Volume Eight - Pre-Victorian to the present day - more aspects - Pamir and Passat - the end of an era . . .

Then in the spring of 1950 came a last minute reprieve: Pamir and Passat, along with Moshulu and Carl Vinnen were bought by a German consortium headed by shipowner Heinz Schliewen as cargo-carrying sail-training ships, but in fact only Pamir and Passat ever returned to sea. [Passat and Pamir from newspaper reports were moored in Penarth Dock from October 1949 to at least April 1950 - 'Pamir' stayed until March 1951]

During a massive modernisation in Kiel, both ships were fitted with auxiliary engines, power-winches and new spars and rigging at a combined cost of over £1.5 million. It was Heinz Schliewen who recalled: 'Money down the drain.' After making only one cargo run to Rio de Janeiro in 1952 at a thumping loss, both ships were laid up for the next two years.

But apparently there were still hard-headed financiers around who believed that properly handled, sailing freighters could make money: in April 1954, 40 German ship-owners (Laiesz was conspicuously absent), headed by the Scheswig-Holstein state bank, bought Passat and Pamir at auction for a total of DM 620,000.

They both completed five voyages, all at a loss, and in early 1957, the owners agreed to consider whether to decommission both ships in six month's time. In fact fate had already decided the future of the sailing barque Pamir.

On 10th August 1957 she left Buenos Aires for Hamburg with a crew of 86, including 52 cadets, and a loose cargo of 3,780 tons of barley. Forty-two days later, 600 miles south-south-west of the Azores, Pamir capsized and sunk in 30 minutes.

It was the end of a beautiful and charismatic ship - and the beginning of a mystery which, 50 years later, has never been fully solved. Traditional Boats & Tall Ships [278] Issue 48: February/March 2007.

There was a follow-up story in the next issue of Traditional Boats & Tall Ships entitled 'Next: What did happen to the Pamir?' I will try to find a copy! Any offers welcome. Many thanks to the author of the article Mr. Matt Locke.

Next we will review the images available of the ships moored at Penarth Dock together with some postcards from my own collection and from other sources.