and Dieter Weiser (eds.), 2nd, revis. ed., Bremen: Edition Temmen, 2013, pp. 93–123, here p. 111. . by 1830. It is a leather flap vertically flexible and horizontally enforced by parallel wooden boards applicated on the downstream side and upheld on the upstream side by the headwater and on the downstream side by guiding lateral edges bent upstream. So when a vessel approaches upstream its bow well sticks out above the upper edge of the concavely bent flap weir and by moving on its sloping underside gently presses down the flap, allowing the vessel to skim over it with the swashing downstream torrent. Moving upstream needs more manpower pushing the vessel's bow against the convexly bent flap weir to press it down against the headwater's counterpressure and then steering the barge against the downstream torrent. However, barges can pass flap weirs without the help of a second person.

Mire Commissioner Claus Witte (1796–1861; 1826–1861 in office) promoted Müller's idea, however, the new practical tool was very expensive, so that it took until 1840 that the first samples got installed in a watercourse at , soon spreading to all navigable watercourses in the Teufelsmoor.Johannes Rehder-Plümpe, „Die Struktur der Findorff-Siedlungen“, in: ''Die Findorff-Siedlungen im Teufelsmoor bei Worpswede: Ein Heimatbuch'', Wolfgang Konukiewitz and Dieter Weiser (eds.), 2nd, revis. ed., Bremen: Edition Temmen, 2013, pp. 93–123, here p. 112. . In 1856 flap weirs were installed in the ''Schlussdorf-Winkelmoorer Schiffgraben'' replacing the previous devices. By straightening the meandering Hamme its course was shortened by half.Johannes Rehder-Plümpe, „Die Struktur der Findorff-Siedlungen“, in: ''Die Findorff-Siedlungen im Teufelsmoor bei Worpswede: Ein Heimatbuch'', Wolfgang Konukiewitz and Dieter Weiser (eds.), 2nd, revis. ed., Bremen: Edition Temmen, 2013, pp. 93–123, here p. 100. . The southward extension of the old Semkenfahrt by the Semkenfahrtskanal in 1888 and later further on by the Neue Semkenfahrt further shortened the connection between Bremen and the villages north of Worpswede. But navigating on that canals implied dues of three groats for the Semkenfahrt, another three at Höftdeich and six groats at entering Bremen city at the Doventor gate.

In the Teufelsmoor literally every farming lot is connected to drainage ditches, and the farmers expanded their adjacent ditches to navigable size, or even dug branch ditches to their farmsteads, adding boat sheds where navigability ended.Johannes Rehder-Plümpe, „Die Struktur der Findorff-Siedlungen“, in: ''Die Findorff-Siedlungen im Teufelsmoor bei Worpswede: Ein Heimatbuch'', Wolfgang Konukiewitz and Dieter Weiser (eds.), 2nd, revis. ed., Bremen: Edition Temmen, 2013, pp. 93–123, here p. 117. . Farmers who could not afford a boat took the services of an ''Eichenfahrer'', a commission shipper from Bremen.Johannes Rehder-Plümpe, „Die Struktur der Findorff-Siedlungen“, in: ''Die Findorff-Siedlungen im Teufelsmoor bei Worpswede: Ein Heimatbuch'', Wolfgang Konukiewitz and Dieter Weiser (eds.), 2nd, revis. ed., Bremen: Edition Temmen, 2013, pp. 93–123, here p. 116. . Boat sheds mostly disappeared to these days or remain very dilapidated, except of few preserved in museums, such as the Torfschiffswerft in Schlussdorf.

The oldest, and for a long time only made road through the Teufelsmoor, the highway Worpswede--Gnarrenburg (today's Lower Saxon L 165), was started in May 1785 by the provincial Bremen-Verden government.Johannes Rehder-Plümpe, „Die Struktur der Findorff-Siedlungen“, in: ''Die Findorff-Siedlungen im Teufelsmoor bei Worpswede: Ein Heimatbuch'', Wolfgang Konukiewitz and Dieter Weiser (eds.), 2nd, revis. ed., Bremen: Edition Temmen, 2013, pp. 93–123, here pp. 119seq. . Other roads were seasonally so furrowed that pedestrians had to use a side path. Actual paving of causeways only started from 1870 on.Johannes Rehder-Plümpe, „Die Struktur der Findorff-Siedlungen“, in: ''Die Findorff-Siedlungen im Teufelsmoor bei Worpswede: Ein Heimatbuch'', Wolfgang Konukiewitz and Dieter Weiser (eds.), 2nd, revis. ed., Bremen: Edition Temmen, 2013, pp. 93–123, here p. 121. . Until the end of the First World War causeways had been built to connect all the villages so that many farmers bought for the first time a horse from demobilised army stocks in 1918.Johannes Rehder-Plümpe, „Die Gebäude der Findorff-Siedlungen“, in: ''Die Findorff-Siedlungen im Teufelsmoor bei Worpswede: Ein Heimatbuch'', Wolfgang Konukiewitz and Dieter Weiser (eds.), 2nd, revis. ed., Bremen: Edition Temmen, 2013, pp. 125–146, here p. 137. .

In the 1920s every village paved at least one causeway, usually connecting to the closest paved highway, typically with turf-fired clinker (german: link=no, Moorklinker). In the years 1928 and 1929 in Schlussdorf its mayor Diedrich Schnakenberg (1857–1942) propelled paving the first road with clinker, the one to Weyerdeelen-Umbeck, then costing reichsmark (ℛℳ) 210,000, of which the Osterholz district paid one third, while two thirds were personal contributions by the Schlussdorfers.''200 Jahre Schlußdorf 1800–2000: Festschrift zur 200-Jahr-Feier der Ortschaft Schlußdorf'', Heimatverein Schlußdorf (ed.), Worpswede: Worpswede municipality, 2000, p. 47. No ISBN. With more and more causeways paved in the Teufelsmoor drainage ditches were put out of navigation. Truck transport replaced canal traffic.Johannes Rehder-Plümpe, „Die Struktur der Findorff-Siedlungen“, in: ''Die Findorff-Siedlungen im Teufelsmoor bei Worpswede: Ein Heimatbuch'', Wolfgang Konukiewitz and Dieter Weiser (eds.), 2nd, revis. ed., Bremen: Edition Temmen, 2013, pp. 93–123, here p. 123. . In the Great Depression and the early Nazi period more causeways were paved within job creation schemes, with villagers having to feed and lodge the workers in the scheme and provide hand and hitch-up services.Johannes Rehder-Plümpe, „Die Struktur der Findorff-Siedlungen“, in: ''Die Findorff-Siedlungen im Teufelsmoor bei Worpswede: Ein Heimatbuch'', Wolfgang Konukiewitz and Dieter Weiser (eds.), 2nd, revis. ed., Bremen: Edition Temmen, 2013, pp. 93–123, here p. 122. .

Between 1900 and 1954/1956 the connected Bremen's Parkbahnhof station with Tarmstedt calling also stations in the Teufelsmoor. Since 1911 the Mire Express railway, since 1978 only operating seasonally, provides its services.

History of the shipyard

In 1800 Johann 'Jan' Grotheer, then head of one of the 24 original colonist families, took the land lot ''Schlussdorf #6'',''200 Jahre Schlußdorf 1800–2000: Festschrift zur 200-Jahr-Feier der Ortschaft Schlußdorf'', Heimatverein Schlußdorf (ed.), Worpswede: Worpswede municipality, 2000, p. 22. No ISBN. readdressed Schlussdorfer Straße 22 in 1978. The Grotheers replaced their initial cottage by a solid farm building by 1820,Gem., „Butterkuchen lockte viele Gäste: Der Heimatverein Schlußdorf feiert sein traditionelles Backofenfest“, in: ''Wümme-Zeitung'', 30 July 1992, p. IV. and in 1850 Jan Grotheer built a boat builder's yard for his son Cord Hinrich Grotheer (1844–1914Johann Schriefer, „Torfschiffmuseum ist die Attraktion: In Schlußdorf wurden einst mehr als 600 Kähne gebaut / Werft 1977 restauriert“, in: ''OHZlive'', April 2014, p. 4.), at last led by his grandson Hinrich Grotheer (1871–1957). Boat builders established on mire rivers and turf canals, such as in , , (there even two), and ,Johannes Rehder-Plümpe, „Die Struktur der Findorff-Siedlungen“, in: ''Die Findorff-Siedlungen im Teufelsmoor bei Worpswede: Ein Heimatbuch'', Wolfgang Konukiewitz and Dieter Weiser (eds.), 2nd, revis. ed., Bremen: Edition Temmen, 2013, pp. 93–123, here p. 118. . with Grotheer's in Schlussdorf having then been the best known in all the Teufelsmoor.

Over three generations the Grotheers launched more than 600 boats within the 104 years of boat building in Schlussdorf. Without constructional drawings they built their barges, each taking about six weeks of actual boat building. Besides turf barges, mostly for freight (such as fuel turf, or hay to be brought from the remote meadows to the barns at the farmsteads, or construction materials) the Grotheers also built locally typical passenger boats, the so-called ''Entenjäger'' (i.e. duck hunter).

Grotheers built their boats from long seasoned oak wood and supplied them with lugsails of .''200 Jahre Schlußdorf 1800–2000: Festschrift zur 200-Jahr-Feier der Ortschaft Schlußdorf'', Heimatverein Schlußdorf (ed.), Worpswede: Worpswede municipality, 2000, p. 42. No ISBN. The barges from Schlussdorf belong to the class of ''Halbhuntschiffe'' with a capacity of c.  or 50 standard baskets of turf (½ a Hunt) each. They could not be bigger because the Grotheers launched their turf boats to the ''Schlussdorf-Winkelmoorer Schiffgraben'' which â€“ like many of its kind entering the Hamme or the Wümme â€“ does not allow larger barges.Johannes Rehder-Plümpe, „Die Struktur der Findorff-Siedlungen“, in: ''Die Findorff-Siedlungen im Teufelsmoor bei Worpswede: Ein Heimatbuch'', Wolfgang Konukiewitz and Dieter Weiser (eds.), 2nd, revis. ed., Bremen: Edition Temmen, 2013, pp. 93–123, here pp. 116seq. .

Boatbuilding was poorly paid. In the early 19th century a ½-Hunt barge cost Thl. 80, by its end ℳ 250–300 and ℳ 450 for a full-Hunt barge. In 1934 Heinrich Grabau paid for a ½-Hunt barge ℛℳ 450 to Hinrich Grotheer, with a down payment of ℛℳ 100 for wood.Hermann Giere, ''25 Jahre Heimatverein Schlußdorf e.V. 1968–1993'', Heimatverein Schlußdorf (ed.), Ritterhude: Diem + Neumann, 1993, p. 57, after RB., „Torfschiffswerft fand bundesweit Interesse: Heimatverein Schlußdorf zog Bilanz“, in: ''Osterholzer Anzeiger'', 31 January 1990, page unknown. In 1950 a full-Hunt barge cost deutschmark (DM) 1,000.

One 1938-built boat from Schlussdorf is preserved in the '' Osterholz Traditions Museum'' in Osterholz-Scharmbeck.''200 Jahre Schlußdorf 1800–2000: Festschrift zur 200-Jahr-Feier der Ortschaft Schlußdorf'', Heimatverein Schlußdorf (ed.), Worpswede: Worpswede municipality, 2000, p. 43. No ISBN. Another one, built in 1930 in Schlussdorf, was renovated and is now shown in (a locality of Vollersode). In 1950 the Senate of Bremen ordered the last turf barge in Schlussdorf which Hinrich Grotheer laid down in 1951. The turf barge was completed in 1954 and hauled by low-loader to Bremen where it was used as a working boat on the Weser. Decommissioned in 1954 the shipyard went into rack in the following decades,Hermann Giere, ''Torfschiffswerft Schlußdorf (Museum) in der Gemeinde Worpswede, gegr. 1850, restauriert 1977 durch den Heimatverein Schlußdorf e.V.'', Osterholz-Scharmbeck: Saade, c. 1987, p. 6. especially after Hinrich Grotheer's death in 1957.

Turf boats

For about 150 years pitch-black turf barges with puce sails were a usual sight in summers and autumns on the watercourses in the Teufelsmoor region. For the shallow mire and drainage watercourses one needs special boats, ''Torfschiffe''. A ''Torfschiff'' (literally: turf ship) is a flat-bottomed barge, with similarities to a punt as to construction and propulsion, or a weidling as to material. Torfschiffe can be propelled by poling with quants of in navigable drainage ditches of of width or in rivers like Wümme and Lesum

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