Passat was launched in 1911 at the Blohm & Voss shipyard, Hamburg for Laeisz Company.She was used for decades to ship general cargo toward Cape Horn to Chile and nitrate home.During of World War I Passat was interned in Chilean port and sailed in 1921 to Marseille and was turned over to France as war reparation. Laeisz Company was able to buy back the ship .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 from Spencer Gulf in South Australia 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.Passat rounded Cape Horn 39 times next she was used in Atlantic trade up to 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 was purchased in 1959 by the Baltic Sea municipality of Lübeck and is moored in Travemünde as museum and events place ( the day I was there it was wedding party).

In memory of the last sailor of Passat

Class & type: four-masted steel barque, nitrate carrier

Displacement: 6.180 ts

Tons burthen: 4.700 ts

Length: 377 ft (115 m) (lehgth overall)

319 ft (97 m) (length on deck)

Beam: 47.3 ft (14.4 m)

Height: 178 ft (54 m) (waterline to masthead truck)

Draft: 24 ft (7.3 m)

Depth: 28 ft (8.5 m) (depth moulded)

Depth of hold: 26.5 ft (8.1 m)

Installed

power:

originally no auxiliary propulsion;

Since 1951: built-in sub diesel (~900 HP)

Propulsion: 34 sails: 18 square sails, 9 staysails, 4 foresails,

3 spanker sails

sail area: 49,514 sq ft (4,600 m²)

later on: 43,056 sq ft (4,000 m²)

Speed: 18 knots (33.34 km/h) under sail

(6.4 kn with engine)

Boats carried: 4 lifeboats

Complement: 26-35

Source: http://www.photoship.co.uk/JAlbum%20Ships/Old%20Ships%20P/index6.html

Mizzen- mast – Gdańsk (Danzig)

Fore -mast – Hamburg

Main-mast 1 – Bremen

Main-mast 2 – Lubeck

Numerous capstans and winches was used for operating the sails

Main steering post and chart house Stern steering post

Chart house Starboard light

Davits and boats

Anchor Windlass

Cargo hatch

Companionway

Ventilators

Mooring bits

Galley

Stocks of fresh food

Ship’s office

Officer's cabin

Officer's messroom

© Tadeusz Probulski June 2013