Peking (ship)
Steel-hulled four-masted barque
title: "Peking (ship)" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["barques", "windjammers", "individual-sailing-vessels", "tall-ships-of-germany", "four-masted-ships", "ships-built-in-hamburg", "merchant-ships-of-germany", "1911-ships", "training-ships-of-the-united-kingdom", "museum-ships-in-new-york-(state)", "museum-ships-in-germany"] description: "Steel-hulled four-masted barque" topic_path: "geography/germany" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peking_(ship)" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0
::summary Steel-hulled four-masted barque ::
::data[format=table title="Infobox ship"]
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| infobox_caption | Peking |
| section1 | {{Infobox ship/image |
| image | Schleswig-Holstein, Wewelsfleth, Peters Werft und Peking NIK 0987.jpg |
| image_caption | Peking |
| section2 | {{Infobox ship/career |
| country | German Empire |
| flag | |
| name | Peking |
| namesake | City of Beijing |
| owner | F. Laeisz |
| route | Europe–Chile |
| builder | Blohm & Voss, Steinwerder, Hamburg |
| yard_number | 205 |
| launched | 25 February 1911 |
| completed | May 1911 |
| out_of_service | 1920 |
| notes | Interned at Valparaiso 1914–1920, then to Italy as war reparations |
| section3 | {{Infobox ship/career |
| hide_header | title |
| country | Kingdom of Italy |
| flag | |
| in_service | 1920 |
| out_of_service | 1923 |
| section4 | {{Infobox ship/career |
| hide_header | title |
| country | Weimar Republic |
| flag | |
| name | Peking |
| operator | F. Laeisz |
| route | Europe–Chile |
| acquired | 1923 |
| out_of_service | 1932 |
| section5 | {{Infobox ship/career |
| hide_header | title |
| country | United Kingdom |
| flag | |
| name | Arethusa |
| owner | Shaftesbury Homes |
| in_service | 1932–1940, 1945–1975 |
| out_of_service | 1975 |
| homeport | Upnor, Medway |
| section6 | {{Infobox ship/career |
| hide_header | title |
| country | United Kingdom |
| flag | |
| name | HMS Pekin |
| operator | Royal Navy |
| commissioned | 1940 |
| decommissioned | 1945 |
| section7 | {{Infobox ship/career |
| hide_header | title |
| country | United States |
| flag | |
| name | Peking |
| owner | South Street Seaport Museum |
| acquired | 1975 |
| out_of_service | 2017 |
| homeport | New York City |
| status | Museum ship |
| section8 | {{Infobox ship/career |
| hide_header | title |
| country | Germany |
| flag | |
| name | Peking |
| owner | German Port Museum |
| acquired | 2017 |
| in_service | 2020 |
| homeport | Hamburg |
| status | Museum ship |
| section9 | {{Infobox ship/characteristics |
| class | Flying P-Liner |
| displacement | 3100 LT |
| length | * 377 ft sparred length |
| * {{convert | 320 |
| beam | 45 ft |
| height | 170 ft |
| draft | 16 ft |
| sail_plan | 44132 sqft sail area |
| :: |
| infobox_caption = Peking |section1={{Infobox ship/image | image = Schleswig-Holstein, Wewelsfleth, Peters Werft und Peking NIK 0987.jpg | image_caption = Peking
|section2={{Infobox ship/career | hide_header = | country = German Empire | flag = | name = Peking | namesake = City of Beijing | owner = F. Laeisz | operator = | registry = | route = Europe–Chile | ordered = | awarded = | builder = Blohm & Voss, Steinwerder, Hamburg | original_cost = | yard_number = 205 | way_number = | laid_down = | launched = 25 February 1911 | christened = | completed = May 1911 | acquired = | in_service = | out_of_service = 1920 | struck = | reinstated = | homeport = | fate = | status = | notes = Interned at Valparaiso 1914–1920, then to Italy as war reparations
|section3={{Infobox ship/career | hide_header = title | country = Kingdom of Italy | flag = | acquired = | in_service = 1920 | out_of_service = 1923 | homeport = | fate = | status = | notes =
|section4={{Infobox ship/career | hide_header = title | country = Weimar Republic | flag = | name = Peking | owner = | operator = F. Laeisz | registry = | route = Europe–Chile | acquired = 1923 | in_service = | out_of_service = 1932 | homeport = | fate = | status = | notes =
|section5={{Infobox ship/career | hide_header = title | country = United Kingdom | flag= | name = Arethusa | owner = Shaftesbury Homes | operator = | acquired = | in_service = 1932–1940, 1945–1975 | out_of_service = 1975 | homeport = Upnor, Medway | fate = | status = | notes =
|section6={{Infobox ship/career | hide_header = title | country = United Kingdom | flag = | name = HMS Pekin | operator = Royal Navy | acquired = | commissioned =1940 | decommissioned = 1945 | in_service = | out_of_service = | struck = | reinstated = | homeport = | motto = | nickname = | honours = | fate = | status = | notes =
|section7={{Infobox ship/career | hide_header = title |country=United States |flag= | name = Peking | owner = South Street Seaport Museum | operator = | acquired = 1975 | in_service = | out_of_service = 2017 | homeport = New York City | motto = | nickname = | fate = | status = Museum ship | notes =
|section8={{Infobox ship/career | hide_header = title | country = Germany | flag = | name = Peking | owner = German Port Museum | operator = | acquired = 2017 | in_service = 2020 | out_of_service = | homeport = Hamburg | motto = | nickname = | fate = | status = Museum ship | notes =
|section9={{Infobox ship/characteristics | hide_header = | header_caption = | class = Flying P-Liner | displacement = 3100 LT | length = * 377 ft sparred length
- 320 ft length on deck | beam = 45 ft | height = 170 ft | draft = 16 ft | sail_plan = 44132 sqft sail area | propulsion = | speed = | range = | complement = | notes = Peking is a steel-hulled four-masted barque. A so-called Flying P-Liner of the German company F. Laeisz, it was one of the last generation of cargo-carrying iron-hulled sailing ships used in the nitrate trade and wheat trade around Cape Horn.
This ship is currently a museum ship in Germany in the 2020s.
History
Nitrate trade
Peking was launched in February 1911 and left Hamburg for her maiden voyage to Valparaiso in May of the same year. After the outbreak of World War I she was interned at Valparaiso and remained in Chile for the duration of the war. Awarded to the Kingdom of Italy as war reparations, she was sold back to her original owners, the Laeisz brothers, in January 1923. She remained in the nitrate trade until traffic through the Panama Canal proved quicker and more economical.
''Arethusa II''
In 1932, she was sold for £6,250 to Shaftesbury Homes. She was first towed to Greenhithe, renamed Arethusa II and moored alongside the existing Arethusa I. In July 1933, she was moved to a new permanent mooring off Upnor on the River Medway, where she served as a children's home and training school. She was officially "opened" by Prince George on 25 July 1933. During World War II she served in the Royal Navy as HMS Pekin.
Museum ship in New York
Arethusa II was retired in 1974 and sold to Jack Aron as Peking, for the South Street Seaport Museum in New York City, where she remained for the next four decades. However, the Seaport NYC did not see Peking as part of its long-term operational plans, and was planning to send the vessel to the scrap yard. A 2012 offer to return the ship to Hamburg, where she was originally built, as a gift from the city of New York, was contingent upon raising an endowment in Germany to ensure the preservation of the vessel.
Return to Germany
In November 2015 the Maritim Foundation purchased the ship for US$100. Peking is intended to become part of the German Port Museum (Deutsches Hafenmuseum) at Schuppen 52 in Hamburg for which €120 million of federal funds would be provided. She was taken to Caddell Drydock, Staten Island, on 7 September 2016, to spend the winter. On 14 July 2017 she was loaded on the deck of the semi-submersible heavy-lift ship for transport across the Atlantic, at a cost of some €1 million, arriving at Brunsbüttel on 30 July 2017.
Refurbishment in Germany
On 2 August 2017 she was transferred to Peters Werft, located at Wewelsfleth, for a three-year refurbishment at a cost of €38 million. The restoration included review of rigging, double floor steel plates, dismounting and remount of all masts, docking in dry dock, renewal of the steel structure, removal of the cement that filled the lower 3+1/2 m of the hull, painting, woodwork and overall refurbishment. The ship twice spent about two years in dry dock. Peking was refloated on 7 September 2018 with a primer-painted hull. Teak was reinstalled on deck. The ship was transferred on 7 September 2020 to the German Port Museum.
In popular culture
- A specific voyage of the vessel from Hamburg to Valparaiso in the late 1920s was immortalized in the film “Around Cape Horn” by American author and sail-training Captain Irving Johnson when he sailed on board as an apprentice, the footage of which was featured in the British Museum according to his narration of the film in the 1980 version produced by Mystic Seaport Museum. Johnson also wrote a book about the voyage by the same name.
- "Around the Wild Cape Horn" from Ralph McTell's album Somewhere Down the Road is about Peking.
- Tom Lewis's song "Peking" on the album Mixed Cargo is about Peking.
- The ship was the setting for the 1965 Margaret Rutherford film Murder Ahoy as "HMS Battledore".
- The ship is mentioned in Elton John’s biography as place of after gig party where Elton met John Lennon.
Citations
Bibliography
- Johnson, Irving. Round the Horn in a Square Rigger (Milton Bradley, 1932) (reprinted as The Peking Battles Cape Horn (Sea History Press, 1977 )
- Johnson, Irving. Around Cape Horn (film) (Mystic Seaport, 1985) (from original 16 mm footage shot by Irving Johnson, 1929)
References
- "Peking". Miramar.
- "Maritim Museum".
- [https://nypost.com/2016/09/05/how-this-departing-south-street-seaport-gem-survived-the-storm-of-the-century/ How this departing South Street Seaport Gem survived the Storm of the Century (''New York Post'', 5 September 2016).]
- (2017-07-21). "Tall Ship Peking Loaded Whole into a Larger Vessel {{!}} Waterfront Alliance".
- Billerbeck, Jens D.. (2017-09-01). "Flying-P-Liner Peking nimmt Kurs auf Hamburg".
- [http://www.maritimejournal.com/news101/vessel-build-and-maintenance/vessel-repair-and-maintenance/sailing-ship-veterans-three-year-restoration Sailing Ship veteran's three-year restoration]
- Schorr, Stefan. (2024-11-28). "Flying P-Liner: The rescue of the four-masted barque "Peking"".
- [https://www.ndr.de/nachrichten/schleswig-holstein/Peking-im-Dock-Arbeit-faengt-jetzt-richtig-an,peking1448.html "Peking" im Dock: Arbeit fängt jetzt richtig an]
- [https://www.ndr.de/nachrichten/hamburg/Segelschiff-Peking-erreicht-Hamburg,peking1810.html Peking in Hamburg]
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