The Preussen, one of the few five-masted square-rigged frigates ever built, had a cargo capacity of 8,000 tons and in the year 1910 covered the Taltal-Cuxhaven (Germany) route, via Cape Horn, in 77 days. She carried a crew of 48 men, who had to handle 5,560 m² of sails. The Pamir, a sailing ship whose tragic end we are interested in describing because of its deep human repercussions, was built in Hamburg in 1905, by Bloom and Voss. She was 96.40 m. long with a 14 m. beam; carried nitrate until the year 1914, when the war paralyzed her operation.

After the First World War the "P Line" ships were awarded to different countries as war compensation. At the beginning of 1920, Laiesz bought back six of these ships, including the Pamir, and with them reassembled the nitrate fleet. In 1931, the Pamir was sold to Captain Gustav Erickson of Mariehamn, Aland, Finland, becoming part of Erickson’s "grain fleet" sailing between Wellington and San Francisco.