PASSAT AHOY
The four-masted barque, PASSAT, rests majestically at anchor in Travemünde’s Passat harbour as an emblem of Travemünde. It once belonged to the fleet of legendary Hamburg shipping company Ferdinand Laeisz whose “Flying P-liners” were known throughout the world. 66 of the company’s 86 ships were given a name starting with the letter “P” after the nickname of the wife of Carl Laeisz who was known as “Poodle”. These steel giants were particularly at home on the stage around the stormy Cape Horn during the so-called saltpeter journey transporting saltpeter from Chile to Europe. Today, the PASSAT is a floating memorial to seafaring on which you can spend the night and even tie the knot. Below deck, it offers cabins and holds which were once used to transport corn and guano fertilisers besides saltpeter. A visit to the maritime museum in the belly of the ship is particularly to be recommended; the exhibition is based on the diaries of the ship’s boy Herbert Schäuffler who was hired to work on the windjammer in 1923.