100 years ago: An adventurous summer – aboard the ‘Ingeborg 3’. Up the Elbe into the interior

The report in which the “Schiffer Sala” (with the proud suffixes M.Y.C.v.D.-C.M.Y.-St.Y.C.-Kr.-Abt. d. D.S. Vb.) An account of the adventures of the “Ingeborg 3” in the summer of 1926 appeared in our sister magazine, YACHT, that very same year. We are reprinting it here in its original form, with the spelling as it was at the time. A look through the archives reveals that some things were different 100 years ago – but many others were not. In the third part, the inland voyage begins: the journey takes them up the Elbe via Hamburg to the mouth of the Havel.

​Text: Schiffer Sala – M.Y.C.v.D.-C.M.Y.-St.Y.C.-Kr. Branch of the D.S. Vb.

• Part 1 of the journey can be found here.
• ​Part 2 of the journey can be found here.

A boozy night out in St. Pauli

It was not until midday on Easter Sunday, as the tide came in, that we were able to leave the harbour; we then headed upstream along the Elbe at full speed on a smooth, pleasant journey to Hamburg, where we moored behind the St. Pauli landing stages in the late afternoon. There, following a telegraphic call, a couple we knew from the other sailing club were waiting for us, and a boozy, merry evening preceded a very restless night.

Swinging on and on...

The joys of Easter seemed to be manifesting themselves in the many motorboats racing at full speed and in the Hamburgers’ heavy drinking, and the rocking of the boats and the risk of collision showed no sign of abating. But we managed to avoid that ordeal as well.

Whilst the authorised signatory from Rolandwerft disembarked early on Easter Monday, our local friends came on board to travel with us as far as Lauenburg. As they had loaded up on fine Hamburg Köhm and other high-quality spirits with a high alcohol content, no objections were raised to them joining us on the journey.

For a coffee in Lauenburg

We then sailed through the northern Elbe at just 200 revolutions per minute, before soon steaming back up the Elbe at full speed. A fabulous breakfast on board was followed by an even more sumptuous dinner, so that our friends would not have to carry any of the precious provisions back with them.

After a long shore leave and a coffee in Lauenburg, a small town situated in a truly picturesque spot on the River Elbe, our friends left us there to return to Hamburg by steamboat, whilst we started the engine again and continued our journey further upstream along the Elbe.

From breakwater to breakwater

It was well into the night by the time we used the searchlight to look for and find a sheltered anchorage between two groynes; later, after our long voyage in twilight and darkness, we would not have been able to locate it on the chart.

The next day saw us making a rather monotonous and tiring journey up the Elbe to the mouth of the Havel, and then up the Havel to Havelberg. Whilst our journey along the canal and river had so far been interrupted only now and then by carburettor problems caused by the water that is, unfortunately, so abundant in petrol, fate caught up with us shortly before Havelberg... .

• ​Part 1 of the journey can be found here.
• Part 2 of the journey can be found here.

Part four is coming soon!