Fjord shipping - ship ahoy!

On a business trip to Hamburg, a Flensburg businessman Friedrich Mommse Bruhn, got acquainted with tourist shipping business on Hamburg’s Alster and inherited it as a model for fjord shipping in Flensburg. He founded the Dampfer-Compagnie, and in 1866 the first fjord steamer began sailing back and forth between Germany and Denmark. Excursion sites with jetties were built along the Flensburg Fjord. So-called "Petuhtanten", mostly elderly ladies, met on board for coffee and chats. They usually bought a season ticket, called the “Partout Card”, which lent them the nickname. At its peak, the Dampfschifffahrts-Gesellschaft had 29 ships in operation. Of this fleet, only the saloon steamer "Alexandra" is still in operation today. It is named after Princess Alexandra of Schleswig-Holstein from the House of Glücksburg, who christened the ship in 1908.