Herzogin Cecilie
Encyclopedia
Herzogin Cecilie was a German four-mast barque
(windjammer
), named after German Crown Princess Duchess Cecilie of Mecklenburg-Schwerin
(1886–1954), spouse of Crown Prince
Wilhelm of Prussia (1882–1951) (Herzogin being German for Duchess).
. She was yard number 122 and was launched on 22 April 1902. Completion was on 7 June that year. She was 334 in 8 in (102.01 m) long, with a breadth of 46 in 3 in (14.1 m) and a draught of 24 in 2 in (7.37 m). Herzogin Cecilie was built for Norddeutscher Lloyd
Bremen
. Unlike other contemporary German merchant sailing ships, the black Flying-P-Liners or the green ships of Rickmers, she was painted in white. She was one of the fastest windjammer
s ever built: she logged 21 knots at Skagen
.
The tall ship
s of the time remained competitive against the steamers only on the longer trade routes: the Chilean Salpeterfahrt nitrate trade, carrying salpeter
from Chile
to Europe, and the Australian Weizenfahrt wheat trade, carrying grain from Australia to Europe. Both routes required rounding Cape Horn
routinely, and were not well suited for steamers, as coal was in short supply there.
Herzogin Cecilie was one of the fastest merchant sailing ships of her time, on a par with the Flying-P-Liners. The trip around Cape Horn
from Portland (Oregon
) to The Lizard
(England) was done in 1903 in only 106 days.
At the outbreak of World War I, she was interned by Chile
, returning to Germany in 1920, only to be given to France as reparation, and subsequently sold to Gustaf Erikson
(24 October 1872 – 15 August 1947) of Finland
for $20,000. She was homeported at Mariehamn
.
As the freight rates for salpeter had dropped after the war, Gustaf Erikson sent her to bring grain from Australia. In so-called grain race
s, several tall ships tried to arrive first in Europe, to sell their cargo for a higher price, as told, for example, in The Great Tea Race of 1866
or The Last Grain Race
. Typically, ships were loaded in the Spencer Gulf
area, Port Victoria, South Australia
or Wallaroo, South Australia
, and travelled to Europe, with ports on the British Isles like Queenstown, Ireland or Falmouth, Cornwall
being considered as the finish. The ship also passed by Queensland
where she was photographed.
After "winning" four times prior to 1921, she again won the grain race four times in eleven trips from 1926 to 1936.
In 1927, when Herzogin Cecilie covered Port Lincoln (South Australia) – Queenstown in 98 days, Alan Villiers
was on board, which would result in his book Falmouth for Orders, and later a trip aboard the barque Parma
.
After having travelled to Falmouth in only 86 days, second fastest ever, Herzogin Cecilie was making for Ipswich
in dense fog, when, on 25 April 1936, she grounded on Ham Stone Rock and drifted onto the cliffs of Bolt Head
on the south Devon coast. After parts of the cargo were unloaded, she was floating again, only to be towed in June 1936 to Starhole (Starehole) Bay at the mouth of the nearby Kingsbridge Estuary
near Salcombe
, and beached there. On 18 January 1939, the ship capsized and sank. The remains of the ship sit at a depth of 7 metres at 50°12.82′N 3°47.02′W.
. Herzogin Cecilie had the Finnish Official Number 703 and used the Code Letters
TPMK.
Barque
A barque, barc, or bark is a type of sailing vessel with three or more masts.- History of the term :The word barque appears to have come from the Greek word baris, a term for an Egyptian boat. This entered Latin as barca, which gave rise to the Italian barca, Spanish barco, and the French barge and...
(windjammer
Windjammer
A windjammer is the ultimate type of large sailing ship with an iron or for the most part steel hull, built to carry cargo in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century...
), named after German Crown Princess Duchess Cecilie of Mecklenburg-Schwerin
Duchess Cecilie of Mecklenburg-Schwerin
Cecilie of Mecklenburg-Schwerin was a Crown Princess of Germany and Prussia as the wife of German Crown Prince William, the son of German Emperor William II...
(1886–1954), spouse of Crown Prince
Crown Prince
A crown prince or crown princess is the heir or heiress apparent to the throne in a royal or imperial monarchy. The wife of a crown prince is also titled crown princess....
Wilhelm of Prussia (1882–1951) (Herzogin being German for Duchess).
History
Herzogin Cecilie was built in 1902 by Rickmers Schiffbau AG in BremerhavenBremerhaven
Bremerhaven is a city at the seaport of the free city-state of Bremen, a state of the Federal Republic of Germany. It forms an enclave in the state of Lower Saxony and is located at the mouth of the River Weser on its eastern bank, opposite the town of Nordenham...
. She was yard number 122 and was launched on 22 April 1902. Completion was on 7 June that year. She was 334 in 8 in (102.01 m) long, with a breadth of 46 in 3 in (14.1 m) and a draught of 24 in 2 in (7.37 m). Herzogin Cecilie was built for Norddeutscher Lloyd
Norddeutscher Lloyd
Norddeutsche Lloyd was a German shipping company. It was founded by Hermann Henrich Meier and Eduard Crüsemann in Bremen on February 20, 1857. It developed into one of the most important German shipping companies of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and was instrumental in the economic...
Bremen
Bremen
The City Municipality of Bremen is a Hanseatic city in northwestern Germany. A commercial and industrial city with a major port on the river Weser, Bremen is part of the Bremen-Oldenburg metropolitan area . Bremen is the second most populous city in North Germany and tenth in Germany.Bremen is...
. Unlike other contemporary German merchant sailing ships, the black Flying-P-Liners or the green ships of Rickmers, she was painted in white. She was one of the fastest windjammer
Windjammer
A windjammer is the ultimate type of large sailing ship with an iron or for the most part steel hull, built to carry cargo in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century...
s ever built: she logged 21 knots at Skagen
Skagen
Skagen is a projection of land and a town, with a population of 8,515 , in Region Nordjylland on the northernmost tip of Vendsyssel-Thy, a part of the Jutland peninsula in northern Denmark...
.
The tall ship
Tall ship
A tall ship is a large, traditionally-rigged sailing vessel. Popular modern tall ship rigs include topsail schooners, brigantines, brigs and barques. "Tall Ship" can also be defined more specifically by an organization, such as for a race or festival....
s of the time remained competitive against the steamers only on the longer trade routes: the Chilean Salpeterfahrt nitrate trade, carrying salpeter
Salpeter
Salpeter may refer to:*Nitre*11757 SalpeterPeople with the last name Salpeter* Edwin Ernest Salpeter , U.S. astronomer* Greta Salpeter , U.S. musician...
from Chile
Chile
Chile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...
to Europe, and the Australian Weizenfahrt wheat trade, carrying grain from Australia to Europe. Both routes required rounding Cape Horn
Cape Horn
Cape Horn is the southernmost headland of the Tierra del Fuego archipelago of southern Chile, and is located on the small Hornos Island...
routinely, and were not well suited for steamers, as coal was in short supply there.
Herzogin Cecilie was one of the fastest merchant sailing ships of her time, on a par with the Flying-P-Liners. The trip around Cape Horn
Cape Horn
Cape Horn is the southernmost headland of the Tierra del Fuego archipelago of southern Chile, and is located on the small Hornos Island...
from Portland (Oregon
Oregon
Oregon is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is located on the Pacific coast, with Washington to the north, California to the south, Nevada on the southeast and Idaho to the east. The Columbia and Snake rivers delineate much of Oregon's northern and eastern...
) to The Lizard
The Lizard
The Lizard is a peninsula in south Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. The most southerly point of the British mainland is near Lizard Point at ....
(England) was done in 1903 in only 106 days.
At the outbreak of World War I, she was interned by Chile
Chile
Chile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...
, returning to Germany in 1920, only to be given to France as reparation, and subsequently sold to Gustaf Erikson
Gustaf Erikson
Gustaf Adolf Mauritz Erikson was a ship-owner from Mariehamn, in the Åland islands, famous for the fleet of windjammers he operated to the end of his life, mainly on the grain trade from Australia to Europe....
(24 October 1872 – 15 August 1947) of Finland
Finland
Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...
for $20,000. She was homeported at Mariehamn
Mariehamn
Mariehamn is the capital of Åland, an autonomous territory under Finnish sovereignty. Mariehamn is the seat of the Government and Parliament of Åland, and 40% of the population of Åland live in the city...
.
As the freight rates for salpeter had dropped after the war, Gustaf Erikson sent her to bring grain from Australia. In so-called grain race
Grain race
Grain Race or The Great Grain Race was the informal name for the annual windjammer sailing season generally from South Australia's grain ports on Spencer Gulf to Lizard Point, Cornwall on the southwesternmost coast of the United Kingdom, or to specific ports...
s, several tall ships tried to arrive first in Europe, to sell their cargo for a higher price, as told, for example, in The Great Tea Race of 1866
The Great Tea Race of 1866
The Great Tea Race of 1866 was an unofficial competition between the fastest clipper ships of the China tea trade to bring the season's first crop of tea to London in 1866....
or The Last Grain Race
The Last Grain Race
The Last Grain Race is a 1956 book by Eric Newby, a travel writer, about his time spent on the four-masted steel barque Moshulu during the vessel's last voyage in the Australian grain trade.- Background to the book :...
. Typically, ships were loaded in the Spencer Gulf
Spencer Gulf
The Spencer Gulf is the westernmost of two large inlets on the southern coast of Australia, in the state of South Australia, facing the Great Australian Bight. The Gulf is 322 km long and 129 km wide at its mouth. The western shore of the Gulf is the Eyre Peninsula, while the eastern side is the...
area, Port Victoria, South Australia
Port Victoria, South Australia
Port Victoria is a town on the Spencer Gulf coast of southern Yorke Peninsula. At the 2006 census, Port Victoria had a population of 345.Like many other coastal towns on the peninsula, it has a jetty and used to be a thriving port for the export of grain to England. Its anchorage is sheltered from...
or Wallaroo, South Australia
Wallaroo, South Australia
Wallaroo is a port town on the western side of Yorke Peninsula in South Australia, 160 kilometres north-northwest of Adelaide. It is one of the three Copper Triangle towns famed for their historic shared copper mining industry, and known together as "Little Cornwall", the other two being Kadina ...
, and travelled to Europe, with ports on the British Isles like Queenstown, Ireland or Falmouth, Cornwall
Falmouth, Cornwall
Falmouth is a town, civil parish and port on the River Fal on the south coast of Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It has a total resident population of 21,635.Falmouth is the terminus of the A39, which begins some 200 miles away in Bath, Somerset....
being considered as the finish. The ship also passed by Queensland
Queensland
Queensland is a state of Australia, occupying the north-eastern section of the mainland continent. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Australia and New South Wales to the west, south-west and south respectively. To the east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Sea and Pacific Ocean...
where she was photographed.
After "winning" four times prior to 1921, she again won the grain race four times in eleven trips from 1926 to 1936.
In 1927, when Herzogin Cecilie covered Port Lincoln (South Australia) – Queenstown in 98 days, Alan Villiers
Alan Villiers
Captain Alan John Villiers was an author, adventurer, photographer and Master Mariner.Born in Melbourne, Australia, he first went to sea at age 15 and sailed all the world's oceans on board traditionally rigged vessels, including the full rigged ship Joseph Conrad...
was on board, which would result in his book Falmouth for Orders, and later a trip aboard the barque Parma
Parma (barque)
Parma was a four-masted steel-hulled barque which was built in 1902 as Arrow for the Anglo-American Oil Co Ltd, London. In 1912 she was sold to F. Laeisz, Hamburg, Germany. During the First World War she was interned in Chile, and postwar was assigned to the United Kingdom as war reparations. She...
.
Ipswich
Ipswich is a large town and a non-metropolitan district. It is the county town of Suffolk, England. Ipswich is located on the estuary of the River Orwell...
in dense fog, when, on 25 April 1936, she grounded on Ham Stone Rock and drifted onto the cliffs of Bolt Head
Bolt Head
Bolt Head is a National Trust headland on the South Coast of Devon, Britain, situated west of the Kingsbridge Estuary.-External links:*...
on the south Devon coast. After parts of the cargo were unloaded, she was floating again, only to be towed in June 1936 to Starhole (Starehole) Bay at the mouth of the nearby Kingsbridge Estuary
Kingsbridge Estuary
The Kingsbridge Estuary is located in the South Hams area of Devon, England, running from Kingsbridge in the north to its mouth at the English Channel near Salcombe...
near Salcombe
Salcombe
Salcombe is a town in the South Hams district of Devon, south west England. The town is close to the mouth of the Kingsbridge Estuary, built mostly on the steep west side of the estuary and lies within the South Devon Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty...
, and beached there. On 18 January 1939, the ship capsized and sank. The remains of the ship sit at a depth of 7 metres at 50°12.82′N 3°47.02′W.
Official Numbers and Code Letters
Official Numbers were a forerunner to IMO NumbersIMO ship identification number
The IMO ship identification number is made of the three letters "IMO" followed by the seven-digit number assigned to all ships by IHS Fairplay when constructed. This is a unique seven digit number that is assigned to propelled, sea-going merchant ships of 100 GT and above...
. Herzogin Cecilie had the Finnish Official Number 703 and used the Code Letters
Code letters
Code letters were a method of identifying ships before the introduction of modern navigation aids. Later, with the introduction of radio, code letters were also used as radio callsigns.-History:...
TPMK.
Sources
- Peter Pedersen & Joseph Conrad (1989). Strandung und Schiffbruch. Mit Entscheidungen der Seeämter des Deutschen Reiches. Bechtemünz Verlag: Augsburg. ISBN 3-86047-245-3
- Fred Schmidt & Dietrich Reimer (1942). Schiffe und Schicksale. Andrews & Steiner: Berlin.
- Clamp, Arthur L., The Loss of the Herzogin Cecilie on Ham Stone 25th, Plymouth
- Colton, J. Ferrell, Loss of the "Herzogin Cecilie", Sea Breezes Vol. 65 No. 536, August 1990 p. 586
- Cormack, Neil W., Herzogin Cecilie, The Flagship of the Gustaf Erikson Fleet of Mariehamn: 1921–1936, N.W. Cormack 1996, ISBN 0-646-29834-8
- Cresswell, John P., The Loss of the Herzogin Cecilie, Artscape, Cornwall 1994
- Darch, Malcolm, Herzogin Cecilie, the story of her charthouse 1936–1988. Ålands Sjöfart & Handel 5/88 s. 272–273
- Lindfors, Harald, Round The Horn In The Herzogin Cecilie In 1922, Ålands Sjöfart 2/76 s. 56–59
- McNeill, Robert B., Beatrice vs. Herzogin Cecilie, A most Curious "Race Round the Horn", New York 2001, Exxon Mobil Marine Lubricants. Volume LXXI, No. 1, 2001, of "The Compass", The Magazine of the Sea. 32 PP with b/w and colour illustrations.
- Tod, Giles M.S., Herzogin Cecilie gets in a "Breeze", Sea Breezes Vol. XIX. No. 189 August 1935
- Alan VilliersAlan VilliersCaptain Alan John Villiers was an author, adventurer, photographer and Master Mariner.Born in Melbourne, Australia, he first went to sea at age 15 and sailed all the world's oceans on board traditionally rigged vessels, including the full rigged ship Joseph Conrad...
, Falmouth for Orders. The Story of the Last Clipper Ship Race around Cape Horn, Geoffrey Bles, London 1929 - Alan VilliersAlan VilliersCaptain Alan John Villiers was an author, adventurer, photographer and Master Mariner.Born in Melbourne, Australia, he first went to sea at age 15 and sailed all the world's oceans on board traditionally rigged vessels, including the full rigged ship Joseph Conrad...
, The Cape Horn Grain-ship Race, Washington. 1933, National Geographic MagazineNational Geographic MagazineNational Geographic, formerly the National Geographic Magazine, is the official journal of the National Geographic Society. It published its first issue in 1888, just nine months after the Society itself was founded...
. Extract from: volume LXIII, No.1, January 1933.39 pp., with 38 b/w photos (13 on full page). - Alan VilliersAlan VilliersCaptain Alan John Villiers was an author, adventurer, photographer and Master Mariner.Born in Melbourne, Australia, he first went to sea at age 15 and sailed all the world's oceans on board traditionally rigged vessels, including the full rigged ship Joseph Conrad...
, Last of Windships - Pamela Bourne Eriksson, The Life and Death of the Duchess
- Pamela Bourne, Out of The World
- Elis Karlsson, Pully Haul
- Elis Karlsson, Mother Sea
- W.L. Leclercq, Wind in de Zeilen
- Elisabeth Rogge-Ballehr, Schule der See Viermastbark Herzogin Cecilie
- W.L.A. Derby, The Tall Ships Pass
- Basil Greenhill & John Hackmann, Herzogin Cecilie
- Harold A. Underhill, Sail Training and Cadet Ships