The Flying P-Liners
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 9 ก.พ. 2025
- The Flying P-Liners were the sailing ships of the German shipping company F. Laeisz of Hamburg. Most of them were used to transport salpetre from Chile to Europe but also to trade with Australia and New Zealand. Their names originated from the company's habit to give ship's names which start with the letter "p". Some are famous like the "Preußen" for being one of the biggest sailing ships in the world others were famous for their tragic loss like "Pamir" in 1957. Today only 4 Flying P-Liners remain: Pommern, Passat, Peking and ex Padua also known as Russian training ship Krusenstern.
In 1958, when I was 6, my mom took me to see the film WINDJAMMER about a cruise of the Norwegian sail training ship Christian Radich. I was so enthralled, she bought me the accompanying book by Alan Villiers, which included a passage on the loss of the Pamir in 1956 (80 lost, 6 survivors), which was still on the public consciousness at the time. It was years until I could read and comprehend it, but I treasure it still. In 1964, I went to see the first Operation Sail in New York Harbor - convinced that would be the last time in history such an event would occur. As a bonus, on the ferry trip from New Jersey to New York, I got to see the SS United States putting to sea bound for Southampton. With that you would think I became a naval officer, but I ended up having a career as an Army officer. BUT, I was able to get leave and attend the Statue of Liberty Bicentenial and its Parade of Ships over twenty years later.
And that's very good, but Ch R has NOTHING IN COMMON with windjammers at all. By the way, the ship's surgeon of the Pamir worked during her last voyage preparing materiał for a film on windjammers. NOW pit od four remaining windjammers of Laeisz Co. no less than two are now in Germany, one in Mariehamn Aaland, and one still in service.
In the early 1980's i stayed in a boarding house in Wellington NZ. Whilst there i had the pleasure of meeting Karl Nustrom a Norwegian who once was a sailor aboard the Pamir. I was only 16yrs old at the time and i guess he was in his mid 50's. A big solid and tough quietly spoken man who spoke fairly good english. He used to enthral me with storie's of his time at sea and the place's he'd been...i remember he used to eat thick slice's of bread that he would bake himself and sardine's in oil washed down with vinegar...one of the very few people i have met over the coarse of my life that left an indelible impression on me....i was befriended by someone who was descended from the Viking's and i am so proud and honoured to have known this man....!
Sir you are very lucky
I salute you...
Beautiful video of all these great ships.. My father sailed on the L'Avenir as a trainer. This ship sailed out of Antwerp as a training ship. It was rigged identicle to the Pamir. I remember my dad talking about her when he was still alive... May they all be remembered..........
I think an update on the Peking is in order: It was in desolate condition and sold in 2016 for USD 1.00 to a German foundation ”Hamburg Maritim” which brought it back to Germany at great cost. Currently it is being painstakingly restored at a shipyard close to Hamburg and will be part of a collection of Museum ships at the newly founded Hamburg port museum probably from fall 2020 - COVID permittig.
The Peking got her well earned "new Life" back home.
Thanks for the update, i believe Peking and Passat are true Sisterships.
On my last trip to Germany in 2008 i went to Travemunde and spend a whole Day on the Passat.
In the 60th i was a Mate in the German Merchant Navy and learned all about the P-Liners.
In 1992 i bought a 30ft. Sailboat and named it Passat, she still sailes the Pacific-Northwest.
Peking is currently at Peters Werft shipyard in Wewelsfleth, Germany.
Peking was at South Street in New York. They had quite a collection of ships in the 70s, and I've heard grumblings of corruption on the Board of South Street. This makes me worry about the Wavertree which I hope is not being neglected in New York.
Let us not forget FENNIA. Abandoned in the Falklands "rescued" By San Francisco Maritime Museum only to be scrapped in Uruguay, when the museum failed to pay its bills.
It is hard to believe but my granddad was born in 1884 and from he was 16 in 1900 till about 1905 he sailed on voyages out of both Hamburg and Cardiff with sailing ships to Australia for Grain and Chile for saltpeter. They may have been graceful and non polluting but he always told me that it was a HARD life. Especially rounding the horn was hard and dangerous. He told me that when you were up in the rigging it was one hand for yourself and one for the sail. When aloft they almost never wore shoes as bare feet gripped better; even in winter.
Nah, it’s totally believable. Assuming you’re in your 70's more or less, it’s quite likely you had a grandparent born in the 1880's, and casually had the privilege of sailing these ships.
Wieder einmal beeindruckende Bilder fantastisch zusammengestellt.
Man bekommt Sehnsucht nach einer Reise auf solch einem genialen Segelschiff.
Liebe Grüße
Andy
I worked on the first restoration of bark Peking in 1975/76; and have visited the other surviving P-Liners. The bark Pommern is amazingly original.
I sailed with a bosun who did 2 grain trips on the Passat in 47/48. I loved listening to his stories.
I just got interested in reading about these ships and have been on a TH-cam binge, I can’t wrap my mind around that sailing cargo ships overlapped with supersonic rocket planes.
my grandad born in 1899, told me he went to sydney harbour as a 6 year old and all he saw were sailing ships.
Not only there. All harbor cities around the world were filled up with them.
That was great. The music was absolutely spot on.
Yes absolutely beautiful. I was watching it tonight performed by the Berlin Philharmonic. As for the ships nitrates and tea plus wheat were their cargoes. Australian author Alan Villiers has written some wonderful books on voyages round Cape Horn. Shortening sail in a blow over 100' above a heaving deck, crawling out on the yards was not for the faint hearted, just one slip, and no chance of rescue.
Hi, their Pamir was to become the World's second five-masted, full-rigged ship. Or at least she is said so. Passat and Peking are twins. Padua is the World's last sailing multimasted freighter built. And the contemporary Star Clipper is of Polish origin. ♍
Finnish shipowner Gustaf Erikson used to own three of those Flying P's after the germans and practically was last shipowner to operate windjammers in commercial trade in the thirties. He had Passat, Pommern and Pamir which he purchased during 1920'ties from Laeisz. Among of 40+ other windjammers he used to own plus about 50+ windjammers he partially owned, he was actually the largest operator of windjammers in the world. Sadly everything good comes to the end and in the late thirties he had only 15 windjammers and during the second world war he lost many vessels either by destroyed or confiscated. After the war he had only three big ships left: Pommern, Passat and Viking and was out of money and could not repair them. He also tried to get three confiscated ships back but without luck. He died 1947. Confisticated ships were Pamir, Moshulu, Archibald Russell and Lawhill. Today, most likely, we would not have Pommern and Passat to see live without Gustaf's interest and love of those windjammers. They would have been dismantled already in the late 1920s.
Edit: Small clip about Gustaf Erikson and his legacy: th-cam.com/video/zZOrvmsaHxM/w-d-xo.html
Met a four-master under full sail on the South Atlantic in 74'. A truly magnificent sight, on a beautiful day.
Thanks. It was great to see all the ships of this very famous company! Beautiful photos especially. :-)
Great video, set to some great music. Thanks for uploading it.
Beautiful ships in the twilight of sail, the likes of which have long passed and except for a lucky few are now relegated to the history books. Well done!
Absolutely Majestic Beauties of the seas!
An excellent video about famous company! You must, however also acknowledge one of their most famous Captains. Many of the most famous Laeisz ships including Parnass, Parsifal, Professor, Pirat, Pergamon, Palmyra, Placilla, Pitlochry and finally most famously Potosi were Captained by the legendary Robert Hilgendorf also knows as "Teufel von Hamburg"
My Dad did the last two journeys on the Passat, god bless him, but i have real nice Fotos of his last trip, even those of the last Storm near the "azores" when the Pamir sunk.
Passat was lucky.
Beautiful ships! Excellent presentation. So many lost, the music made it more dramatic and sad.
Maybe also worth mentioning that the Pudel was the first of the Flying P-liners, named affectionately after the owner’s (F. Laeisz) wife, who bore this nickname because of her favourite hairstyle. From then on the tradition was borne to christen all his ships with names starting with P.
Wow what magnificent ships. Should do one on the P ships still afloat. Thanks for sharing.
Best Wishes n Blessings Keith
Music is Rimsky-Korsakov’s “Scheherazade”.
th-cam.com/video/17lEx0ytE_0/w-d-xo.html
Neat! The Kruzenshtern!
I have a small framed image with this magnificent tall ship since 2001, and did not know anything about her till around 2009, when I had the chance to personally admire her while going through the Gatun locks at the Panama Canal, while I was working as a cruise ship photographer for Carnival Cruise Lines. I will have to post one photo with her on Flickr, as well, like I did with the gorgeous Seacloud II back in Puerto Limon, Costa Rica.
I have met some of the people who lived that life. I was in my early teens and late 20s. They were solid and in their late 80s. It has always fascinated me. Days gone forever. CWA
If im correct, "just" four Ladys survived till today, Passat, Pommern, Peking and the now called Kruzenshtern (Padua). Im more than happy to see these beautys still active. At least one as a sailing ship, the others as important historical Attractions.
Delivering goods and people around the world in beautiful ships with almost no pollution or noise. Shouldn’t this be the future rather than the past?
Darn hard to do if you have nobody left to build or man them.
Ability to travel dependant on wind, it's very slow, and man power intensive.
Dave Menche Yes, obviously. We have no time to waste these days and the human physical effort and danger of sailing those ships is no longer acceptable. We must have what we want, right now.
Unfortunately this also means that we will soon destroy our planet. Oh well.
@@majordendrocopos We won't destroy our planet, but as a cancer or plague its environment we are very rapidly destroying its ability to support us. The greed and ignorance of 7.5 billion people is a natural phenomenon over which no one has any control. It has to run its course. We all know another big human die off is coming. Only time will tell if this die off comes soon enough to leave enough of our environment to support some survivors. Good luck.
I was on board of "Kruzenshtern" ("Padua") in 1976. I was the cadet and we took part of "Operation Sail 76". Our race began in the Riga the first port of destination was Plimouth. Here the the first part of official race of "Opiration Sail 76" started to the Santa Cruse de Tenerife. The second part was from Santa Cruse de Tenerife to Bermuda. The third part part was from Bermuda to New-York. In New York official race finished. From New York we return to Santa Cruse and then to Riga. In New York was a parade. It was the first transatlantic race after a very long rebuilding our Tall Ship.
Dear Sir, just a note to clarify the destiny of the "Priwall". This sailing ship was in Valparaiso, Chile when WWII broke out and later the Nazi government gave it to the Chilean Navy in 1941.This ship was transformed in the Chilean Navy Training Ship "Lautaro" were it served until 1945 were it was lost in a fire at sea, carrying Nitrate to the USA off the coast of the port of Callao, Perú.
Ah, I didn't know that. Thanks a lot for sharing.
+Gonzalo Lagarini The Priwall's demise, according to audio recordings of a Capt. Brenner (from Port Hamburg who sailed the nitrate trade from 1919-24 on the Priwall, Passat, and Parma), occurred off the coast of San Francisco. He had sat with my grandfather (sailed Moshulu) in 1982 and relived a few stories. He spoke of the Priwall being located in Valparaiso, as Gonzalo mentions, under the German flag come WWII, eventually given as a gift to the Chilean government by the Nazis in hopes of gaining the neutral country's alliance. Chile going on to enter the war on the side of the alliances, had then sent the ship to San Francisco to be outfitted with 2 - 4000HP diesel engines and being renamed Lautaro. Upon her maiden test voyage, reaching about 200 miles off the coast, the ship blew up. Most thought sabotage from what Brenner mentions, you could even speculate Germany's involvement either that or just simple faulty installation of the engines. Lots of neat stories though, hope it helps direct some insight.
Dear Sir, sorry to say but what you have mentioned is not correct, I am a Navy retired officer of the Chilean Navy and have the detail history of the last moments of this splendid sailing ship. She shipped off Valparaiso on the 28th of February (summer season) on her training trip to Mexico and the USA with new midshipman and sailors. Also she was carrying nitrate as cargo. As she was sailing off the coast of Perú heading north, the inner quarters of ship was beginning to turn very hot, and it was decided to widen a ventilation shaft to have better ventilation. The XO threw a par of keys in the ventilation shaft to see were it landed, (it is important to say that, since it was a gift from the Nazi Government, the Chilean Navy did not have the detail plans of the ship) as it landed in a safe area, the cutting was authorised. Unfortunately, that ventilation shaft had another direction towards the cargo bay were the nitrate was being transported.. an unfortunate spark started a fire, which finally sealed her fate. So as you can see, it was not a sabotage, it was a terrible accident at sea. 21 Officers and seamen lost their lives trying to save the ship. The rest of the crew spend 32 hours at sea waiting to be rescued. As the sailing ship was being towed to the port of Callao, she sunk.
+Gonzalo Lagarini Thank you for the correction Gonzalo. A tragedy either way.
The flying liners so. immaculately build and a delight to watch love all of them thnk u
The Chilean Navy has a long tradition in sailing ships...you can see her actual and beautiful Training Ship "Esmeralda" a Spanish built Barquentine...the Chilean Navy calls her "The White Lady"
The PEKING is not in New York anymore. Its completly restored and back in her home in Hamburg Germany!
Gottseidank.
It is restored, but not into a seaworthy condition.
and 2018/2019, the "Peking" is coming back to Germany. Now it has been restored and is now in the museum.
If you read the book “The Last Grain Race” by Eric Newby, you’ll learn exactly how life was on board of these magnificent ships!
Indeed, I’ve read this book and he described the hardships very clearly. Still, he did say in his latter years that his time under sail was the happiest days of his life. Perhaps the passage of time makes things seem less harsh.
As it seems, the PEKING will leave New York for Hamburg in the near future. The German Government has given funds for a harbour museum here in town, including a budget for purchasing PEKING and transport her on a dockship (due to her pitiful state) to Hamburg for restoration and display.
Yes now in 2020 the Peking is fresh restored and we will get her back in Hamburg next month.
Very excellent. I enjoyed this video.
Excellent video, my compliments!
In 1958. I Treated Myself TO Windjammer And 20.000 Leagues Under The Sea. Double Bill Program. London Tottenham Court Road. My 18th Birthday. Tracked All Updates Now! Still Stunning Ships! My Xmas Card Design too.
Loved the ships. So graceful.
Steel ships, steel rigging, never failed to round the horn on the first try, in the Clilean trade. Record 89 day passage from the lizard to Chile. In a gale they kept sail up to go fast.
Scherezade is magnificent music to accompany the photos of these great ships.
Scheherazade, The Sea and Sinbad's Ship (in a storm) is beautiful dramatic music! A tale of forgotten arab navigators that made a commerce with the orient and took Islam to remote places like Indonesia.
th-cam.com/video/17lEx0ytE_0/w-d-xo.html
Beautiful Video. I knew some of the ships in the video were bought by Gustaf Eriksen . If only we still had them today . Still it's good that some have survived even if they sail no longer .
Beautiful and well suiting music, thanks!
@DrGull1888 Yes it can be dived, but with difficulty as its a long way from anywhere, and sits at the east end of the shipping lanes in the english channel. The bell was recovered a few years ago.
Those were the days. It did not take a young lad to become a man in a short time. They learned the hard way
A correction - Passat became a museum ship long before 1978. I don't know exactly when but I remember visiting as a child in the 1960s.
Passat was purchased by her current owner in 1959
yes oh the Priwall
I just got a model of "Pamir". I look forward to building her!
Back in the 70's I sailed in two ex Laiez ships. Pelion and Parnassus. A female passenger asked one day in the saloon, what the significance of the FL on the crockery was. ( the introductory frame is of the company logo on the crockery) Straight-faced, I told her the previous owners were in the bulk contraceptive trade. She responded with a big eyed "Oh!". The old man was apopleptic and tore a strip off me after she left the table. :-)
I heartily recommend Alan Villiers’ books, most especially “The Way of a Ship”.
Excellent book. Romantic and technical at the same time.
Don't forget Dana two years before the mast
Info on display a little too short time!
@phuck ewe 🤣
All the greater details can always be googled.
Pause/play button is space bar.
Pamir, my ship mate was the cook on this ship in 1947 and sailed around Cape horn back to the Atlantic may be 1948, he told some great stories, some of them horrific when in gales amazing sailers back then
Funny how the World once relied on Wind and Solar, going backwards seems like History repeating itself! The death toll was enormous, life was brutal yet the ships were breath taking
This song was played in the movie "The Man With One Red Shoe", with Tom Hanks, and it was great :)
Great Sailing Ship, great people who sailed it.
"Holds as big as cathederals" I read somewhere!
👏😎👌 Beautiful Ships
These huge wooden ships are rare im sailing with a 60feet wooden ship called agape 75 years old im the captains left hand, and these ships are very rare so its an honor to see they a still renembered
I think most of these ships had / have hulls of steel. At least "Pommern" has.
All steel, l believe.
4:12 Look at how unbelievably high she's riding in the water.
Bellissimo!!!
If you're interested in this read Eric Newby's 'The Last Grain Race'. It will blow your mind!
Yes, it's a nice book! Some additional info: in 1939 at the age of 18, Eric Newby (later known as a travel writer) set sail aboard Moshulu as an apprentice seaman and he wrote 2 nice books full of characteristic English humour about his personal experience of this cruise:
- Eric Newby: The Last Grain Race (ISBN: 9780007597833)
- Eric Newby: Learning the Ropes - An Apprentice in the Last of the Windjammers (ISBN: 9780719556364)
Thanks for the video :-)
Great book. New by wrote some wonderful travel books including Slowly Down The Ganges, a interesting and funny account of a raft trip down the Ganges river.
Read my repeatedly copy till it’s falling apart. Tremendous read. Moshulu. And Newby was just one one of many apprentices on all of those ships in that last race, including some women. All were seeking the thrill of life before the mast, and knew war was imminent.
I recommend "The Way of a Ship" by Alan Villiers.
yes the introduction says it all, to have been on deck of a little lime juice bark and see the Preussen fly past
I recommend Villiers book, too. He actually worked during the last days of commercial sail.
@@gregleonard1562 Treat yourself visit the Eriksson/ Laiesz iron barque "Pommern" in Mariehamm, then the "Passat" in Travemünde and later the "Peking" now in Hamburg.
Try putting the description of the ships on a little longer
hard to read the text that fast
agree with your comment. it is still a good video
Very true, I just slowed the video down a smidge.
@Wal Leece Re-read my post.
I never said the description was inaccurate
and now Peking has just been moved from her berth in New York to commence her journey back to Hamburg. Hopefully she will undergo a good refit there.
When is the date for her dry docking?
I don't know. we will have to watch out for her on social media.
Only time will tell...
A few houres ago, the Peking embarked on a Parade of ships along the Elbe at home in Hamburg. She is beautyfully restored.
The Peking has now arrived in Hamburg, perfectly restored. As good as new.
I have the book The Last Grain Race. Awesome
l used to be friend's with old Sven Joffs, famous yacht captain and in his youth, crew aboard "Pamir."
A good one!
maureen bernhardt ... yes, the Moshulu deserves a mention here, for two reasons: Eric Newby described in great details the life on board these ships, plus he mentions a number of these ships, as they participated in the 1939 grain race.
A wonderful video except for most of the notes staying up for a very short time. I had to back up and let them come up a second time in order to read everything.
Remember seing the "Pamir" in Australia in 1952.
the 3d picture of Preussen II correspond to Potosi, note de 5th mast with gaff rig, definitively the picture is of the potosi
Google the flying clipper. It was build last year in Croatia and it's the biggest ship with sails in the world.
Nice images of a forgotten era. Rimsky Korsakovs music fits in very well, too ... :-)
The Padua was not given to URSS. She was simply stolen.
I have seen Krusenstern in real life, and it is bigger than you can imagine!
We need to bring them back.
Really interesting vid. Well done ... except ... the images are being cycled far too quickly. As someone else pointed out ... just not enough time to enjoy the images, study details, or even read the descriptions. Especially for the elderly!! I couldn't even read half-way through some of the details before the next image popped up!!
The pause button is your friend...
Hey ... yeah ... thanks. Just discovered that a second click on pause eliminates the grey-out. Had always annoyed me that clicking pause almost blanked out the image. Second click on image, anywhere, eliminates the grey out. Thanks again.
Sorry .... To clarify my last .... that SECOND click must be anywhere on the image BUT on the pause idon!
please make more
Amazing ships from another age of sea faring trade.
Corrección to the history of Priwall, she was donated by Germany to the Republic of Chile in 1939 in order to avoid seizure by Allied country. Was renamed Lautaro and sailed as training vessel for the Chilean Navy while performing commercial voyages. On 28th February 1945 while underway in front of Peruvian coast
Loaded with nitrate she had fire in the hold and sunk while being towed to safe port. 20 lives were lost officers, midshipmen and sailors
White print on white background for two seconds What the point?
My great grandfather scratchbuilt the "Preussen" i don`t know some 60 years ago in metal because he worked on this ship. The model is a real showstopper and is secured inside a glassmonter and a high-seas diorama. I don`t know wheather or not it is the Preussen I or II, but if you are interested in seeing the model, i will be glad to send a couple of pictures to you :-) It is not for sale or anything though, but it is a true masterpiece (built over 16 years!) and the sentimental value is huge.
The Pangani is right in the middle of the shipping lanes. This is my attempt at a video of it
By the way Padua is technically not a "ship" but a "barque" because the aft mast is not square rigged.
One picture of the Preussen(2) shows actually the Potosi.........
I think you’re leaving the descriptions up for too long.
So when can we expect to see a sailing ship designed to carry a super tanker load of oil around the world? What would it look like?
I can see it with 50 or 100 vertical wings, no canvas.
I took a few video shots on the Pommern which originally was built for the Flying P Line. She is located as a museum ship in Mariehamn, Aland, in the Baltic sea. The music you can hear are songs which occasionally were heard onboard during their round-the-world grain race.
th-cam.com/video/d6PbB4jPhPI/w-d-xo.html
Tolle Schiffe!
whats the name of the music in this?
Scheherazade by Rimsky-Korsakov.
And all that.....and not one video of a ship actually under way???
high what is the music that is with this video?
Scheherezade by Rimski Korsakov
When a ship has more than three masts what are they named?
Schoner
@@ulloarubke A Schooner is fore -and -Aft rigged.
@@ulloarubke. Number of masts has nothing to do with their name. Rigging decides what kind of sailing vessel it is.
Vessels similar to these should be extant and useful. Technology that serves obselescence and waste serves wealth that destroys its owners or their descendants.
Why Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherezade?
Thomas Sewell....And I have to ask you: why not...Scheherazade is a majestic, moving piece of music; very fitting for majestic, moving sailing ships. What is your dislike for the choice of music?
@@marbleman52 I was wondering why a Russian composition based on Persian themes was used in a piece about German windjammers. And if so, why the Sinbad movement wasn't chosen. I used to play a Scheherazade tape continuously when I was driving through the radio wastelands of the American West. Spain, too.
@@oldgringo2001 You obviously know Scheherazade very well so I understand your initial comment better now. I didn't know the origin of the piece but I always enjoyed listening to it...thus my comment. My respect to you for your knowledge of Scheherazade..!!
Scheherazade, The Sea and Sinbad's Ship (in a storm) is beautiful dramatic music! A tale of forgotten arab navigators that made a commerce with the orient and took Islam to remote places like Indonesia.
th-cam.com/video/jlCjtBsQY3Q/w-d-xo.html
The Sea and Sinbad's Ship is the first part of Scheherazade by Nikolai Rimsky Korsakov. This music fits here in the best way.
You need to do two things: make your captions longer time-wise so one can read tall what you have to say. The other thing is that you should put the captions above the hulls as all sails look much the sam e but hulls are what I want to see, and I'm almost certain others would agree.
I recommend the book by Eric Newby called "The Last Grain Race" about his journey on a four masted barque Moshulu for anyone interested in this subject.
His "Voyage"..... a journey takes place on land ... . 😀✌
The Moshulu is now a restaurant in Philly at Penn's landing
Isn't it France II at 5'36" ??? It is not the same ship that on the picture just before.... She's gat 5 square masts... (i don(t know the name in english sorry...)
Song name please?
One thousand and one sailing ships.
Great video. Thanks. A 5 mast ship is bigger/longer and can take more cargo than a 4 mast ship. But is a 5-6 mast ship better? Faster? More stable?
Kyrre Forland.
I dont think so. The smaller thw vessel, the more maneuverable and stable she will be.
Moshulu?
martin stephenson *Moshulu now a floating restaurant in Philadelphia PA*
Moshulu ex Kurt was not a p-liner. She is now a total disgrace as a floating restaurant
errr, the peking is back in germany now... major refit done by now, will stay in hamburg
Ich war dabei, als die Peking nach Hamburg kam. I was there when the Peking arrived in Hamburg.
From the comments these are all steel ?