When Franz Tecklenborg decided to extend the fleet of his shipping company based in Bremen he ordered 19 vessels at the yard of his brother in the following years.
To cope with rising demand of ships the shipyard opened a new site across the river Geeste in Geestemüde in 1852.
After the death of Johann Carl Tecklenborg in 1873 the technical management was handed over to the talented engineer Georg Wilhelm Claussen (1845-1919).
As of 1880 iron and then steel replaced wood as the core material for the hull of all ships build by Joh.
Reasons were the low market trend of new construction of merchant ships because of the upcoming economic crisis and the following global depression in the 1930th, the internal local competition between the both great shipyards in Bremerhaven Tecklenborg and G. Seebeck, but last not least the competition to the leading company AG Weser.