Almost a year ago the pilot schooner No. 5 ELBE was loaded onto a coaster at Hachmannkai after the accident on the Elbe and transported to Denmark for repairs.

After arriving at the Danish shipyard “Hvide Sande,” the pilot schooner was brought ashore and the damage assessment began. The supervision of the repair work on the gutted wooden hull of the No.5 ELBE was carried out by an expert office that accompanied the process on site in close cooperation with the Hamburg Maritime Foundation and association members “Friends of the Pilot Schoner No.5 ELBE e.V.”

The copper plates were removed from the collision point in the front area of ​​the fuselage and the planks below were examined. The interior walling, interior planking on the frames, was dismantled to determine the number of frames to be replaced. The collision damage to the keel and keel pig was also located. In the following months, the necessary structural repair work on the damaged area was carried out professionally by the shipyard.

In the meantime, the copper plates have been attached to the keel and underwater hull with bronze nails, thus completing the repair of the collision damage.

On September 22, 2020, the pilot schooner was launched and the approval for hauling it back to Hamburg on its own keel was issued by the responsible authorities. In the following days, the weather forecasts were evaluated in order to find a suitable time window for the time-consuming towing.

At 10:50 this morning the time had come and the tug BUGSIER 15 set course for Hamburg with the NO.5 ELBE. The pilot schooner is expected to arrive on the Bremer Kai in the Hansahafen on October 7, 2020 between 5:00 p.m. and 6:00 p.m.

“We are very satisfied with the shipyard’s repair work and are pleased that the No.5 ELBE can now be relocated back to Hamburg. The reconstruction of the interior and the rigging as well as the renewal of the ship technology will take place at the Bremer Kai ”, reports Markus Söhl, board member of the Hamburg Maritime Foundation.

Information on the pilot schooner No.5 ELBE can be found here:
https://stiftung-hamburg-maritim.de/schiffe/no-5-elbe.html

Pilot schooner No.5 ELBE at a glance

The 37-meter-long two-master is not only the oldest ship of the Hamburg Maritime Foundation, it is also the oldest seagoing ship in Hamburg made entirely of wood. The pilot schooner was built in 1883 in order to bring pilots on board ships heading for Hamburg in one of the roughest sea areas in the world. After a checkered history in which the ship u. a. After circling Cape Horn, the Hamburg Maritime Foundation brought the ship back to Hamburg in 2002 and restored it. The pilot saver No.5 ELBE is operated by honorary members of the association “Friends of the pilot saver No.5 ELBE e.V.”

As the oldest seagoing ship built entirely from wood, the pilot schooner is part of the maritime heritage of the Hanseatic City of Hamburg. In June 2019 the pilot schooner collided with a container feeder ship on the Elbe. All 43 passengers were saved thanks to the dedicated efforts of helpers from the DLRG and the fire brigade. As to the reasons that led to the collision with the container ship, the results of the official investigations must be awaited. After the accident, the pilot schooner No. 5 ELBE was emptied at the Peters shipyard in Wewelsfleth and cleaned of the silt that had entered. The damage caused by the collision on the hull of the ship was professionally sealed so that No.5 ELBE could be towed back to Hamburg on its own keel. From there, the pilot schooner went to Denmark on October 23, 2019 to the “Hvide Sande Shipyard”. The shipyard was entrusted with the professional repair of the wooden hull.

Hamburg Maritime Foundation

The Hamburg Maritim Foundation was established in 2001 by the Hamburgische Landesbank at the initiative of the Hamburg Chamber of Commerce. It is a legal foundation under civil law and pursues exclusively and directly charitable purposes. The aim of the foundation is not only to preserve evidence of the maritime history of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg, but to keep it functional and make it accessible to a broad public.
The repair of the pilot schooner No. 5 ELBE was made possible by funds from the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media and the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg.