Windjammer Peking at South Street Seaport

South Street Seaport Museum
12 Fulton Street
New York City, NY 10038
212.748.8786

Peking was launched in 1911 at Hamburg, Germany by the Blohm & Voss shipyard. She was owned by the F. Laeisz Company of that port, who used her to carry fuel and manufactured goods to the Pacific Coast of South America via the often treacherous Cape Horn, from where she returned to European ports laden with sodium nitrate mined in northern Chile. Sodium nitrate, also known as Chile saltpeter, was used to fertilize the depleted fields of Europe and as a raw material in the manufacture of gunpowder.

The Laeisz company specialized in the South American nitrate trade, and Peking was one of a series of ships acquired for use on this route. They were all given names starting with the letter P, and they acquired a reputation for speed and reliability, which led to their being referred to as the Flying P-Line.

With her four-masted barque rig, steel hull and masts, and midship bridge deck, Peking represents the windjammer style of ship-construction, which typifies the final generation of sailing ships built for global trade. Ships made from iron and steel were cheaper than their wooden hulled counterparts because iron’s strength enables larger ship sizes and considerable economies of scale while taking up less space, and iron hulls require less maintenance work than do wooden hulls.

Though a product of the 20th century, she still sailed in the traditional way, with few labor-saving devices or safety features. Her crew followed the standard sailing vessel routine of four hours on duty and four hours off duty, alternating around the clock, seven days a week.

At the outbreak of World War I the majority of the Flying P-Line was stranded in Chile, including Peking. The Treaty of Versailles stipulated that nearly all German merchant ships were to be turned over to the Allied Forces as reparations, and the Peking was awarded to Italy. The ships sailed home loaded with sodium nitrate, which was in short-supply in Europe at the moment. Revenue generated by those imports enabled F. Laeisz to repurchase the majority of their ships; the Peking was reacquired in 1923.

Peking was retired in 1933, when steamers using the Panama Canal took over what was left of the nitrate trade. She served as a nautical school for boys, moored in a British river, until she was acquired by the South Street Seaport Museum in 1974.

The Peking was a steel-hulled merchant sailing ship. Sailing ships could hold their own on ultra-long voyages since they were faster than steamers, did not require storage space for coal nor freshwater for steam, and could be manned with a surprisingly small crew. The first metal-hulled ships were built in the 1830s. Despite the initiation of large-scale production of steel in 1856, steel remained too expensive for shipbuilding until the 1880s. In America, where good ship-building timber was plentiful and iron or steel relatively expensive due to import taxes, production of sailing ships built of wood did not cease until the early years of the 20th century.

The number of sails set depended on the strength of the wind; when it increased, the sails had to be taken in quickly, regardless of weather conditions. A ton or more of heavy canvas had to be gathered up by hauling on lines from the deck. To complete furling of the sails, men had to climb ratlines almost as high as a seventeen-story building, go out on swaying footropes rigged from the horizontal spars from which sails were suspended, and bundle sails up to the masts and spars with their bare hands.

The largest room in the Peking’s midship house was set aside for making, maintaining and storing canvas sails. On the right (not entirely visible) are wooden bins in which the sails were kept. These bins were carefully ventilated in order to prevent mildew and rot. On the left is the work area. Required tools included measuring devices, steel needles, sailmaker’s palms for driving needles through layers of heavy canvas, grommet punches and presses for putting eyes in canvas, and stencils for placing identifying markings on new sails.

The Captain’s saloon was the finest room on the ship. It was paneled in mahogany and birds-eye maple, and fitted out with elegant furniture. The opulence and dignity of the room reflected the captain’s status as the master of his ship and as the official representative of his company. At sea, it served as his private office and meeting room. In port, it was the place where he entertained and did business with officials and dignitaries.