Four Masted Barque PEKING Coming Home After 88 Years

[Aquaria]

...back from three years of sailing (European Atlantic coast and Maditerranean), four years of work (and a very long time without any posts on the the CRUISER LOG,) I finally have a lot of time to spend on AQUARIA here on the river Elbe ...and some very interesting ships are passing by the Marina!
One of the most interesting ones that finally returned to Hamburg after 88 years was the "Flying P-Liner" PEKING, that arrived here on Monday, September 7th.
This four-masted barque was built in 1911 here in Hamburg and sailed several times around Cape Horn until the outbreak of World-War-II when it was interned in Valparaiso/Chile.
The original owners, the Laeisz brothers bought her back in 1923 and she carried on in the nitrate-trade between Chile and Germany, until the Panama Canal opened.
Then she was sold and went to the UK, serving there under the name ARETHUSA II as a children's home and a training school and during WW II in the Royal Navy as HMS PEKIN.
In 1974 she was bought by the J.Aron Charitable Foundation for the the South Street Seaport Museum in New York. Then in 2015 the german „Maritime Foundation“ (Stiftung Maritim) bought the PEKING for 100 USD and transferred her back to Germany in July 2017 as „cargo“ on a dock-ship. On the Peters-Shipyard at Wewelsfleth (River Stör) she has been rebuilt for about 38million EUR and will now be transferred to the German Port Museum where she will be open to the public starting summer 2021.
(more info on: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peking_(ship) , hompage (German language) Stiftung Hamburg Maritim | PEKING - Viermastbark

And on this day in September the PEKING returned to Hamburg, attracting many visitors (and me having the chance of sitting in first row on the banks of the river) and quite a number of other hisoric ships participating in this Coming Home event...


The PEKING being towed up the river Elbe, just passing Lühesand.


Compared to the outbound Cap San Nicolas (333meters of lengs) the PEKING, that in her times has been one of the tallest ships on the oceans (115meters), appears rather tiny!


The Peking in tow, accompanied bei the 1928-built Offshore fishing boat PRÄSIDENT FREIHERR VON MALTZAHN (28 meters of length)




...and if you want to see more of what we have seen, just move on to the next post!


Uwe
SY AQUARIA

[Aquaria]

and then...

The PEKING passing Wedel


Maritime History from left to right: tug FAIRPLAY VIII (built 1962), inspectionvessel SÜDERELBE (built 1937, length 20m) going downriver, steamship SCHAARHÖRN (built 1908, Length 42m) and offshore fishing vessel FREIHERR VON MALTZAHN


SCHAARHÖRN steaming and FREIHERR VON MALTZAHN sailing up the river Elbe...


… followed by the lightship ELBE 3, built 1888, length 45m (please apologize the poor quality of the picture - their own pisc are much better: (https://www.elbe3.org/ )


… followed by the 1958 built cargo vessel BLEICHEN (93,4meters)...

...and there is still more to see...

[Aquaria]

...and how things went on...



… and the BLEICHEN is met by the 1950 built coaster GREUNDIEK (46,5meters)


and the GREUNDIEK meets a wooden Nordic Folkboat, a Scandinavian wooden sloop, designed 1942


and finally the Coaster GREUNDIEK meets the 1933 built Steam Icebreaker STETTIN (length 52 meters)...


and follows her way downstream...

...and after about two hours the Reiver Elbe was again peaceful and quiet.

Keep on sailing!
Uwe
SY AQUARIA

[bfloyd4445]

The Peking would have liked to have seen. Thanks for posting the wonderful pix