Large Bronze Makers Plate from the NS Otto Hahn.

This substantial cast-bronze builder’s plate records Turbinenanlage Nr. 33, a marine steam-turbine installation manufactured by Kieler Howaldtswerke A.G. of Kiel, Germany, in 1965.

The plate is from the NS Otto Hahn which was an experimental nuclear-powered cargo and research ship built at Kieler Howaldtswerke and launched in 1964. Named after Nobel Prize-winning scientist Otto Hahn, she was Germany’s first and only nuclear-powered merchant ship. Her pressurised-water reactor produced steam to drive a conventional turbine, developing approximately 11,000 hp and giving a speed of 17 knots.

Entering nuclear-powered service in 1968, Otto Hahn travelled around 650,000 nautical miles before her nuclear plant was decommissioned in 1979. She was subsequently converted to diesel propulsion and remained in commercial service under several names before being scrapped in 2009.