Cap San Diego at St. Pauli Landungsbrücken, Hamburg (2011) | |
History | |
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Germany | |
Name | Cap San Diego |
Owner | Hamburg Süd |
Route | Germany-South America |
Builder | Deutsche Werft |
Launched | December 15, 1961 |
Maiden voyage | March 29, 1962 |
Homeport | Hamburg |
Identification | IMO number: 5060794 |
Nickname(s) | White Swan of the South Atlantic |
Spain | |
Name | Sangria |
Owner | Ybarra |
Acquired | 1981 |
Identification | IMO number: 5060794 |
Notes | Sold for scrap; city of Hamburg stepped in and purchased her for preservation. |
Germany | |
Name | Cap San Diego |
Owner | Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg |
Acquired | 1986 |
Identification | IMO number: 5060794 |
Fate | Turned over to Hamburger Admiralität foundation for preservation. |
Germany | |
Owner | Hamburger Admiralität |
Operator | Cap San Diego Betriebsgesellschaft mbH |
Acquired | 1987 |
Identification |
|
Status | Museum Ship |
General characteristics | |
Type | Freighter |
Tonnage | 9,998 GRT, 5,728 NRT |
Displacement | 17,470 tons fully loaded |
Length | 159.40 m (523.0 ft) |
Beam | 21.47 m (70.4 ft) |
Installed power | 11,600 hp (8,700 kW) |
Propulsion | MAN two-stroke 9 cylinder diesel engine |
Speed | 20.3 knots (37.6 km/h; 23.4 mph) |
Capacity | 10,000 dwt |
Coordinates | 53°32′35″N9°58′35″E / 53.5431°N 9.9763°E |
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MS Cap San Diego is a general cargo ship, situated as a museum ship in Hamburg, Germany. Notable for her elegant silhouette, she was the last of a series of six ships known as the White Swans of the South Atlantic, and marked the apex of German-built general cargo ships before the advent of the container ship and the decline of Germany's heavy industry.
The Cap San Diego was built and launched by Deutsche Werft in 1961 for Hamburg Süd as the last of a series of six ships. The 159 m, 10000 dwt ship ran a regular schedule between Germany and South America, completing 120 round trips until 1981. After being sold and running under different names and under Spanish flag and also flags of convenience as a tramp trader, the run-down ship was scheduled for scrapping in 1986 when she was bought by the city of Hamburg.
The ship was restored mainly by the labour of enthusiasts and laid-off dock workers, and is kept operational to date. Most of the time, the Cap San Diego is moored at the port of Hamburg where visitors can access virtually all areas of the ship from the bridge to the engine. One of the cargo holds hosts temporary exhibitions. Passenger cabins can be booked for overnight stays. Several times a year, the ship leaves the harbour on her own power for trips mostly on the river Elbe or to Cuxhaven. In 2001, the ship was awarded the Maritime Heritage Award by the World Ship Trust, and in 2003 she was declared a protected item of cultural heritage under Hamburg law.
The ship participates in Hamburg's Long Night of Museums. [1]
The Cap San Diego had five sisterships:
James Craig is a three-masted, iron-hulled barque restored and sailed by the Sydney Heritage Fleet, Sydney, Australia.
Iron-hulled sailing ships represented the final evolution of sailing ships at the end of the age of sail. They were built to carry bulk cargo for long distances in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. They were the largest of merchant sailing ships, with three to five masts and square sails, as well as other sail plans. They carried lumber, guano, grain or ore between continents. Later examples had steel hulls. They are sometimes referred to as "windjammers" or "tall ships". Several survive, variously operating as school ships, museum ships, restaurant ships, and cruise ships.
Peking is a steel-hulled four-masted barque. A so-called Flying P-Liner of the German company F. Laeisz, it was one of the last generation of cargo-carrying iron-hulled sailing ships used in the nitrate trade and wheat trade around Cape Horn.
Moshulu is a four-masted steel barque, built as Kurt by William Hamilton and Company at Port Glasgow in Scotland in 1904. The largest remaining original windjammer, she is currently a floating restaurant docked in Penn's Landing, Philadelphia, adjacent to the museum ships USS Olympia and USS Becuna.
USS Virgo (AKA-20) was an Andromeda class attack cargo ship of the United States Navy, named after the constellation Virgo. She was later converted to an ammunition ship and redesignated as (AE-30). She served as a commissioned ship for 22 years and 4 months.
USS Aldebaran (AF-10), the lead ship of her class of stores ship is the only ship of the United States Navy to have this name. She is named after Aldebaran, a star of the first magnitude in the constellation Taurus.
USS General George M. Randall (AP-115) was a General John Pope class troop transport which served with the United States Navy in World War II and the postwar era. She was named after Major General George Morton Randall, an American Civil War hero, and veteran of the Indian wars of the 1880s and the Philippines in the early 1900s.
USS Kittery (AK-2) was a German passenger liner of the Hamburg America Line (HAPAG) that was built in 1905 as Präsident. The United States Navy took her over in 1918, renamed and commissioned her as a troopship and military cargo transport in World War I. She was transferred to the United States Shipping Board in 1933 and scrapped in 1937.
USS Gulfport (AK-5) was a cargo ship acquired by the U.S. Navy for service in World War I.
USS St. Clair County (LST-1096) was a LST-542-class tank landing ship built for the United States Navy in World War II. Like most of the ships of her class she was originally known only by her designation, USS LST-1096, and, like all remaining LSTs, was renamed on 1 July 1955. She was named for counties in Alabama, Illinois, Michigan, and Missouri.
USS U. S. Grant (AP-29) was a transport ship that saw service with the United States Navy in World War II. Originally a German ocean liner named König Wilhelm II, she was seized by the United States during the First World War and renamed USS Madawaska (ID-3011) in 1917 before being renamed USS U. S. Grant (AP-29) in 1922.
USS George F. Elliott (AP-105) was a cargo liner built for the Mississippi Shipping Company as SS Delbrasil for operation between New Orleans and the east coast of South America in 1939 by its operator, Delta Line. The ship entered that service and operated until taken over by the War Shipping Administration (WSA) on 28 April 1942 for operation by Delta Line acting as WSA's agent. On 25 August 1943 WSA allocated the ship to the Navy for conversion to a troop transport commissioned and operated by the Navy for the duration of the war. Ownership of the ship was transferred from Mississippi Shipping to WSA on 4 February 1944 while under Navy operation and was retained until sale to American South African Lines on 22 December 1948. The ship was renamed African Endeavor until returned as a trade in to the Maritime Commission on 22 September 1960 for layup in the James River reserve fleet and later sold to Boston Metals for scrapping.
USS West Ekonk (ID-3313) was a cargo ship for the United States Navy during World War I. She was later known as SS West Ekonk in civilian service under American registry, and as SS Empire Wildebeeste under British registry.
USS General G. W. Goethals (ID-1443) was a German cargo liner that the United States seized during the First World War. She was launched in 1911 for the Hamburg America Line (HAPAG) as Grunewald. In 1917 the US seized her in Panama, and the Panama Canal Railway (PCR) operated her for the United States Shipping Board (USSB). In 1919 she spent six months in the United States Navy, in which she made three round trips to and from France to repatriate US troops. In 1920 the PRC bought her from the USSB. In 1925 the Black Star Line owned her. In 1926 the Munson Steamship Line bought her and renamed her Munorleans. She was scrapped in Scotland in 1937.
Cap Tafelneh was a 2,266 GRT cargo ship which was built in 1920 by Burntisland Shipbuilding Company Ltd, Fife, Scotland. She was built for Joseph Lasry as Sydney Lasry. In 1931, she was sold to Compagnie Générale Transatlantique and renamed Ariège. In 1938 she was sold to Société Anonyme de Gerance D'Armement and renamed Cap Tafelneh. She was bombed and sunk at Dunkirk in 1940.
Francisco Morazan was a 1,442 GRT cargo ship that was built in 1922 as Arcadia by Deutsche Werft, Hamburg, for German owners. She was sold in 1934 and renamed Elbing. She was seized by the Allies in the River Elbe, Germany in May 1945, passed to the United Kingdom's Ministry of War Transport and renamed Empire Congress. In 1946, she was allocated to the Norwegian Government and renamed Brunes.
Carthaginian was a three-masted barque outfitted as a whaler that served both as a movie prop and a museum ship in Hawaii. Laid down and launched in Denmark in 1921 as the three-masted schooner Wandia, she was converted in 1964–1965 into a typical square-rigged 19th-century whaler for the filming of the 1966 movie Hawaii. Afterward, she was moored in the harbor of the former whaling port-of-call of Lahaina on the Hawaiian island of Maui, explaining the whaling industry in the Hawaiian islands. Carthaginian was lost in 1972 when she ran aground just outside the harbor on her way to drydock maintenance on Oahu and was replaced as a whaling museum by Carthaginian II in 1980.
Missourian was an early American motor cargo ship which was built in 1921 in Chester, Pennsylvania, for the American-Hawaiian Steamship Company. She was sold to the British Ministry of War Transport in 1940 and renamed Empire Swan. Transferred to the Belgian government in 1942, she was renamed Belgian Freighter. She was sold to the Compagnie Maritime Belge in 1946 and renamed Capitaine Potié.
MS Bleichen is a museum ship in the port of Hamburg, which has its berth in the Hansa port on Bremer Kai in front of Shed 50. The ship, built in 1958, is a breakbulk cargo carrier of its time and is located in front of the listed general cargo storage shed used by the port museum.
The Hamburg Maritim Foundation is a legally responsible foundation based in Hamburg, Germany and was founded in 2001.