The museum ship "Rickmer Rickmers" at the Hamburg Landungsbrücken is a landmark of the city. Since 2006, the former cargo ship has been the official ship post office of Deutsche Post.
A rather unusual figurehead adorns the bow of the "Rickmer Rickmers":Where lions, mermaids or knights brave the splashing waves on many ships, a small, chubby boy in a sailor's suit can be seen on the proud three-master. It is three-year-old Rickmer, grandson of the founder of the well-known Rickmers shipping company. The 125-year-old traditional sailing ship, which has been docked at the Hamburg Landungsbrücken since 1987, is named after him.
Launched in Bremerhaven
The "Rickmer Rickmers" was built as a freight sailing ship at the company's own shipyard in Bremerhaven, where it was launched in 1896. The full steel ship is painted green, white and red in the typical colors of the Rickmers shipping company. Her first voyage is with a cargo of British coal, the "Rickmer Rickmers" to Hong Kong, where she takes rice and rattan on board.
Near disaster in typhoon
The "Rickmer Rickmers" in a painting from the end of the 19th century. There she is still rigged as a full ship.The "Rickmer Rickmers" had already made several successful voyages when she encountered a typhoon off the Cape of Good Hope in August 1904. The load slips and the ship threatens to capsize. The crew has to cut the top of the third mast. The cargo ship calls at Cape Town as a port of refuge, where it is rerigged into a barque. This means that - unlike before - instead of a square sail on the rear mast, she will have a fore and aft gaff sail.
The "Rickmer Rickmers" becomes the "Max"
In 1912, the Rickmers shipping company parted with all sailing ships in order to convert its fleet entirely to steam ships. The Hamburg shipping company Krabbenhöft buys the "Rickmer Rickmers" and gives her the name "Max". She uses the ship in the saltpetre trade with Chile.
Flying the Portuguese flag
When the First World War broke out in 1914, the ship called at the neutral Azores on its way home from Chile. The Portuguese confiscate it there in 1916, rename it "Flores" and make it available to the English for the transport of war material. After the end of the war in 1918, the Portuguese continued to use the ship as a freighter until 1922.
From cargo ship to training ship
In 1924 the Portuguese Navy bought the ship, converted it into a sail training ship and named it "Sagres". The figurehead is broken off and replaced by a figure of the Portuguese Prince Henry the Navigator, who lived in the 15th century. In 1930, the "Sagres" received two diesel engines as auxiliary drives. In 1962, the Navy decommissioned the ship, had the masts cut and used it as a depot ship, i.e. as a floating warehouse, under the name "Santo André".
Ship details of the Rickmer Rickmers
Year of construction :1896
Building yard :Rickmer Clasen Rickmers, BremerhavenShip type : Full ship, from 1904 Bark
Total length :97 meters
width :12.19 meters
Maximum mast height :54 meters
Draft :max. 6 meters
Nation :Germany
Homeport :Hamburg
Owner :Rickmer Rickmers Foundation
Mooring place:
Landungsbrücken
Ponton 1a/ Fiete-Schmidt-Anleger (between the underground stations Landungsbrücken and Baumwall)
Tel:(040) 319 59 59
More information on the homepage of the museum ship
Transfer to Hamburg
Until the 1980s, the "Santo André" was in the naval port of Alfeite near Lisbon and was slowly falling into disrepair. The association "Windjammer für Hamburg e.V.", which is looking for a tall ship as a museum ship for the Port of Hamburg, finds her there. In 1983, the ship was towed to Hamburg and handed over to the club there in time for the port birthday on May 7, 1983. For a few days, the people of Hamburg are allowed to inspect the dilapidated ship at the Landungsbrücken, then it goes into the dock. There, the club has it renovated from top to bottom:the steel is sandblasted, a new wooden deck is laid, the rigging is completed. 50 volunteers support the restoration work. Inside, only one of the two diesel engines is repaired, the other replaced by a steam engine. Visitors get an insight into three different types of propulsion for ships that were common over the past 120 years:steam, diesel and wind. The ship also gets a new figurehead:a replica of the old Rickmer figure.
Museum ship and Hamburg landmark
The ship is not only an eye-catcher during the day:the "Rickmer Rickmers" illuminated at night.Since 1987, the three-master has been a museum ship at the Hamburg Landungsbrücken - again under its original name "Rickmer Rickmers". It has long since become a symbol of Hamburg - and since 2006 it has been the official shipping post office of Deutsche Post with its own special postmark. However, the ship with the characteristic green hull is no longer seaworthy, it only leaves the pier for overhauls in the dock or in exceptional situations such as in March 2021, when the port authority has the berth deepened. Otherwise, the green lady, as the people of Hamburg affectionately call "their" tall ship, remains loyal to the Landungsbrücken.