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

In September, 1957, the 'Pamir' left Buenos Aires for Hamburg with a cargo of barley. She carried a crew of 35 and 51 cadets. On the 21st when about 600 miles W. of the Azores she ran into a hurricane which blew away her canvas so that she no longer possessed sufficient sail to keep head-on to the sea. Messages calling for immediate assistance were sent, in response to which a number of ships in the area went to her aid. Time, however, was short, and sometime during the night the 'Pamir' was forced over on to her side and submerged by the violence of the hurricane.

Of those on board only six survived, of whom five were picked up from a waterlogged lifeboat by the U.S. steamship 'Saxon', 7,251 tons, and transferred later to the U.S. transport 'Geiger', 17,600 tons, which landed them at Casablanca. The other survivor was rescued by the U.S. coastguard cutter 'Absecon', 1,766 tons, and transferred to the french liner 'Antiles', 19,828 tons, which landed him at Puerto Rico. [799]

1951 - A newspaper report of Pamir and Passat at Penarth Dock.

'Last Grain Race' - A report from the Liverpool Nautical Research Society of Thursday, 13th October, was the date of the first meeting of the 1966/67 season, held in Liverpool Museums, William Brown Street. The subject was the 'Last Grain Race' by G. E. Rodger, an Australian from Adelaide, now resident in Birkenhead.

Mr. Rodger shipped in the PASSAT in 1949 when she lay at Port Victoria in the Spencer Gulf, loading grain for Europe. Also loading was the PAMIR, another four-masted barque which, like the PASSAT, had been built for the Laiesz Line of Hamburg, owners of the 'P' ships, among which were the giant five masters PREUSSEN and the POTOSI, the former a full-rigged ship, the latter a barque.