Collection of items relating to the barque PASSAT
Date1949-1968
Object numberANMS0504
NameArchive series
MediumPaper
ClassificationsEphemera
Credit LineANMM Collection Gift from Adrian Bush
DescriptionThis collection of 13 items relating to the last voyage of the four masted barque PASSAT, were compiled or written by Gerry Rodger. The series consists of one log kept by Rodger onboard the PASSAT; two accounts of the last voyage/last grain race and one of the history of the PASSAT; one magazine article titled 'Swan Song of the Windjammer'; one photograph of the DRUMBURTON; and seven newspaper clippings relating to the last voyage. The documents span the period 1949 - 1968.HistoryThe four-masted barque PASSAT was built by Blohm & Voss shipyard in Hamburg for the German shipping company F. Laeisz and launched in 1911. After its maiden voyage to the nitrate ports of Chile, the windjammer undertook numerous voyages, shipping general cargo outbound and nitrate home. During World War I PASSAT was interned at Iquique, Chile, given to the French as war repatriation and subsequently bought back by the Laeisz Company. From the 1920s onwards PASSAT continued its voyages as a nitrate carrier until being sold in 1932 to the Gustaf Erikson Line of Finland. From then on, PASSAT became a grain trader and shipped cargo from the Spencer Gulf in South Australia to Europe. During World War II, PASSAT served as a storage ship in Stockholm, before re-entering the grain trade from 1948. In 1949 PASSAT along with another famous windjammer PAMIR, participated in the last ‘Great Grain Race’ from Port Victoria, South Australia around Cape Horn to Europe. In 1951 both PASSAT and PAMIR were sold to Belgian ship breakers due to increasing operating costs, however the German ship owner Heinz Schliewen intervened and bought both ships for use as freight carrying school ships. Ownership of the ships transferred to a German consortium shortly after due to financial troubles, and the PASSAT and PAMIR spent the next five years sailing between Europe and the east coast of South America. In 1957 PASSAT was damaged after being hit by a storm and decommisioned. In 1959 the vessel was purchased and moored at Travemünde, northern Germany and used simultaneously as a museum ship, youth hostel and venue.
