After an 80-year journey from owner to owner, the "Hamburg maritim" foundation brought the pilot schooner "Elbe 5" back to Hamburg last year. Last weekend the newly restored ship sailed for the first time since 1929 on the Elbe.
"Elbe 5", which was still in Seattle as "Wander Bird" last year, has been restored in the last few months at the Jöhnk shipyard in Hamburg and returned to its original condition. The boat builders of the Hamburg association Jugend in Arbeit e. V. exchanged the 40 tons of rusty ballast from the bilge for 30 tons of lead ingots, and renewed the entire deck and several deck beams. The electrics on board were completely relocated and a power generator was installed.
During the repair of the existing masts, a rot was discovered in one of the masts that could not be repaired. Six months ago, in the Rosengarten Forest, only a few kilometers away, a 30-meter-high Douglas fir was felled. In the weeks that followed, master boat builder Bernd Thal processed them into a new main mast.
During the restoration, the association tried to restore the ship to the condition in which it was launched in the Hamburg Stülcken shipyard in 1883. The steel steering wheel that an American actor had given to a previous owner and restorer also disappeared. The 28 meter long wooden ship is now steered again with a tiller.
In order to enable the maintenance of this unique ship, "Elbe 5" will set out on charter sailing trips from next year. Companies can already charter the gaff schooner for trips on the Elbe. The foundation gives more information on the website www.stiftung-Hamburg-Maritim.de.