Completing the Circle

The Royal Clipper was built by a Swedish business in the 1990s to resemble his boyhood dream sailing ship, the five-masted barque named the Preussen which was the largest sailing ship in the world until the Royal Clipper came along.

the Preussen

The Preussen was the largest of a famous lineage of 19th/20th century cargo sailing ships, all built in Hamburg, Germany. They were not only the largest but also the fastest sailing fleet in the world, known as the P-Line as all their names began with P: Preussen, Padua, Peking, etc. In the 1920s, they were overtaken by ships powered by coal and oil and most were sold off to museums or navies around the world to be used as training ships.

The Peking, which had four masts, was sold to the British Royal Navy in the 1930s as a training ship moored on the River Thames. It was also a children's home for orphaned boys who lived on the ship and learned a trade so they could enter the Navy when they turned sixteen. These orphaned boys lived on board ship as if it was the 19th century, learning knots, rigging, ship maintenance, engineering, and cooking. The discipline was a little Dickensian too.

Martin's Dad was one of those orphans. He was fourteen in 1945 when he lived on board the Peking, which was then named the Arethusa. This was a formative time for Dad but not a happy one. Martin and his brother grew up with their Dad referring to his time on the Arethusa and later in the Royal Navy on the other ships on which he served.

The Arethusa was later taken to the South Street Seaport and became the foundational element of the maritime museum there, its four masts clearly seen at the base of the Brooklyn Bridge. There the ship was restored back to its original cargo ship design, with its name (Peking) also restored. We took Martin's parents to New York to see the ship, unrecognizable by the long ago orphaned boy.

the Peking, aka Arethusa, aka Peking

We learned more about the P-line ships almost as soon as we went about the Royal Clipper. At dinner, we met a lovely couple from Hamburg who told us that the Peking has returned to Hamburg, refurbished appropriately and well, and is the centerpiece of that city's maritime museum. 

Now we know a trip to Hamburg is in order to see the Peking fully restored to its original glory. And we found out about it on the Royal Clipper, completing a bit of a circle for Martin.