Meyer Werft is celebrating its 225th anniversary – is that down to luck or skill?

Bernard Meyer: Both, because you make your own luck. We’ve often made the right decisions, but we’ve also had our fair share of luck. For example, the relocation of our shipyard in 1973 was followed immediately by the outbreak of the oil crisis, which ultimately led to a major shipyard crisis – the market collapsed. We’d just completed our second construction dock in 2001 when 11 September happened – and then the cruise market collapsed. But these have always proven to be crucial decisions in the long-term. After all, we’ve managed to survive as one of the few shipyards in Germany and the only shipyard in Papenburg.