A ship-spotters’ paradise lies tucked away deep within the Port of Hamburg. To the south of the container terminals, surrounded by cranes and warehouses, a gangway on Bremer Kai leads to the pontoons. Seagulls circle overhead, and a damp westerly wind blows. Then the ships come into view. Various steamers and old barges lie down there in the cold water, foremost among them the “Beijing”. The rigging of the famous four-masted barque soars over 50 metres into the grey sky. A giant amongst the living relics of the old seafaring days.
Further ahead, right at the water’s edge, the next beauty bobs gently. A white bow rises up, adorned with a golden coat of arms. The ship’s name is painted in large letters on the hull: ‘Schaarhörn’. This 42-metre-long and 6.80-metre-wide nautical relic has a gross tonnage of 268.
The ship rests elegantly at its moorings. And it remains largely in the original condition in which the steel twin-screw steamer was built in 1908 by the shipyard and engineering works in Hamburg-Steinwärder. What makes it special is that the “Schaarhörn” is still fired by coal to this day. Two triple-expansion steam engines, each with 412 PSi and 150 revolutions, propel this grand dame through the waters as she makes her seasonal voyages, marvelling those along the Elbe. What passes before the audience’s eyes looks like a floating film set – a tooting and puffing relic from the days of the turn of the 19th century.
216 members are keeping the ‘Schaarhörn’ alive
Dirk von Reith is standing down by the pontoon. He is the chairman of the ‘Friends of the Schaarhörn Steamship’ association. 216 members are committed to keeping the almost 120-year-old ship afloat. Among them are 50 men and women who stand ready to serve as the crew. On trips, at least 22 people are needed to man all the posts: captain, helmsman, stoker, engineers, deckhands, as well as crew for service and to look after the guests.
“Maintaining a steamer like this and running the trips in the summer is no small feat,” says 66-year-old von Reith. “It’s expensive, not to mention the regulatory requirements.” Von Reith used to be an engineer in the aviation industry; since retiring, he has immersed himself in the world of steam shipping. On the “Schaarhörn”, he works as an engineer.
Winter work between the teak deck and the coal bunkers
On this Wednesday in March, a good two dozen club members turned up to carry out winter maintenance and get the old boat ready for the season. Over 20 trips are scheduled from May to September. The ‘Schaarhörn’ will then steam across the Elbe with guests, beyond the harbour limits to Wedel and on to the ‘Willkomm Höft’ at the ‘Schulauer Fährhaus’.
On board today, the crew are sanding and polishing; the mighty anchor winch needs a new foundation. Experts are also at work in the engine room, keeping the ageing machinery in good working order. Stepping on board feels like stepping back in time. Despite the rugged steel, the steamer is furnished with great care and attention to detail. Plenty of brass, plenty of teak. Thick hawsers hang from cleats, and the two masts, painted dark, tower above – even though they serve no real purpose.
“Back then, even steamers were still fitted with masts,” says von Reith. “People were simply used to it from centuries of sailing. A ship without masts wasn’t a ship!” However, the ‘Schaarhörn’s’ mock rigging was used solely for hoisting flags and lighting. Also striking are the large round iron hatches set into the slatted teak deck on both the starboard and port sides. “Our coal bunkers,” explains von Reith. On both sides of the hull, instead of tanks, lie the ship’s dark holds. Via shafts leading up to the deck, they can hold two loads of 20 tonnes of coal each. Cranes hoist huge big bags on board for this purpose, before the dusty lumps clatter down into the depths through hoppers.
The matt-yellow, imposing funnel rises majestically towards the sky. Below it on deck are the charming dinghies, classically clinker-built. With an unobstructed view of the sea and the horizon, the upper deck is also home to the elegant wheelhouse. The bridge of the ‘Schaarhörn’, built of wood and, for a ship, artfully adorned with coffered panels and rounded window arches.
The old steering wheel is on display, alongside the large engine telegraph made of polished brass. A visible mirror is mounted beneath the ceiling of the wheelhouse, whilst the accompanying compass, manufactured by W. Ludolf, is concealed on the bridge roof. The command post offers plenty of space, featuring a large chart table with various drawers, as well as attractive railings and a seating area with elegant leather upholstery.
Also noteworthy is the old speaking tube, which still works just as it did in the past. Commands are transmitted from the bridge to the helmsman and into the engine room via pipework. First, one blows into the opening until a whistle sounds at the other end. This signals: ‘Attention, command coming through!’
There is also new electronics on board: GPS, radio, a chart plotter and the modern control panel for the navigation lights. Yet the overall impression remains remarkably authentic. Anyone standing up here on the bridge feels as though they are in a Wilhelmine-era saloon at sea. And this, too, is unlikely to have changed much: The scent of fresh coffee fills the air as the crew bustle about the ship in well-coordinated fashion, getting the steamer up to scratch. In the galley on the starboard side, hot sausages are being cooked, whilst in the large deckhouse on the aft deck, other crew members are gathered to discuss the work ahead.
An Art Nouveau salon for Hamburg’s mayor
Another gem of the ‘Schaarhörn’ is its Art Nouveau salon dating from 1908, known as the Senats-Saal. An oil painting hangs on the wall, and the entire room is surrounded by tall windows set in solid brass frames. At the back is a wide sofa, and in the centre stands the imposing table, which can comfortably seat 14 people. The seat at the head of the table was always reserved for Hamburg’s mayor. This is because the ‘Schaarhörn’ was originally intended primarily to serve the upper echelons of society – from politicians right up to Emperor Wilhelm himself.
The Art Nouveau saloon still bears witness today to the ship’s once-glamorous ambitions. The room is in fact modelled on the Senate Hall in Hamburg’s Town Hall, including the striking skylight made of colourful leaded glass. At the corners of the huge skylight, four stylised female heads are painted onto the glass; over 100 years ago, these represented four continents: Europe, America, Africa and Asia. Australia is missing. At that time, it was still a British penal colony.
Equally distinctive are the ten bare light bulbs, which are displayed in gilded sockets beneath the ceiling. At the time, electric lighting was a technical achievement that was only just beginning to take the world by storm, and one that the ‘Schaarhörn’ was keen to showcase with pride. A ship that was not merely intended to look elegant, but also to represent technical progress.
From a luxury steamer to a warship
Down in the saloon, everyone is familiar with the steamer’s eventful history. The stokers, engineers and navigators who now operate and sail the ship on a voluntary basis. In 1907, the ‘Schaarhörn’ was commissioned by the Office for Hydraulic Engineering and Harbour Construction to carry out surveys on the Elbe. The price at the time: 213,000 gold marks.
However, the express requirement was not for a purely utilitarian vessel, but for a luxurious, fast steamer fitted with state-of-the-art technical equipment. The reason: in its secondary role, the ‘Schaarhörn’ was intended to serve as a suitable vessel to personally ferry Emperor Wilhelm II through the Port of Hamburg. A matter of state, with all the accompanying pomp and ceremony. However, this never came to pass.
Until 1914, the ‘Schaarhörn’ operated as a range-finding steamer. It was also intended for ceremonial purposes by the Hamburg Senate when the gentlemen wished to hold meetings on the water. Later, it was deployed with minesweepers and used as a survey vessel. During the First World War, the “Schaarhörn” served as a living and catering vessel for soldiers. And so the history of this smart little Elbe barge continued to unfold: an extremely eventful one.
The steamer began to fall into disrepair in the British shallows
As a ‘survey steamer’, the ship soon began transporting officials to hydraulic engineering sites and later evacuated refugees from the East during the World War. The ‘Schaarhörn’ sailed across the Baltic Sea as far as Swinemünde and Danzig. It then set sail again from Cuxhaven to carry out hydrographic surveys in the Elbe estuary. The ship thus stoically carried out its duties for decades until, in 1973 – by then well past its prime – it was sold to the UK.
Converted into a restaurant in Newcastle, the British transferred the ship to the west coast in 1979, where it was laid up as a museum steamer. In Maryport, however, this Hanseatic gem gradually fell into disrepair and ended up in a sorry state. For years, the ‘Schaarhörn’ languished in the mud of the British tidal waters. It was not until 1990 that rescue came.
With the help of merchants from Altona, the ‘Schaarhörn’ was purchased and transported back to Hamburg by barge, where the weather-beaten beauty was subsequently restored over a period of five years. This was made possible by job-creation schemes at the shipyard run by the ‘Jugend in Arbeit Hamburg’ association, whose volunteers spruced up the steamer with great attention to detail. And they evidently did so with a great deal of patience and craftsmanship.
Indeed, as early as 1993, the ‘Schaarhörn’ became the first ship to be included on Hamburg’s list of listed buildings, and since May 1995 it has been operated by an entirely voluntary crew as travelling museum kept in service. In 2002, the ship was finally sold to the Hamburg Maritim Foundation transferred.
Anyone walking on deck today can still sense its eventful past. Every rivet and every valve seems to speak of the 120 years the vessel has under its belt. “This history becomes particularly tangible in the engine room,” says Dirk von Reith, before inviting us into those quarters that could safely be called the lion’s den.
Half a tonne of coal per hour
Down in the hull lies a jumble of outdated technology that would be a source of pure delight to Gyro Gearloose. At its heart is the coal-fired, two-pass large-capacity water boiler from Ottenser Eisenwerke, built in 1908. Heating surface: 186 square metres; steam pressure: 13.2 bar; coal consumption: around half a tonne per hour. Von Reith says: ‘The water in the boiler gets up to 200 degrees; you really need to know which valve to turn.’
He points to the electricity generator, the steering gear and the duplex pump – ‘all steam-powered’. On display are a thousand interlinked pumps, pipes, valves, circulators, injectors and ejectors. One might therefore expect a snorting and rumbling spectacle once this whole monstrous machine gets going.
Except that the opposite is true! “When under way, the ship is absolutely quiet and produces very little vibration,” explain the engineers down in the engine room. “After all, we don’t have a noisy, clattering diesel engine on board; everything here runs on steam.” In fact, the ‘Schaarhörn’ glides so quietly through the water that, down in the engine room, a Dixie jazz band once played – and could even be heard perfectly well whilst the ship was underway.
In contrast, things get rather hot in the engine room. The mercury climbs to as high as 40 degrees Celsius amongst all the pumps and pipes, and that’s with enormous humidity. The ship, which has long been a listed building, is now a real curiosity at sea. A seagoing vintage vessel that glides gracefully, billowing smoke, across the Elbe. A stage on swaying planks that has captivated many over the years.
Karl Lagerfeld on the bridge
And it’s not just the ship-loving Hanseatic public. Even today, there is no shortage of celebrities. Til Schweiger filmed several scenes on board for the film *Honig im Kopf*, and in the past it wasn’t just mayors who sat in the saloon. Former UN Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali stood on deck when he was in Hamburg in 1996 for the opening of the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea.
However, one particularly dazzling passenger on board the “Schaarhörn” is unlikely ever to be forgotten. In 2013, the editor-in-chief of the German edition of “Vogue” organised a harbour tour and requested the “Schaarhörn” for the occasion. The guest of honour was none other than a pigtailed fashion guru: Karl Lagerfeld. A cocktail reception was held on board before the party set sail out onto the Elbe. Lagerfeld stood on the bridge with his collar turned up, glasses perched on his nose, a Diet Coke in his right hand, and his old home of Hamburg-Blankenese lying ahead.
Excursions and Ringelnatz evenings on board
Ultimately, however, the ‘Schaarhörn’ is a thoroughly down-to-earth boat. Today, every guest is welcome on board and can explore the ship from the bridge right down to the boiler room. During the summer season, trips on the Elbe are open to everyone. And in winter, the ‘Schaarhörn’ hosts special evenings. Ten times during the darker months, readings take place on board, accompanied by a three-course meal. The theme of these literary soirees is always the same: Joachim Ringelnatz. Throughout the evening, selected texts by the humorous poet are read aloud.
Ringelnatz used to serve as a captain on small boats, stationed with the mine-sweeping division in Cuxhaven. After their missions, he used to meet up regularly with other sailors to celebrate, and on no other steamer than the ‘Schaarhörn’, which was carrying out its surveying voyages in the Elbe estuary during those years. The group centred around the adventurous poet could not have found a better spot to raise a glass. They drank and danced on what was probably the smartest survey steamer ever to sail the Elbe.
Technical specifications of the ‘Schaarhörn’
- Year of manufacture: 1908
- Length: 42 m
- Width: 6.80 m
- Draught: approx. 3.0 m
- Drive: 2 triple-expansion steam engines, each rated at 412 PSi
- Boiler: Heating surface area 186 square metres; steam pressure 13.2 bar
- Team: 1908: 8 men; today: approx. 23 people
- Shipyard: Hamburg-Steinwärder Shipyard and Engineering Works
The ‘Schaarhörn’ brings maritime history to life to this day. Have you ever travelled on a historic steamship? Tell us about it in the comments.