Windjammer PEKING Leaves Manhattan After Four Decades
All photos by generous permission of Will Van Dorp, Tugster: a waterblog
New York’s South Street Seaport bids farewell to the 1911-built four-masted sailing ship PEKING after 41 years.
The South Street Seaport Museum, recovering from the recession and damage from Hurricane Sandy, needed to focus on saving a one of its tall ships, and chose the one with stronger ties to the port of New York. The WAVERTREE, now completing a 16-month $13 million restoration, will soon return to the very berth being vacated by PEKING.
While the prospect of the 377-foot long PEKING being scrapped loomed, lengthy negotiations have resulted her being gifted back to her home country German. The German Government is paying some $30 million to transport the vessel back to Hamburg and restore her for a new home at the Stiftung Hamburg Maritim, the maritime museum of Hamburg.
Captain Jonathan Boulware, executive director of the South Street Seaport Museum, said “The gift of PEKING to Hamburg, where they’ve got 30 million euros to restore her, is good for our Museum; it will allow us to focus our growing resources on a leaner fleet, the centerpiece of which will be the mighty three-masted ship WAVERTREE, which will shortly return from a massive restoration project.” The WAVERTREE is expected back at the museum on September 24th.
“It’s also good for Hamburg; they’ll have a restored ship they can be proud of. She was built in Hamburg and sailed from there. She belongs on the Hamburg waterfront. And it’s good for PEKING; she’ll have the resources and the attention she deserves.”
The PEKING closed as a museum exhibit on September 4th, and was towed September 6 from Manhattan over to Staten Island where where will be prepared for the journey to Hamburg next Spring on a heavy-lift ship after first spending the winter at the island’s Caddell Dry Dock.
The riveted steel hull PEKING was built in 1911 by the German company F. Laeisz, she was the last generation of sailing ships, constructed right as steam-powered vessels beginning to dominate the trade routes. PEKING has a long history as a merchant vessel, sailing from South America to Europe, where she transported nitrates, bird guano to be used as a fertilizer and explosives. She was in Valparaiso at the outbreak of World War I, and was awarded to Italy as war reparations. Later she was sold back to the original owners, the Laeisz brothers in 1923. PEKING was converted to a training ship and later became a school for boys on the River Medway in England, renamed ARETHUSA II. Requisitioned by the Royal Navy and moved to Salcombe, Devonshire for the duration of the war she was temporarily renamed HMS PEKING (as there already was an HMS ARETHUSA in the Royal Navy). Returned to her owners at the end of the war and given back her old name PEKING was later sold at auction and was towed from London to New York arriving in the lower Manhattan’s South Street Seaport Museum in 1975 after narrowly avoiding being scrapped.
All photos by generous permission of Will Van Dorp, Tugster: a waterblog
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Wishing Peking a wonderful new life in Germany!
And…why not? Like so many other relics of a bgone era at least SSS had the courage to keep her from being scrapped. Now future generations will be able to see, touch and grasp what a great ship she was.
Bravo !
Her sister PASSAT is already a museum ship at Travemünde. She is in very good condition and well worth a visit.
This grand old sailing ship deserves to spend her last days in Hamburg, a city with such a rich history of the sea and ships. I hate to see her leave New York, but she will be such a proud addition to other ships in Hamburg. I look forward to crossing on QM2 to Hamburg and visiting her there.
And of course there is Kruzenshtern, the former Padua still sailing, also formerly from the Flying P-line. But having one of these ships in Hamburg will be very cool indeed!
Martin, I hope you’ll come to visit me in Hamburg and we can visit the PEKING and Maritime Museum together. You’ll love our harbour! X
Thanks Anna, yes I hope to see you and Hamburg in the future, perhaps you will take some pictures of PEKING arriving next Spring.
The citizens of Hamburg will have an excellent example of the art and science of the day with Peking. Now speaking of museums and, perhaps seeking a pie-in-the-sky idea…
Why not consider offering the people of NY the grand old liner… Big U for all to enjoy? Think of it- a restored floating museum/hotel (shopping court?) against the NYC backdrop…as an outstanding addition to the SSS collection of important vessels.
It beats anything else…
There is a in the PEKING, a lineage, a thread, that connects a cadre of people, that starts with Irving Johnson, and the film he takes on board the PEKING, in the 1930’s. The thread then connects to Capt. Arthur Kimberly and his wife Gloria, who meet while sailing with Capt Irving Johnson. The Kimberly’s go on to own their own sailing ship and past down to many fine men and women, who sailed with them in ROMANCE, the skills, and traditions of sailing a square rig ship. These intrepid people, some who were to go and make a life of the sea, both in square rig sailing ships as well as commercial motor ships, will never forget standing on the deck of the PEKING after seeing Irving’s film and envisioning the press of sail, that they recently, or a while back, just experienced. and after a while going down the gang plank at South Street saying out loud, its all for “Cargo!”
There are good berths and fine berths, I trust PEKING is going to a better berth, but will be missed non the less.
Good Bye! thanks for nothing. Besides them handing back the oldest tug in the harbor for sail boats. Not to mention a day liner.