Back home in Hamburg after more than 100 years
The PEKING is the first visible object in the collection of the German Port Museum. The four-masted barque is one of the last large cargo ships that was still able to compete with steam and machine ships at the beginning of the 20th century due to its speed, safety and precision. The vessel was used as a transport ship for saltpetre from Chile, which was in high demand at the time.
The PEKING was built by Blohm & Voss in Hamburg in 1911. In 1932, she was sold to the Shaftesbury Homes & Arethusa Training Ship Company, renamed ARETHUSA, and used as a school and boarding ship on the River Medway east of London. In 1974, the ship was auctioned off and served as a museum ship for the South Street Seaport Museum in New York. In 2017, the unseaworthy PEKING was transferred back to Germany, extensively refurbished and has been part of the Hamburg Historical Museums Foundation since 2020.
It is possible to visit the ship by guided tour. Google Arts&Culture also offers the possibility to visit the decks of the PEKING digitally.