After 88 years, the "Peking" is back in Hamburg. In the evening, accompanied by numerous ships and to the applause and cheers of thousands of onlookers, she reached her former home port. A fire engine conjured up a huge curtain of water in the evening sky. Behind it, in the backlight of the setting sun, the silhouette of the imposing four-masted tower emerged shortly afterwards. Pure goosebumps!
A boat parade accompanied the "Peking" the whole day on its journey up the Elbe from Wewelsfleth to Hamburg
The accompanying music played on the Hamburg Landungsbrücken: "Ick heff mol en Hamborger Veermaster sehn …"
The “Peking” was towed to the Elbphilharmonie past the large docks, at the fish market, past the buildings of the old Elbe tunnel and the landing stages, where it was turned and finally maneuvered to its berth in the Hansahafen opposite Hafencity. It will stay there for the next few years until the new port museum is completed.
On the other side of the Airbus plant in Hamburg-Finkenwerder, onlookers had gathered on the bank and on the water
In the coming months, the "Peking", which has been restored over the past three years, will now be transformed into a museum ship. As soon as that is done, visitors will also be welcome on board.
Behind a curtain of water, the silhouettes of the masts can only be guessed at
The "Peking", which was built by Blohm + Voss in Hamburg in 1911, is one of four Fliyng P-Liners still in existence. It was once used by the Laeisz shipping company for the saltpetre voyage around Cape Horn to Chile. In the 1930s, when the windjammer era ended, she went to England as a boarding ship; during the war she was used by the British Navy. In the mid-1970s she was sold to the South Street Seaport Museum in New York, where she was a museum ship well into this millennium. In July 2017, the return transport to Germany and the restoration of the barque followed.
Worth listening to: the current "Peking" podcast from Delius Klasing Verlag
Many ships accompanied the "Peking" to the jetties