Sailboat Rickmer Rickmers

The tall ship Rickmer Rickmers was built as a full-rigged ship in Bremerhaven in 1896 and put into service. The ship was 97 metres long and the total area of all the sails was 3,500 m2. The ship was named after the ship owner’s grandson. The first voyage of the Rickmer Rickmers went from Bremerhaven to Hong Kong and the ship returned loaded with rice and bamboo. Eleven long, eventful voyages followed. Once, in 1903, the ship got caught in a typhoon and lost one of its masts. However, it was able to make for the harbour of Cape Town and was saved. In order to make better progress, it was fitted with different sails and re-rigged as a barque. It returned to Bremerhaven in December 1904, two months later than planned. In 1912 the Rickmer Rickmers was sold to a Hamburg shipping company and sailed to Chile under the new name of “Max”. During a stopover in the Azores in 1916 the ship was confiscated and placed at the disposal of the E