PEKING Station The eventful history of the four-masted barque PEKING

The PEKING as a sailing cargo ship

The PEKING left Hamburg harbor for the first time on June 22, 1911, under the command of Captain Hinrich Nissen, going on to complete five successful saltpeter voyages to Chile. At the outbreak of World War I in 1914, she was interned in Chile and remained there for six years. After the war, Laeisz repurchased her from Italy, to which she had been surrendered as part of war reparations. The PEKING then sailed to Chile, England, the Netherlands, Belgium, and the United States again. In 1927 she was converted into a sail training ship with an extended poop deck. In 1932, Captain Jürs delivered the PEKING to England, where she was acquired by Shaftesbury Homes and Arethusa Training Ship & Co.

Model of a Menck & Hambrock excavator

Menck & Hambrock was a tradition-steeped Hamburg-based engineering company founded in 1868 and declared bankrupt in 1978. The company shipped its signature blue excavators to Chile, where they were used to dig for saltpeter, among other things.

Glass with caliche, Atacama Desert, Chile

Caliche is a hard, mineral crust formed in the Atacama Desert. It contains sodium nitrate and is the raw material for the famous Chilean saltpeter.

The PEKING as a boarding school ship

In 1932, the English Shaftesbury Homes and Arethusa Training Ship Co. purchased the PEKING for £6,250, renamed her the ARETHUSA, and converted her into a boarding school ship. Anchored in the Medway River, up to 300 boys received training aboard her for periods of up to four years. The conversion altered the ship significantly: She received a white cove stripe, new portholes, concrete ballast, a gymnasium, and additional decks. During World War II, the vessel was requisitioned by the Royal Navy. After the war, she returned as the ARETHUSA and served again as a boarding school ship until 1974, when the South Street Seaport Museum in New York purchased her for £70,000, preventing her from falling into disrepair.

Tin plate of a student aboard the ARETHUSA

Meals consisted of simple fare – often soups and stews – but were welcome breaks in the strict daily routine.

Sailor’s cap of a student aboard the ARETHUSA

Students aboard the ship wore a uniform consisting of a dark blue wool jacket, wool trousers, and a cap with the lettering “ARETHUSA”.

The PEKING in New York

In 1974, the South Seaport Museum in New York purchased the ARETHUSA for £70,000. She was towed across the Atlantic from London to New York in 17 days. There, she regained her original name – PEKING. The museum began the initial restoration and reconstruction work, including repainting the hull in the original F. Laeisz company colors. The yards are said to have been reconstructed from lampposts. Following the 9/11 attacks and Hurricane Sandy in 2012, the museum could no longer maintain the PEKING. In 2015, with financial support from the Federal Republic of Germany, the PEKING was purchased for the German Port Museum in Hamburg.

The PEKING on September 11, 2001

At the time of the September 11 attacks, the PEKING was docked at the South Street Seaport Museum in Manhattan, just a few kilometers south of the World Trade Center. The attacks further hindered the museum’s ability to fund maintenance and repairs onboard.

The PEKING as a film set in Vicky Cristina Barcelona

The PEKING appears in several feature films, including Woody Allen’s Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008), The Secret of My Success (1987), Working Girl (1988), Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992), and Blue Jasmine (2013).

The return and restoration of the PEKING

Starting in 2015, the PEKING was restored by the Peters Shipyard in Wewelsfleth over a period of three years for a total cost of €38 million. The project saw the PEKING restored to her 1927 cargo ship configuration, while also meeting modern accessibility and safety requirements for museum use. Although the hull was still in good condition, the decks needed extensive rebuilding, and the portholes from the boarding school era had to be removed. Reconstructing the rigging posed a significant challenge: The bowsprit and 16 yards had to be reconstructed. The ship returned to Hamburg on September 7, 2020 and has since been moored at the German Port Museum’s Hansahafen quay.

Porthole from the ARETHUSA era

The restoration of the PEKING as a cargo sailing ship included the removal of 86 portholes from the tween deck. These had been added during the vessel’s sting as a boarding school ship in England to provide daylight to the students’ living quarters.

The PEKING at the German Port Museum

In the future, the PEKING will be moored at Kleiner Grasbrook, the new site of the German Port Museum, located directly on the Elbe river. As a central exhibit, the ship illustrates global interconnections and represents the saltpeter trade between Germany and Chile. It also sheds light on important topics such as international supply chains, global shipping, harbor infrastructure, and working conditions as well as offering insights into knowledge transfer and global exchange processes, such as the introduction of new plant and animal species or the spread of diseases through maritime mobility. Thus, the PEKING has become a living space for historical reflection and contemporary debate.

Aerial photograph of the Überseezentrum

Opened in 1967, the Überseezentrum in Hamburg was once the largest break bulk distribution center in any port worldwide. However, with the rise of containers, it became obsolete and eventually closed in 2016.

Visualization of the new Kleiner Grasbrook district, including the PEKING

The new Kleiner Grasbrook district will be a sustainable neighborhood located on the southern bank of the Northern Elbe with 6,000 apartments, 16,000 jobs, and the German Port Museum.

Die PEKING in der Zukunft

Die Segelfrachtschifffahrt erlebt gerade ein faszinierendes Comeback – nicht als nostalgischer Rückblick, sondern als ernstzunehmende Antwort auf die Klimakrise. Moderne Technologien und kreative Konzepte machen Windkraft wieder attraktiv für den globalen Warenverkehr. Laut der International Wind Ship Association sind bereits über 130 windgetriebene Schiffe in Planung oder Bau (Stand 2025). In den nächsten fünf Jahren könnten bis zu 15 % der globalen Flotte mit Windsystemen ausgestattet sein. Ein Beispielprojekt aus Deutschland ist der Frachtsegler „Rasant“. Das Schiff wird mit einem automatisierten, leistungsfähigen Hauptantrieb auf Windbasis fahren, ergänzt um einem Zusatzantrieb auf Grundlage erneuerbarer, wasserstoffbasierter Kraftstoffe.

The OCEANBIRD

The Oceanbird cargo ship uses wind as its primary propulsion via five 80-meter-high rigid wing sails. This reduces CO2 emissions by up to 90% compared to a similar diesel-powered freighter.

Conical end plate of a Flettner rotor

Another modern design for wind-propelled ships uses Flettner rotors – vertical rotating cylinders that generate additional thrust from the wind. The Enercon cargo ship E-Ship 1, for example, is powered by four such rotors.