Tall Ships; Past & Present

Not a whole lot of air for those boys and girls....

Love those ships! Sailed on one of them, "Statsraad Lehmkuhl", in 1990 from Bremerhaven to Bergen. Was still in school then, we had very bad weather, sleeping in hammocks, climbing all the way up to reef the sails, ... we could not imagine anything cooler!!!

This is one of the finest videos I've ever seen on the subject:

The 4 masted Bark Peking is back in Germany. 2107, the German Government had allocated some funds in order to bring this historical tall ship back to its home port Hamburg and have it restored. Our foundation "Hamburg Maritim", in which I have the honour to be a member of the board, was asked by our government to organize the transfer of the ship across the pond and to plan and organize the restauration. I had and still have the opportunity to be part of this management team. My purse is also participating on this project by some (minor ) donations.

As the tall ship was in such a bad condition in the New York Harbour, that it could not be towed across the Atlantic, she was transported with a dock ship to the Peters Werft in Wewelsfleth northwest of Hamburg.



Meanwhile, the first step, the restauration of the hull and reinstalling of the rig is completed. Tall ship Peking is back in the water!!!



The ship is expected to be completed in 2020 and will then be relocated to Hamburg to the historical part of the Hamburg Harbour, "Kleiner Grasbrook". Peking will be one of the exhibits of the new Hamburg Harbour Museum.

The square rigger Peking is one of the famous Flying P-Liners of the Hamburg Schipping Company F.Laeiz. She was built together with her sister ship Passat (today a museum ship at Travemünde, Germany) in 1909 and was used on the nitrate trade routes to and from Chile. Peking was one of the fastes tall ships of her time. Her steam power was only used for her winches, originally she had no mechanical propulsion.

Those flying P-liners, like Preussen (5-masted full-rigged ship), Pommern, Passat, Pamir, Peking and others were the culmination of the development of large commercial sailing ships.



A copy of this painting is hanging in the staircase of my house in Hamburg. My dream is to get our authorities to allow us to show Peking under her own sails sail at least on the Elbe River and me being one of her unsalaried skippers. But from personal experience, I know (my former shipping colleagues and I have just recently failed with a replica project of a tall ship due to our strict German regulations), German authorities and the operation of historical ships do not come along very good . Maybe just a dream.

Will keep You informed with further progress of this project.

HTMO

Any plans to show her at the Sail Bremerhaven in 2020?

She is planned to be ready for static display in 2020 somewhere in the Hamburg Harbour, most likely on the St. Pauli Landungsbrücken, in the vicinity of the other museum ships of our foundation. Depending on the status of her seaworthyness and the cooperation of our authorities, we will be planning to participate on special events like Hamburger Hafengeburtstag, Kieler Woche, Operation Sail Bremerhaven or similar. I do not believe that Peking will be certified for crossing larger bodies of open water. Most German historical ships under German flag are only cleared for limited voyage. But for sure will she be open for visitors when on display already on her temporary mooring in St.Pauli. The new museum harbour Kleiner Grasbrook will not be ready before 2023. PM me for a personal tour on her if You are in Hamburg.

As Peking has no mechanical propulsion, using her under sails only, in busy waters like the Elbe or Weser River, might be a nightmare for our authorities. If we will be allowed to show her sailing (which will also be a matter of the available budget), she has most likely always to be accompanied by at least two tug boats, always ready for the immediate handover of lines.

Below a nice video about the above mentioned Flying P-Liners. Looking at those videos and pictures and after having crawled around on Peking and Passat, I sometimes have the romantic feeling of being borne far to late.



Sorry for the music.

Thank you for this information and your offer.