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Auckland Star, Volume LXXV, Issue 245, 16 October 1944, Page 4

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THE BARQUE PAMIR

WAS SEIZED AS WAR PRIZE

A stately ship of sail, like a picture from a half-forgotten boyhood story, a surge of white sweeping from the gallant curve of forefoot, royals billowing bravely atop a rounded harmony in canvas. Such a ship may yet" be seen along the New Zealand coast again, manned by young men training to the fine art of setting a tops'l and meeting the vagaries of a vessel under sail. Already a suggestion has been made In Parliament that the Finnish four-masted barque Pamir be used as a training ship for 30 or 40 voung New Zealanders. The barque ;v-.is seized as a prize of war in August, 1941, by the Customs authorities in Wellington, acting in concert with the Government of the United Kingdom and the other Governments of the British Commonwealth. Similar steps had been taken in respect to Finnish vessels elsewhere. Although Pamir was owned in Finland, she was under charter to a British company. Her cargo consisted of guano loaded in the Seychelles. Lloyd's register showed Pamir to be a steel, four-masted barque of a gross tonnage of 3020. Built by the German firm of Blohm and Voss of Hamburg, she is 316 ft long, 46ft in the beam, and has a depth ot 26ft. Both Pamir and another fourmaster, Penang, had visited Auckland in peacetime, bringing 'cargoes of guano from the Seychelles and nickel ore from New Caledonia. Both were part of the largest fleet of sailing vessels in the world, owned by Gustav Erikson. Pamir is the same age as Penang, but the latter is the smaller ship, being only 2019 tons gross. Sailed in Grain Races Pamir and Penang competed in the grain races from Australian ports to Europe for some years. In he race of 1932 Pamir, with another iarque, Parma, made the fastest time of 103 days, and in 1933 she came second in the race with a time of 92 days. On this occasion Parma beat her by nine days. Again, in 1937, Pamir made a fair passage of 99 days from Port Lincoln to Falmouth. The famous barque has been described as a "striking ship." Tallsparred, she crosses double to'gans'ls on the three square-rigged masts and generally flew royals as well. The long trim blackness of her hull is relieved only by the white of her superstructures and a narrow bend along her rail. Her hull is full-bodied, yet there is a suggestion of power and speed in the way it fines away beneath her foc'sle at the waterline, hollowing away upward, to culminate in a knife-like stem. From there, the great slanting bowsprit points sharply upward—below it, the tracery of netting, above the four heads'l stays diminishing skyward to lower, top and topgallant masts. The fleet to which Pamir last belonged represented an attempt to keep in commission the big ships of deep-water sail, Gustav Erikson, who established the fleet, started his working life as a boy in a small barque in the North Sea timber trade, and progressed rapidly. He became a sea cook at 13, then A.B and bos'n before he became mate oi a timber carrier at 18. He was master of a small ship for two years, and for the next five mate in one of the big foreign-going vessels. After haying been master of several other ships, he became a shipowner at Mariehamm at the age of 41. Bought During Slump Sailing ships were not wanted in the shipping slump which followed the post-war boom. Erikson then set about gathering a fleet of squareriggers. He obtained them all at scrap prices, and over several years he purchased in Great Britain, Finland and other places. From vessels 1 destined for the shipbreaking yards he accumulated sundry gear and 1 deck fittings. The four-masted barque Lawhill. 1 which was recently in Sydney, was \ one of Erikson's first purchases. ; Soon 18 big ships, including Pamir ; and Penang, had been gathered to- . gether, and his success with them • put him in a financial position to withstand the misfortunes which followed. None of his ships was insured, as the cost would have been I too great to allow a vessel to show • a profit, so that every ship destroyed t was a dead loss.