MS ''Cap San Diego'' is a general

cargo ship A cargo ship or freighter is a merchant ship that carries cargo, goods, and materials from one port to another. Thousands of cargo carriers ply the world's seas and oceans each year, handling the bulk of international trade. Cargo ships are usu ...

, situated as a

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 ...

Hamburg Hamburg (, ; nds, label=Hamburg German, Low Saxon, Hamborg ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg (german: Freie und Hansestadt Hamburg; nds, label=Low Saxon, Friee un Hansestadt Hamborg),. is the List of cities in Germany by popul ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwee ...

. Notable for her elegant silhouette, she was the last of a series of six ships known as ''the White Swans of the South Atlantic'', and marked the apex of German-built general cargo ships before the advent of the

container ship A container ship (also called boxship or spelled containership) is a cargo ship that carries all of its load in truck-size intermodal containers, in a technique called containerization. Container ships are a common means of commercial intermoda ...

and the decline of Germany's

heavy industry Heavy industry is an industry that involves one or more characteristics such as large and heavy products; large and heavy equipment and facilities (such as heavy equipment, large machine tools, huge buildings and large-scale infrastructure); o ...

History

The ''Cap San Diego'' was built and launched by Deutsche Werft in 1961 for Hamburg Süd as the last of a series of six ships. The 159 m, 10000 dwt ship ran a regular schedule between Germany and

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the sou ...

, completing 120 round trips until 1981. After being sold and running under different names and under Spanish flag and also

flags of convenience Flag of convenience (FOC) is a business practice whereby a ship's owners register a merchant ship in a ship register of a country other than that of the ship's owners, and the ship flies the civil ensign of that country, called the flag stat ...

as a tramp trader, the run-down ship was scheduled for scrapping in 1986 when she was bought by the city of Hamburg.

Museum ship

The ship was restored mainly by the labour of enthusiasts and laid-off dock workers, and is kept operational to date. Most of the time, the ''Cap San Diego'' is moored at the

port of Hamburg The Port of Hamburg (german: Hamburger Hafen, ) is a seaport on the river Elbe in Hamburg, Germany, from its mouth on the North Sea. Known as Germany's "Gateway to the World" (''Tor zur Welt''), it is the country's largest seaport by volume ...

where visitors can access virtually all areas of the ship from the bridge to the engine. One of the cargo holds hosts temporary exhibitions. Passenger cabins can be booked for overnight stays. Several times a year, the ship leaves the harbour on her own power for trips mostly on the river

Elbe The Elbe (; cs, Labe ; nds, Ilv or ''Elv''; Upper and dsb, Łobjo) is one of the major rivers of Central Europe. It rises in the Giant Mountains of the northern Czech Republic before traversing much of Bohemia (western half of the Czech Re ...

or to

Cuxhaven Cuxhaven (; ) is an independent town and seat of the Cuxhaven district, in Lower Saxony, Germany. The town includes the northernmost point of Lower Saxony. It is situated on the shore of the North Sea at the mouth of the Elbe River. Cuxhaven ...

. In 2001, the ship was awarded the ''Maritime Heritage Award'' by the ''World Ship Trust'', and in 2003 she was declared a protected item of cultural heritage under Hamburg law. The ship participates in Hamburg's

Long Night of Museums The Long Night of Museums (german: Lange Nacht der Museen), or the Night of Museums, and, since 2005, the European Night of Museums, is a cultural event in which museums and cultural institutions to remain open late into the night to introduce ...

Sister ships

The ''Cap San Diego'' had five sisterships: * ''Cap San Nicolas'' * ''Cap San Marco'' * ''Cap San Lorenzo'' * ''Cap San Augustin'' * ''Cap San Antonio''

Gallery

File:Cap San Diego - Hamburger Hafen -01.JPG, Cap San Diego at Port of Hamburg, 2014 File:Phb dt 7976 Cap San Diego.jpg, Aerial view of the museum ship "Cap San Diego" in Hamburg File:20100718 5703 b.JPG, Cap San Diego on Kiel Canal, July 18, 2010 File:Cap San Diego (ship, 1962)-msu-2021-0694-.jpg, Cap San Diego (2021)

References

External links

Picture of the Cap San Diego
* http://www.capsandiego.de/ - official website {{Authority control Merchant ships Museums in Hamburg Museum ships in Germany Heritage sites in Hamburg Tourist attractions in Hamburg 1961 ships