Prinz Valdemar

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The Prinz Valdemar, capsized and blocking the port of Miami for several weeks in 1925.  Florida Photographic Collection
The Prinz Valdemar, capsized and blocking the port of Miami for several weeks in 1925. Florida Photographic Collection
The City of Portland attempting to assist the capsized Prinz Valdemar.  Florida Photographic Collection
The City of Portland attempting to assist the capsized Prinz Valdemar. Florida Photographic Collection

The Prins Valdemar was a 241' steel hulled schooner named after Prince Valdemar of Denmark. It was built in 1891 in Elsinore, Denmark along with its sister ship Prinsesse Marie, as one of the last great ships of the sailing ship era.[1] It was based in Esbjerg, although registered on the nearby island of Fanø.[2] The ship was sold to Norway in 1911[3] and to the US in 1916. A model exists at the Customs Museum of Copenhagen.[4]

[edit] Miami harbor

It sank in the mouth of the turning basin of Miami harbor on January 10, 1926. The old Danish warship was on its way to becoming a floating hotel, during the heady days of the Florida land boom of the 1920's.[5] Railroads had already begun raising shipping rates in response to the strain created by the population boom, and when the sea route to Miami was blocked the city's image as a tropical paradise began to crumble. Investors were seeing primarily negative press on Miami by 1925, and the rising prices that fueled the land boom stopped rising. The first Miami real estate bubble had burst.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Morten Hahn-Pedersen and Holger Munchaus Petersen: Prinsen og prinsessen - to storsejlere fra Fanø, 1989, ISBN 87-87453-37-1 (in Danish)
  2. ^ Morten Hahn-Pedersen and Holger Munchaus Petersen: Omkring et skibsportræt - »Prins Valdemar« af Fanø, Sjæklen 1988 (Journal of the Fisheries and Maritime Museum, Esbjerg), p. 8-23 (in Danish)
  3. ^ [1] (in Danish, with picture)
  4. ^ [2] (in Danish)
  5. ^ The Tropical Twenties