Minden Ship Mill

Unique ship mill on the Weser. The Minden-Lübbecke district is also called the mill district. There are more than 40 wind and water mills as well as horse mills and the ship mill. It is open for meals and baking days.

The Minden ship mill is the first reconstruction of a ship mill on a river in Germany. Open from March 30th to mid-October 2018, Tuesday to Sunday and on public holidays from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Further information is available here:
schiffmuehle.de

The mill and grinding technology as well as the drive (water wheel) are built on a floating platform in this type of mill. Between the houseboat (main ship facing the bank) and the wellboat (long ship) is the undershot water wheel, which is driven by flowing water. On the houseboat there is a wooden house with a bed, table and armchair for the ship's miller and his assistants as well as the mill. There are references to ship mills that had a narrower water wheel on both sides, similar to what is known from old paddle steamers. The floating platform is anchored at the most flow-intensive point in the river, on bridge piers (because of the good access to the mill) or on the bank.

As a result, the ship's mill can float up when the water level changes, and the mill always has the same water energy available. In the best case, the efficiency of a ship mill corresponds to that of an undershot water mill. However, ship mills had the advantage that their energy, unlike wind and conventional water mills, was always available, so that it was available as a base load machine (i.e. not particularly powerful, but constantly running). If necessary (shipping traffic, rafting, ice drifts, low water levels), a ship mill could be pulled to the safe bank. Upstream this was done with the help of horses.

(de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schiffm%C3%BChle)