''Passat'' is a German four-masted steel

barque A barque, barc, or bark is a type of sailing ship, sailing vessel with three or more mast (sailing), masts of which the fore mast, mainmast, and any additional masts are Square rig, rigged square, and only the aftmost mast (mizzen in three-maste ...

and one of the Flying P-Liners, the famous sailing ships of the

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

shipping company F. Laeisz. She is one of the last surviving

windjammer A windjammer is a commercial sailing ship with multiple masts, however rigged. The informal term "windjammer" arose during the transition from the Age of Sail to the Age of Steam during the 19th century. The Oxford English Dictionary records t ...

s. (The name "Passat" is

for ''

trade wind The trade winds or easterlies are permanent east-to-west prevailing winds that flow in the Earth's equatorial region. The trade winds blow mainly from the northeast in the Northern Hemisphere and from the southeast in the Southern Hemisphere, ...

''.)

History

''Passat'' was launched in 1911 at the

Blohm & Voss Blohm+Voss (B+V), also written historically as Blohm & Voss, Blohm und Voß etc., is a German shipbuilding and engineering company. Founded in Hamburg in 1877 to specialise in steel-hulled ships, its most famous product was the World War II battle ...

shipyard, Hamburg. She began her maiden voyage on Christmas Eve 1911 toward Cape Horn and the nitrate ports of Chile. She was used for decades to ship general cargo outbound and nitrate home. ''Passat'' was interned at

Iquique Iquique () is a port List of cities in Chile, city and Communes of Chile, commune in northern Chile, capital of both the Iquique Province and Tarapacá Region. It lies on the Pacific coast, west of the Pampa del Tamarugal, which is part of the At ...

for the duration of

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

and sailed in 1921 to Marseille and was turned over to France as war reparation. The French government put her up for sale, and the Laeisz Company was able to buy back the ship for £13,000. Again she was used as a nitrate carrier until 1932 when ''Passat'' was sold to the Gustaf Erikson Line of Finland. The ship was then used in the

grain trade The grain trade refers to the local and international trade in cereals such as wheat, barley, maize, rice, and other food grains. Grain is an important trade item because it is easily stored and transported with limited spoilage, unlike other agri ...

from

Spencer Gulf The Spencer Gulf is the westernmost and larger of two large inlets (the other being Gulf St Vincent) on the southern coast of Australia, in the state of South Australia, facing the Great Australian Bight. It spans from the Cape Catastrophe an ...

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a States and territories of Australia, state in the southern central part of Australia. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories by area, which in ...

to Europe. At the onset of World War II, ''Passat'' was at her home port Mariehamn in the Åland Islands of Finland. She was towed in 1944 to Stockholm to serve as a storage ship. In 1948 the Erikson Line reentered the grain trade, and together with '' Pamir'' she participated in the last Great Grain Race in 1949 from Port Victoria around Cape Horn to Europe. Among her crew was Niels Jannasch who later became the director of Canada's

Maritime Museum of the Atlantic The Maritime Museum of the Atlantic is a maritime museum located in downtown Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. The museum is a member institution of the Nova Scotia Museum and is the oldest and largest maritime museum in Canada with a collection o ...

. All told, ''Passat'' rounded Cape Horn 39 times. Edgar Erikson (son of Gustaf Erikson, who died in 1947) found he could no longer operate either ''Passat'' or ''Pamir'' at a profit, primarily due to changing regulations and union contracts governing employment aboard ships; the traditional two-watch system on sailing ships was replaced by the three-watch system in use on motor-ships, requiring more crew.Stark, ''The Last Time Around Cape Horn. The Historic 1949 Voyage of the Windjammer Pamir'', p. 200 In March 1951, Belgian shipbreakers paid £40,000 for both ''Passat'' and ''Pamir''. German shipowner Heinz Schliewen stepped in and bought both ships for conversion to freight carrying school ships (thus often erroneously referred to as sister ships). The two vessels were modernized at Kiel with refurbished quarters to accommodate merchant marine trainees, fitted with an auxiliary diesel engine, a refrigeration system for the galleys (precluding the need to carry live animals for fresh meat), modern communications equipment and water ballast tanks. After financial problems for the owner, a newly organized consortium of forty German shipowners purchased the ships.''Stiftung Pamir und Passat'' oundation ''Pamir'' and ''Passat''/ref> For the next five years ''Passat'' (and ''Pamir'') continued to sail between Europe and the east coast of South America, primarily to

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

, but not around Cape Horn.Stark, p. 201 In 1957, a few weeks after the tragic loss of '' Pamir'' in mid-Atlantic and shortly after having been severely hit by a storm, ''Passat'' was decommissioned. She had almost experienced the same fate as the ''Pamir'' when her loose barley cargo shifted. ''Passat'' was purchased in 1959 by the Baltic Sea municipality of

Lübeck Lübeck (; or ; Latin: ), officially the Hanseatic League, Hanseatic City of Lübeck (), is a city in Northern Germany. With around 220,000 inhabitants, it is the second-largest city on the German Baltic Sea, Baltic coast and the second-larg ...

and is now a youth hostel, venue,

museum ship A museum ship, also called a memorial ship, is a ship that has been preserved and converted into a museum open to the public for educational or memorial purposes. Some are also used for training and recruitment purposes, mostly for the small numb ...

, and landmark moored at

Travemünde Travemünde () is a borough of Lübeck, Germany, located at the mouth of the river Trave in Bay of Lübeck, Lübeck Bay. It began life as a fortress built by Henry the Lion, Duke of Saxony, in the 12th century to guard the mouth of the Trave, an ...

, a borough of Lübeck in the German federal state of

Schleswig-Holstein Schleswig-Holstein (; ; ; ; ; occasionally in English ''Sleswick-Holsatia'') is the Northern Germany, northernmost of the 16 states of Germany, comprising most of the historical Duchy of Holstein and the southern part of the former Duchy of S ...

Sister ships

''Passat'''s true

sister ship A sister ship is a ship of the same Ship class, class or of virtually identical design to another ship. Such vessels share a nearly identical hull and superstructure layout, similar size, and roughly comparable features and equipment. They o ...

is the ''

Peking Beijing, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's most populous national capital city as well as China's second largest city by urban area after Shanghai. It is l ...

.'' The '' Pamir'' has often been, and is still discussed as ''Passat'''s sister ship because both ships were owned and operated by the same consortium of German shipowners in the 1950s. The last eight four-masted barques ordered by Laeisz have been incorrectly called "The Eight Sisters" because of their similarity, including ''Pangani'', ''Petschili'', ''Pamir'', ''Passat'', ''Peking'', ''Priwall'', ''Pola'' (which never sailed under the Laeisz flag) and ''Padua'', now under the Russian flag as the training ship '' Kruzenshtern''. Of these eight ships, ''Pangani'', ''Petschili'', ''Pamir'' and ''Padua '' had no true sister ships.

References

*Apollonio, Spencer (Editor). ''The Last of the Cape Horners, Firsthand Accounts from the Final Days of the Commercial Tall Ships''. Washington, D.C.: Brassey's. 2000. *Stark, William F. ''The Last Time Around Cape Horn. The Historic 1949 Voyage of the Windjammer Pamir''. New York: Carroll & Graf Publishers. 2003.

External links

*
Older official websitePhotos of the Passat
{{DEFAULTSORT:Passat (Ship) Ships built in Hamburg 1911 ships Individual sailing vessels Barques Windjammers Four-masted ships Tall ships of Germany Merchant ships of Germany World War I merchant ships of Germany World War II merchant ships of Germany Tall ships of West Germany Merchant ships of West Germany Lübeck Museum ships in Germany Port of Lübeck