Peking (ship)

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Type: 4 masted barque
Hull: steel
Built: 1911, Hamburg, Germany
Homeport: New York, NY, USA
Designer: Blohm & Voss
Sparred Length: 377.5 ft
Length on deck: 320 ft
Beam: 45.6 ft
Draft: 16 ft
Rig Height: 170.5 ft
Displacement: 3,100 tons
Sail Area: 44,132 sq. ft
Other Names: Arethusa, HMS Pekin

A four masted barque of the Flying P-Line, the Peking , identical sister ship to the Passat, was one of the last generation of windjammers used in the nitrate and grain trade around the often treacherous Cape Horn (photograph of the Peking under full sail taken before 1914 in the estuary of the Elbe river).

Eking out meager existence on routes difficult to serve by the steam ships which required vast amounts of coal to fire their hungry boilers, these grand vessels and the sailors sailing them were the last of breed. Sailed "in the traditional way with few labor saving devices or safety features", her sailors were a hard lot, working four hours on and four hours off 24 hours a day for the entire length of the voyage, sometime for more than a hundred days in a row.

Made famous by the sail training pioneer Irving Johnson, his footage filmed on board during a passage around Cape Horn in 1929 shocked experienced Cape Horn veterans and landsmen alike at the extreme conditions Peking experienced.

Today, the Peking is docked at the South Street Seaport in New York City, where it acts as a Maritime museum.
Today, the Peking is docked at the South Street Seaport in New York City, where it acts as a Maritime museum.

She was in Valparaiso at the outbreak of World War One, and was awarded to Italy as war reparations. She was sold back to the original owners, the Laeisz brothers in 1923, as continued in the nitrate trade until traffic through the Panama Canal proved quicker and more economical.

In 1932, she was sold for £6250,to Shaftesbury Homes. She was first towed to Greenhithe, renamed Arethusa II and moored alongside the existing Arethusa I. In 1933, she was moved to her new permanent mooring off Upnor on the River Medway on 4th July 1933,where she worked as a childrens home and training school. She was officially 'opened' by HRH Prince George,on the 25th July 1933. She was retired in 1975 and sold to Jack Aron, for the South Street Seaport Museum,New York City in the United States, where she is still moored.

[edit] References

  • Irving Johnson; Round the Horn in a Square Rigger (Milton Bradley, 1932) (reprinted as The Peking Battles Cape Horn (Sea History Press, 1977 ISBN 0-930248-02-3)
  • Irving Johnson (film); Around Cape Horn (Mystic Seaport, 1985) (from original 16mm footage shot by Irving Johnson, 1929)

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

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