Deutsche Schoner

Deutsche Schoner cover

Having received a copy of the Anny von Hamburg entry for "Deutsche Schoner" (German schooners), published in 2006, I have translated it below for anyone with not so good German skills. Enjoy.

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Three-masted gaff schooner

ANNY, 1914

HANNA, 1925-1936;

KURT BOTH, 1936-1957

RINGO (Sw), 1957-1964

RINGO (Fi), 1964-1980

ANNY, 1980-1985

ANNY VON HAMBURG (Br), 1985-1999

ANNY VON HAMBURG, 1999 - present

(NJWV) 141 BRT, 111 NRT, 28.08 x 6.98 x 2.74 m

Of Lühring's three-masted schooner series, the ANNY of the Nordenham innkeeper Bernhard Dietrich Hasseldieck, which was launched in June 1914, was to prove to be the longest-lived of the eight ships built. The new ship was entered into the Brake ship register on July 17th of the same year with the distinguishing sign NJWV. The ship's correspondent shipowner was the local company D. Oltmann, for whom ANNY was already the fifth Lühring ship. The ship was taken over by the owner's son, Captain Bernhard Hasseldieck Jr., who had previously sailed the ERNA (No. 97/1909) of the shipping company Addicks & Co. from Bremen. 

The new ship's first and, as it soon turned out, only voyage took it to St. Petersburg, where it was discovered that Germany was now at war with Russia. ANNY was immediately confiscated as enemy property and the crew interned. For the years that followed, the sailing ship was hidden from all investigation. Hasseldieck was able to “write off” his 39,500 Mark build costs and hoped to be compensated for his loss by the state later. This seems to have actually happened, because in August 1922 he was able to receive a new ANNI (this time with an “I”) from Lühring, which was again operated by his son. The old ANNY, on the other hand, was deleted from the register in December 1923 as “lost”. 

But just as people who are said to have a particularly long life expectancy, the same thing seems to have happened in the life of this ship. The confiscated schooner had been prepared by her new owners as a barracks ship for soldiers of the Tsarist Navy and stationed on Lake Ladoga. Here she is said to have been hit by artillery later, whereupon she was left in a desolate state, stripped of her rigging and masts. After the situation in Russia began to calm down again in the 1920s, the revolutionary government thought about these small sailing ships that were lying around in their harbors without any use or employment. They were offered to their countries of origin for repurchase as a source of foreign currency, and so our schooner, along with several other ships, came back to Germany in 1924. 

The buyers were the Hamburg shipping company J. H. Jensen, which already owned several other Lühring sailing ships, and the previous captain of the schooner ANNA JENSEN, Friedrich Hermann Walter Richter. He also arranged for the transfer and had the ship, which looked more like a wreck, towed to Ernst Harms' shipyard in Harburg. Here she was thoroughly renovated and modernized. The most important achievement was the engine, a HMG hot-plug built in Bergedorf with two cylinders and an impressive 95 hp. Since sails were no longer considered as important, the schooner only had two low pole masts, a mizzen exhaust mast and a short jib boom, on which an auxiliary sail of around 180 square meters could be set. The large wooden wheelhouse on the aft deck, where one could keep watch comfortably and in the dry, certainly also contributed to the ship's (and crews) well-being. 

After Harms had certified "that he had built the schooner in 1925 at his shipyard and handed it over to J. H. Jensen for 48,770 marks," the ship was registered in Hamburg on August 24, 1925 as HANNA with the distinctive sign RFNB. Almost four months later, on December 10, 1925, the ownership was transferred to the Martin Jensen company in Harburg for 24,385 marks. In January 1926, the company sold 1/3 of the shares back to J. H. Jensen and another third to Captain Friedrich Hermann Walter Richter. Finally, in June 1929, Captain Richter, who had also captained the schooner all these years, was able to register the ship as his sole property. 

Picture: HANNA ex ANNY 1925 after conversion at the E. Harms shipyard in Harburg (Photo: Captain H. Wulff, Kollmar) 93

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"Like most motor sailors," Joachim Kaiser wrote in 1982 in "YACHT," "the HANNA hardly ever sailed: the sails served at best as support sails against annoying rolling movements in the sea. However, the HANNA had to fight her way through without a motor once: in 1927 - the ship had brought a load of gasoline in barrels to Wiborg - on the journey home with timber to Stade, the stubborn hot-bulb engine malfunctioned: the crankshaft broke. But with the low rigging, the ship was a miserable sailor, so that the journey to Holtenau took three weeks. But apart from her maiden voyage to St. Petersburg, it was the only trip the schooner ever made under sail." 

In 1936, Walter Richter had the motor sailor HANSEAT built in Stade, after which he sold his old three-master for around 70,000 marks to Captain Max Both from Glückstadt. He named the ship KURT BOTH after his son, but left it in the Hamburg register. Until the outbreak of the Second World War, the ship was exclusively used to transport cement and building materials from Bremerhaven to Heligoland for the construction of the fortifications and submarine bunkers on the island. Later, the ship was used for tramping between Scandinavia and the continent. In 1940, Both had Lühring remove the two rotten wooden front masts and replace them with a steel loading mast behind the forecastle.

Pictures:

Three-masted schooner KURT BOTH 1936 anchored off Heligoland (Author's collection)

KURT BOTH after extension and modernization leaving the Swedish port of Hernösand on August 19, 1952 with a full load of wood (Photo: R. Boman, Uppsala)

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The mizzen mast had been made of steel since 1925 and also served as an exhaust for the engine. The former three-masted schooner had now become a one-and-a-half-masted ship with support sails. The first Bergedorf hot-plug engine had already been replaced in 1931 by a four-stroke diesel engine of the same make with three cylinders and 120 hp. After this, the engine started to malfunction  more frequently - most recently three times during a single canal passage - a new diesel engine from Deutsche Werke Kiel was installed in Cuxhaven in 1941. Its 150 hp could be increased to 165 hp using a few tricks, such as enlarging the flywheel. 

When freight rates were high after the war, Max Both decided to have his ship extended in September 1950. At the same time, KURT BOTH received a straightened stern, a raised wheelhouse with bridge and, most importantly, a large loading hatch. The ship converted in this way now had a tonnage of 211 BRT or 126 NRT and a carrying capacity of 300 t. KURT BOTH was able to bring in good money for her owner for almost seven additional years, then he had the 780-ton ELBMARSCHEN built by Peters and sold his old ship to Sweden. 

In April 1957, our Lühring construction was delivered to Captain Oskar. R Abrahamsson from Edshultshall as RINGÖ. For seven years, the ship sailed under the blue and yellow flag in its traditional area of ​​operation until it found a new buyer in Finland. Here RINGÖ was used in the sand voyage between Borgå and Helsinki and was owned successively by Paul Grönquist (1964/65), H. J. Grönquist (1965-1968) and finally E. Grönquist (1968-1979), all from Porvoo or, as it is called in Swedish, Borgå.

"Even today," Joachim Kaiser writes, "a number of old cargo ships are employed in the sand trade from Borgå to Helsinki. This business, which is not very varied, means that the ships employed in it are rarely cleaned because they always carry the same loads and they age quickly. After 15 years of negligent treatment, the clock had run out for "RINGÖ" as a commercial vehicle. The last bottom survey showed that several plates were corroded thin. As repairs no longer seemed worthwhile, the ship was sold cheaply (for around 70,000 SKr) to Sweden. That was in the summer of 1979. (... ) The four young Swedes who had bought the old ship were not quite aware of what a rarity they had. They had bold plans for the decrepit and patched-together steamer. They wanted to trade in the African coastal trade under the Liberian flag and later in the Caribbean. (... )" 

Well, nothing came of the plans; one day before the Swedish Maritime Inspectorate was due to accept the ship, a fire broke out on board due to a defective refrigerator, which destroyed the entire stern of the ship. It was Joachim Kaiser who found the once proud ship in 1980 in a devastated and robbed state in Karlskrona and suggested buying it to a Hamburg shipowner who had been looking for a similar property for a long time. Jörn Deistler from Hamburg-based Germania Schiff-fahrt GmbH reports on the further course of events: 

"The owner had already given up his hopes of finding a buyer and was negotiating with a ship-breaking yard. We signed a purchase agreement on the spur of the moment, especially as it was clear to us that a ship of this age, of the same size and beauty, built by a German shipyard and rich in Hamburg history, would not be found again. After an adventurous transfer journey under her own keel, the ship was re-entered into the ship register of its old home port of Hamburg as 'ANNY' after a 23-year absence. At the inland waterway shipyard in Glückstadt... 

Finnish RINGÖ, here on October 8, 1972, was finally able to be built. Nothing was left of the former three-masted schooner (Photo: B. Sjöström, Kristernes) 

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Pictures: While in February 1982 it still looked like it would be scrapped,

... in March 1982 the picture was completely different

... and in April decks and superstructures were installed (3 photos: by author)

... the long overdue rejuvenation treatment began. The previous extension had to be reversed. The deck, rusted thin in many places and disfigured by an oversized loading hatch, was completely renewed (according to the original plans). The bow and poop, disfigured by numerous modifications, were given a "face-lift" according to the original plans. The rigging, which had long since disappeared, was authentically rebuilt by experts who had themselves sailed on such ships. (... )"

In the autumn of 1982, the ANNY looked again on the outside as it had been delivered by Lühring. However, everything was a little more refined: lots of brass and fine teak draw attention to the new use of the ship. After all, it is no longer wood, grain, coal or even sand that is to be shipped around, but paying passengers. Unfortunately, for their well-being, a series of portholes have been cut into the side of the ship, which do not suit her very well. Because, of course, the interior of the old lady has also been completely changed:

"The former cargo hold now offers extreme comfort and luxurious coziness. 5 double cabins, each with its own bathroom and toilet, offer space for 10 people. The large saloon, with its traditional mahogany elegance, is particularly suitable for representation purposes (... )" (shipping company brochure). The interior was designed by the renowned Glückstadt-based 'Yachtwerft Asmus' yard, while the teak deck was laid by boat builder Günther Pehrs, also from Glückstadt. The masts and round timbers were made by the Kiersgaard shipyard in Troense, Denmark, on Svendborgsund, where ANNY had steamed under her own power in May 1982. And of course a new engine had also been installed in the ship, a Deutz diesel with 280 hp, while the old Deutsche Werke engine was returned to the manufacturer in Kiel, where it was placed in the factory museum after being lovingly restored. 

“For reasons of German bureaucracy” the schooner had been sailing under the British flag since August 1985 and was based in London as ANNY VON HAMBURG with the call sign GFMX. The charters covered the following areas:

1982 Winter: Hamburg-Bahamas, 1983 Summer: New York/ Newport R.I. (Americas Cup), 1983 Winter: Virgin Islands, Caribbean, 1984 Summer: Mediterranean / Aegean, 1984 Winter: St. Lucia / Grenadines, Caribbean, 1985 Summer: New York / Newport, 1985 Winter: Virgin Islands, 1986 Summer: Mediterranean / Aegean, 1986 Winter: laid up in Glückstadt, 1987 Summer: Norway / Denmark / Poland, 1988 Summer: North / Baltic Sea, 1988 Winter: Antigua / Caribbean.

In the summer of 1989, ANNY VON HAMBURG hit the headlines when she was offered for auction by the British auction house Sotheby's along with a number of luxury yachts. It was the first time that this company tried its hand at the maritime sector, but the auction was a complete failure: apart from three smaller boats, no other vessel came under the hammer. ANNY VON HAMBURG continued to sail for her previous owner, but now under the flag of Antigua with her home port in St. Johns, and after the reunification of Germany, she opened up the...

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...long-neglected Baltic coast of Mecklenburg and Rügen. Since winter 1996/97 the schooner has been lying idle in the inner harbor of Glückstadt. It was a pity to see how the previously pretty ship was visibly deteriorating, how her constantly slack sails and running rigging were covered in green algae and rust was running down the sides. In March 1999 the following news finally came:

The 85-year-old three-masted schooner 'Anny von Hamburg', which had been lying in Glückstadt harbor for almost three years, was being sold. A group of German owners, including shipowners and a shipyard owner, bought the 38-meter-long ship, which was once pretty but had recently become somewhat run-down. The name 'Anny von Hamburg' remains, even though the new port of operation was Leer. The local mayor paid 50,000 marks if the ship took up her permanent berth in the shipping-oriented port city on the Ems and Leda. The offer was gladly accepted. 'Anny' should return under the German flag if possible. (... )" The new owners called themselves 'Anny' Yachting Company Ltd. St. Johns/Antigua. The three-master was thoroughly overhauled and refitted in Wilhelmshaven. In addition to the five-person regular crew, 30 guests are permitted on day trips. The ship is used in the North Sea and Baltic Sea. The ship was managed by the Hamburg shipping company Thien & Heyenga GmbH, which brought the ship under the Portuguese flag and based it in Madeira. 

In May 2004, the Hanse-Koggewerft association in Bremerhaven took over the schooner, which has now been given a permanent berth in the New Harbor there. The association wants to operate the ship, which will once again have Hamburg as its home port, as a non-commercial traditional ship in the future.

In July 1982, ANNY in the harbor of Glückstadt was ready to sail  for the first time. 

ANNY VON HAMBURG under schooner and mainsail on May 20, 2003 in the Little Belt. The sails were reduced in size in anticipation of the impending wall of storms (2 photos: by author)