Bronze Age Gold from Wales

View of the rigging of the PAMIR and PASSAT at Penarth, 1950.

PAMIR. Steel four masted barque of 2798 gross tons, built by Blohm & Voss of Hamburg, and completed in July in 1905. Built for F. Laeisz also of Hamburg - the famous 'Flying P. Line' The Company's main business was the transportation of nitrates from South America to Europe. In 1913 she was sold to Gustav Erikson of the Aland Islands in the Baltic (he was the last European shipowner to employ sailing vessels in the transportation of grain from Australia to Europe). Laid up at Santa Cruz de la Palma for the duration of WW1. 1920 – Handed over to the Italian Government as war reparations, but laid up from 1921. 1924 – Bought back by Reederei F. Laeisz, and returned to the nitrate run. 1931 – Sold to Gustaf Erikson of Mariehamn, and used for carrying Australian wheat. 1941 – Seized as a “prize of war” by the New Zealand Government. 1948 – Returned to the ownership of Erikson. She made her last commercial voyage in 1948-49 with her sister ship PASSAT, rounding Cape Horn on 10 July 1949 – the last time a cargo-carrying sailing vessel would do so. 1951 – Bought by a German shipowner, together with PASSAT, from a breaker’s yard, and rebuilt with auxiliary engines at Kiel, as cargo-carrying sail training ships. laid-up in Penarth dock in the early 1950s. In October 1951, both vessels were towed to Kiel and the PAMIR was converted into a sail training vessel. On 21 September 1957 she sank when her grain cargo shifted during hurricane Carrie in the Pacific Ocean. Only six of her complement of 86 souls survived.

Barque PASSAT (3,091 gross ton). Built 1911 by Blohm & Voss, Hamburg, for Reederei F. Laeisz, Hamburg (the Flying “P” Line). Rigged as a 4-masted barque with royals over double top and topgallant sails – she worked on the nitrate trade from South America. In 1916 she was laid up at Iquique for the duration of WW1. In 1921 transferred to the French Government as war reparations, but bought back in the December of that year by F. Laeisz. 1932 – Together with her elder sister Pamir she was sold to Gustav Erikson of Mariehamn, Finland. She was laid up at Mariehamn for the duration of WW2. 1946 – Loaded deals and passengers for East London, South Africa arriving at Table Bay 82 days later. 1949 – The PAMIR and PASSAT were the last sailing ships to carry grain from Australia. 1950 – Sold together with PAMIR to Van der Loo of Antwerp for scrapping. 1951 – Sold to H. Schliewen, Lübeck, to be used as a sail-training ship. 1954 – Sold at auction to Schleswig-Holsteinisches Lanesbank. 1956 – Sold to Stiftung Pamir und Passat, Lubeck. 1957 – She found refuge at Lisbon during the hurricane in which the PAMIR perished, and was laid up at Hamburg. 1960 – Established as a stationary school ship at Travemünde, where she is currently (2012) preserved as a museum ship.