Phot.Wedel.Tallship.Peking.01.092007.3433.jpg

Germany, Hamburg/Wedel, the tall ship "Peking", a steel-hulled four-masted barque. The Peking is back in its home port after more than 70 years & is to become the landmark of the new German Port Museum. "Peking" is the old German name for the city of "Beijing".

 

1852 Carl Laeisz entered the family business & turned the F. Laeisz Company into a shipping business. 1857 they ordered a barque & named her "Pudel", the nickname of Carl's wife Sophie. From the mid-1880th on it was customary that all their ships had names starting with "P", they became known as "the P-line".

 

Technical data of the "Peking"

 

Maiden voyage - May 16, 1911 to Chile

Type of ship - four-masted steel barque

Measurement - 3,100 GRT

Length - 115 mtr

Width - 14.40 mtr

Draft - max. 7.24 mtr

Mast height - 51 mtr above deck

Maximum speed -17 knots

Crew members while still in service

- 31 as cargo ship & 74 as sailing training ship

 

......👉…..the long voyage of the over 100 years old Peking

back to their home port.......👉…..👉…..👉…..👉…..👉

 

1911, the Peking, built for 680.000 Marks at that time & launched in February 1911 leaving Hamburg for her maiden voyage to Valparaiso in May of the same year.

She was particularly suitable for transport of nitrate/saltpetre from Chile to Europe. In the following few years she sailed to ports such as Valparaiso, Taltal, Talcahuano, Iquique & Mejillones, returning habitually home to Hamburg.

After the outbreak of World War the tall ship was confined at Valparaiso & remained in Chile for the duration of the war.

Afterward the Treaty of Versailles after the First World War stipulated that the Peking had to be handed over to the Kingdom of Italy as war reparation. Nevertheless, since Italy had no use for the ship, the Peking remained in London for the time being.

 

1923 F. Laeisz was able to re-purchase its ship for £ 8.500 & once again transporting nitrate/saltpeter from Chile to Europe, now also called ports in the Netherlands & San Antonio/USA.

 

1927, after a voyage to Chile, the Peking returned to Hamburg, where at Blohm & Voss Shipyard the poop deck, a deck that forms the roof of a cabin built in the rear part, was extended by ten metres, as the Peking was to be used from then on as a cargo carrying sailing training vessel. The ship now had room for 31 sailors & 43 naval cadets.

 

1932, she was sold for £6,250 to Shaftesbury Homes & Arethusa Training Ship Co. in England, towed to Greenhithe & renamed Arethusa II, moored alongside the existing Arethusa I. In July 1933, she was moved to a new permanent mooring off Upnor on the River Medway, used as a children's home & training school. During World War II she served in the Royal Navy as "HMS Pekin".

 

1939, when World War II began, Arethusa was requisitioned by the Royal Navy, brought to Salcombe & got the name HMS PEKING, since there was already a ship with the name HMS Arethusa.

After the end of World War II, the ship was handed over back to the Shaftesbury Homes & Arethusa Training Ship Co. & returned to be named Arethusa, towed back to Upnor, continuing serving as a training ship until 1974.

 

1974, due to high maintenance costs, the old tall ship was retired, the organization decided to part with her & she almost returned to Hamburg at that time, but experts were of the opinion that she would not survive the tow to Hamburg.

The Arethusa II was sold for £ 70,000 to as "Peking" to the South Street Seaport Museum in New York City, where she remained for the next four decades.

 

1975, after a shipyard stay of a year the Arethusa was towed to New York by the Dutch tug "Utrecht" & got her original name Peking back, she was also painted in the original colours of F. Laeisz & served as a museum ship.

Unfortunately over the years however, the museum was not able to maintain the two large ships it owned & as a consequence the essential preservation & repair work was gradually more & more neglected. As the Peking was in poor condition, the upper deck had to be lined with plywood panels, decks in the lower holds were dilapidated & closed to the public.

However, the Seaport NYC did not see Peking as part of its long-term operational plans & was planning to send vessel to the scrap yard.

 

Beginning in 2002, members of the association negotiated with the museum for the return of Peking to its original home port of Hamburg. Initially, due to the museums high asking price a negotiation could not be finalized.

After the realization it was no longer possible to sell the ship due to her need for repair, the interested parties in Hamburg asked for restoration quotations from local yards.

At the same time, the association looked for funds for the transport, because of the vessels condition it has to be carried out by using a dock ship crossing the Atlantic & for the complete renovation of the structure & rigging. An attempt to raise the necessary funds from the Hamburg business community was not success.

 

2012 an offer to return the ship to Hamburg, where she was originally built, as a gift from the city of New York, was contingent upon raising donations in Germany to ensure the preservation of the vessel.

 

2015 it was declared that the quay in New York had to be vacated by the end of June, which would have meant the final end for the Peking at a junkyard.

 

November 2015 the Budget Committee of the German Bundestag decided to provide € 120 million of federal funds for a new, the third, large German Port Museum in the Hamburg port area. The main attraction would be the restored Peking. The "Maritim Foundation" purchased the ship for US$ 100.

 

September 2016 she was taken to Caddell Dry Dock, Staten Island to spend the winter.

 

July 2017, she was docked & transported at a cost of some €1 million, on the deck of the semi-submersible heavy-lift ship Combi Dock III across the Atlantic.

 

August, 2017, the Peking was transferred to the Peters Shipyard located at Wewelsfleth/Schleswig-Holstein for a three-year refurbishment at a cost of € 38 million.

The restoration included review of rigging, double floor steel plates, dismounting & remount of all masts, docking in dry-dock, renewal of the steel structure, removal of the cement that filled the lower three & a half mtr of the hull, painting, wood work & overall refurbishment. The ship spent about two years in a dry dock. The Peking was re-floated on September 2018 with primer paint Hull. Teak was reinstalled on deck.

 

Finally on September 7, 2020 the ship was "sailing", pulled by a tug boat in front & one tug boat in the back to assist the manoeuvring, to the German Port Museum at the Hamburg Harbour.

 

Four of the Flying P-Liners still exist today:

Peking; since September 2020 as museum ship in Hamburg, Germany.

Pommern; museum ship in Mariehamn, Finland.

Passat; museum ship in Lübeck's sea resort Travemünde, Germany.

Padua; the only ship still active & today a school ship sailing as "Kruzenshtern" under a Russian flag & visits Hamburg every year during the Harbour Birthday.

 

….& last but not least,

....in the early 1980s I visited the "Peking" in New York, not a bit thought that I would live & work a few years in Peking/Beijing in the 2000s, even less, that I would see the renovated Peking, shining in its old splendour, sailing up the River Elbe to its new/old port in 2020.

 

👉 One World one Dream,

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