''Peking'' is a steel-hulled four-masted

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 ...

. A so-called

Flying P-Liner The Flying P-Liners were the sailing ships of the German shipping company F. Laeisz of Hamburg. History The company was founded in 1824 by Ferdinand Laeisz as a hat manufacturing company. He was quite successful and distributed his hats even ...

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 ...

company F. Laeisz, it was one of the last generation of cargo-carrying

iron-hulled sailing ship Iron-hulled sailing ships represented the final evolution of sailing ships at the end of the age of sail. They were built to carry bulk cargo for long distances in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. They were the largest of merchant sai ...

s used in the nitrate trade and

wheat trade Wheat is a group of wild and domesticated grasses of the genus ''Triticum'' (). They are cultivated for their cereal grains, which are staple foods around the world. Well-known wheat species and hybrids include the most widely grown common ...

around

Cape Horn Cape Horn (, ) is the southernmost headland of the Tierra del Fuego archipelago of southern Chile, and is located on the small Hornos Island. Although not the most southerly point of South America (which is Águila Islet), Cape Horn marks the nor ...

History

Nitrate trade

''Peking'' was launched in February 1911 and left

Hamburg Hamburg (, ; ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,. is the List of cities in Germany by population, second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, 7th-lar ...

for her maiden voyage to Valparaiso in May of the same year. After the outbreak 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 ...

she was interned at Valparaiso and remained in Chile for the duration of the war. Awarded to the

Kingdom of Italy The Kingdom of Italy (, ) was a unitary state that existed from 17 March 1861, when Victor Emmanuel II of Kingdom of Sardinia, Sardinia was proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy, proclaimed King of Italy, until 10 June 1946, when the monarchy wa ...

as war reparations, she was sold back to her original owners, the Laeisz brothers, in January 1923. She remained in the nitrate trade until traffic through the

Panama Canal The Panama Canal () is an artificial waterway in Panama that connects the Caribbean Sea with the Pacific Ocean. It cuts across the narrowest point of the Isthmus of Panama, and is a Channel (geography), conduit for maritime trade between th ...

proved quicker and more economical.

''Arethusa II''

In 1932, she was sold for £6,250 to Shaftesbury Homes. She was first towed to

Greenhithe Greenhithe may refer to: *Greenhithe, Kent Greenhithe is a village in the Borough of Dartford in Kent, England, and the civil parish of Swanscombe and Greenhithe. It is located east of Dartford and west of Gravesend. Area In the past, Gree ...

, renamed ''Arethusa II'' and moored alongside the existing ''Arethusa I''. In July 1933, she was moved to a new permanent mooring off

Upnor Lower Upnor and Upper Upnor are two small villages in Medway, Kent, England. They are in the parish of Frindsbury Extra on the western bank of the River Medway. Today the two villages are mainly residential and a centre for small craft moored ...

on the

River Medway The River Medway is a river in South East England. It rises in the High Weald AONB, High Weald, West Sussex and flows through Tonbridge, Maidstone and the Medway conurbation in Kent, before emptying into the Thames Estuary near Sheerness, a to ...

, where she served as a children's home and training school. She was officially "opened" by Prince George on 25 July 1933. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

she served in the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the naval warfare force of the United Kingdom. It is a component of His Majesty's Naval Service, and its officers hold their commissions from the King of the United Kingdom, King. Although warships were used by Kingdom ...

as HMS ''Pekin''.

Museum ship in New York

''Arethusa II'' was retired in 1974 and sold to Jack Aron as ''Peking'', for the

South Street Seaport The South Street Seaport is a historic area in the New York City borough of Manhattan, centered where Fulton Street meets the East River, within the Financial District of Lower Manhattan. The Seaport is a designated historic district. It is p ...

Museum in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

, where she remained for the next four decades. However, the Seaport NYC did not see ''Peking'' as part of its long-term operational plans, and was planning to send the vessel to the scrap yard. A 2012 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 an endowment in Germany to ensure the preservation of the vessel.

Return to Germany

In November 2015 the Maritim Foundation purchased the ship for

US$ The United States dollar (Currency symbol, symbol: Dollar sign, $; ISO 4217, currency code: USD) is the official currency of the United States and International use of the U.S. dollar, several other countries. The Coinage Act of 1792 introdu ...

100. ''Peking'' is intended to become part of the

German Port Museum The German Port Museum (''Deutsches Hafenmuseum'') is a nautical museum in Hamburg. The German Federal Parliament's budget committee approved initial funding of €94 million to rebuild it. Scope The museum displays the commercial and economic ...

(''Deutsches Hafenmuseum'') at ''Schuppen 52'' in Hamburg for which

€ The euro sign () is the currency sign used for the euro, the official currency of the eurozone. The design was presented to the public by the European Commission on 12 December 1996. It consists of a stylized letter E (or epsilon), crossed by t ...

120 million of federal funds would be provided. She was taken to Caddell Drydock,

Staten Island Staten Island ( ) is the southernmost of the boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City, coextensive with Richmond County and situated at the southernmost point of New York (state), New York. The borough is separated from the ad ...

, on 7 September 2016, to spend the winter. On 14 July 2017 she was loaded on the deck of the semi-submersible

heavy-lift ship A heavy-lift ship is a vessel designed to move very large loads that cannot be transported by normal ships. They are of two types: *''Semi-submersible'' ships that take on water ballast to allow the load—usually another vessel—to be fl ...

for transport across the Atlantic, at a cost of some €1 million, arriving at

Brunsbüttel Brunsbüttel (; Northern Low Saxon: ''Bruunsbüddel'') is a town in the district of Dithmarschen, in Schleswig-Holstein, northern Germany that lies at the mouth of the Elbe river, near the North Sea. It is the location of the western entrance to t ...

on 30 July 2017.

Refurbishment in Germany

On 2 August 2017 she was transferred to ''Peters Werft'', located at

Wewelsfleth Wewelsfleth is a municipality in the district of Steinburg, in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north a ...

, for a three-year refurbishment at a cost of €38 million.Sailing Ship veteran's three-year restoration
/ref> The restoration included review of

rigging Rigging comprises the system of ropes, cables and chains, which support and control a sailing ship or sail boat's masts and sails. ''Standing rigging'' is the fixed rigging that supports masts including shrouds and stays. ''Running rigg ...

, double floor

steel Steel is an alloy of iron and carbon that demonstrates improved mechanical properties compared to the pure form of iron. Due to steel's high Young's modulus, elastic modulus, Yield (engineering), yield strength, Fracture, fracture strength a ...

plates Plate may refer to: Cooking * Plate (dishware), broad, mainly flat vessel commonly used to serve food * Plates, tableware, dishes or dishware used for setting a table, serving food and dining * Plate, the content of such a plate (for example: ...

, dismounting and remount of all masts, docking in

dry dock A dry dock (sometimes drydock or dry-dock) is a narrow basin or vessel that can be flooded to allow a load to be floated in, then drained to allow that load to come to rest on a dry platform. Dry docks are used for the construction, maintenance, ...

, renewal of the steel structure, removal of the

cement A cement is a binder, a chemical substance used for construction that sets, hardens, and adheres to other materials to bind them together. Cement is seldom used on its own, but rather to bind sand and gravel ( aggregate) together. Cement mi ...

that filled the lower of the

hull Hull may refer to: Structures * The hull of an armored fighting vehicle, housing the chassis * Fuselage, of an aircraft * Hull (botany), the outer covering of seeds * Hull (watercraft), the body or frame of a sea-going craft * Submarine hull Ma ...

, painting, woodwork and overall refurbishment. The ship twice spent about two years in dry dock. ''Peking'' was refloated on 7 September 2018 with a primer-painted hull.

Teak Teak (''Tectona grandis'') is a tropical hardwood tree species in the family Lamiaceae. It is a large, deciduous tree that occurs in mixed hardwood forests. ''Tectona grandis'' has small, fragrant white flowers arranged in dense clusters (panic ...

was reinstalled on deck. The ship was transferred on 7 September 2020 to the

.Peking in Hamburg
/ref>

In popular culture

* A specific voyage of the vessel from Hamburg to Valparaiso in the late 1920s was immortalized in the film “Around Cape Horn” by American author and sail-training Captain

Irving Johnson __NOTOC__ Irving McClure Johnson (July 4, 1905 – January 2, 1991) was an American sail training pioneer, adventurer, lecturer and writer. Early life Johnson was born in Hadley, Massachusetts, the fifth child of the writer Clifton Johnso ...

when he sailed on board as an apprentice, the footage of which was featured in the

British Museum The British Museum is a Museum, public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is the largest in the world. It documents the story of human cu ...

according to his narration of the film in the 1980 version produced by

Mystic Seaport Museum Mystic Seaport Museum (founded as Marine Historical Association) is a maritime museum in Mystic, Connecticut, and the largest in the United States. Its site holds a collection of ships and boats and a re-creation of a 19th-century seaport vill ...

. Johnson also wrote a book about the voyage by the same name. * "Around the Wild Cape Horn" from

Ralph McTell Ralph McTell (born Ralph May; 3 December 1944) is an English singer-songwriter and guitar player who has been an influential figure on the UK folk music scene since the 1960s. McTell is best known for his song " Streets of London" (1969), which ...

's album ''Somewhere Down the Road'' is about ''Peking''. * Tom Lewis's song "Peking" on the album ''Mixed Cargo'' is about ''Peking''. * The ship was the setting for the 1965 Margaret Rutherford film ''Murder Ahoy'' as "HMS Battledore". * The ship is mentioned in Elton John’s biography as place of after gig party where Elton met John Lennon.

Citations

Bibliography

*Johnson, Irving. ''Round the Horn in a

Square Rigger In geometry, a square is a regular quadrilateral. It has four straight sides of equal length and four equal angles. Squares are special cases of rectangles, which have four equal angles, and of rhombuses, which have four equal sides. As with all ...

'' (Milton Bradley, 1932) (reprinted as ''The Peking Battles Cape Horn'' (Sea History Press, 1977 ) *Johnson, Irving. ''

Around Cape Horn __NOTOC__ Irving McClure Johnson (July 4, 1905 – January 2, 1991) was an American sail training pioneer, adventurer, lecturer and writer. Early life Johnson was born in Hadley, Massachusetts, the fifth child of the writer Clifton Johnso ...

'' (film) (

Mystic Seaport Mystic Seaport Museum (founded as Marine Historical Association) is a maritime museum in Mystic, Connecticut, and the largest in the United States. Its site holds a collection of ships and boats and a re-creation of a 19th-century seaport vill ...

, 1985) (from original 16 mm footage shot by Irving Johnson, 1929)

External links

The History of Shaftesbury Homes and the Arethusa, giving details of the purchase of the Pekin/PekingAround Cape Horn in the Peking, by Captain Irving Johnson, 1929
{{DEFAULTSORT:Peking Barques Windjammers Individual sailing vessels Tall ships of Germany Four-masted ships Ships built in Hamburg Merchant ships of Germany 1911 ships Training ships of the United Kingdom Museum ships in New York (state) Museum ships in Germany