Built under yard No 92 by A.G. Rickmers at Bremerhaven for the Rickmers Reismühlen, Reederei und Schiffbau A.G., at Bremerhaven, Germany.
1896 launched under the name RICKMER RICKMERS. Named after the 4-year-old grandson of the founder of the company.
Tonnage 2.007 gross, displacement 3.060, dim. 97.00 x 12.19 x 7.51m. draught 6.0m. Length on deck 86.00m.
Full rigged 3-mast ship. Her figurehead was made after the 4 year old Rickmer Rickmers.
Sail area as full rigger 3500m².
Was fitted out with waterballast tanks, so she needed not stiffening when sailing from one port to an other port in ballast.
August 1896 delivered.
Made her maiden voyage under command of Capt. Hermann-Hinrich Ahlers and a crew of 24 men to Hong Kong, returned in the River Weser loaded with rice and bamboo. Bamboo at that time was in high demand for the use of cheap household furnishings.
During a homeward voyage in 1904 damaged and partly dismasted in a severe storm off the South African coast, and at Cape Town repaired, rerigged as bark on economical grounds, a bark needed less crew.
She made 12 round voyages, mostly to the Far East and America (Philadelphia) under 7 captains. Out mostly with coal, home with rice and bamboo.
Her best 24 hours record was 251 mile under Capt. Ahlers on 11 December 1897 on a voyage from Cardiff to Hongkong loaded with coal.
21 October 1911 sailed from Pisagua, Chili to Lizard Point in the English Channel where she arrived on 23 February 1912 after a passage of 125 days. Her last voyage for Rickmer was a nitrate voyage.
Rickmer disposed most of his sailing vessels around 1912, at that time she already operated a fleet of 12 steamers.
25 March 1912 sold for DEM 115.000 to Reederei Carl Christian Dietrich Krappenhöft, renamed MAX, with homeport Hamburg.
She made two round voyages under command of the Danish Captain Peter Jensen in the nitrate trade from South America.
When World War I broke out she was homeward bound and she put into Horta, Azores, fully loaded with nitrate
When Portugal joined the Allies in 1916, the RICKMER RICKMERS was confiscated on 26 Feb. 1916 at Horta by the Portuguese Government and renamed FLORES.
Then handed over to the British Government and used in the Transatlantic trade with war materials, and in the postwar shipping slump laid up until 1924.
After the war handed back to the Portuguese Government.
1924 Bought by the Portuguese Navy and converted in a training ship. Her figurehead was replaced by one of Prince Henry the Navigator. Got a row of ports in both sides to light the tweendeck. Armament 4 -47mm. guns. Renamed SAGRES (I).
First used as a sailing training vessel with a crew of 12 officers, 32 petty officers and 140 crew, and maximal 200 cadets.
She was easily spotted by her large red crosses on all her square sails.
1931 Fitted out with two auxiliary Krupp-Diesel engines, each 350 hp., speed under engines 10 knots.
Also during World War II used as a training vessel.
After the war took part in July 1956 in the Tall ship race from Torbay to Lisbon, and in 1958 in the race from Brest to Las Palmas.
September 1961 taken out of service and renamed SANTO ANDRÈ. Used as a storage hulk by the navy at Alfeite near Lisbon.
28 April1983 bought by the Society Windjammer für Hamburg for 350.000 DM., and by trading in the steal fore-and-aft schooner ANNE-LINDE, she sails now for Portugal under the name POLAR.
She was towed under her original name back to Hamburg where she arrived on 07 May 1983.
Repair and restoration commenced in a museum restaurant vessel by the Howaldtswerke Deutsche Werft A.G. (HDW) on the Europakai at Hamburg.
04 Sept. 1987 after restored in her original outward appearance, shifted to her new berth at the St Pauli Landungsbrücken at Hamburg.
She has now one Diesel engine and one steam engine hp?
Germany 1989 50p sg 2273 scott 1575. 2005 55+25 Euro sg?, scott (as RICKMER RICKMERS)
Niger 1984 300fr. sg997, scott? (as RICKMER RICKMERS.).
Mozambique 1963 30e sg568, scott454.
Portugal 1982 27e sg1873, scott?
Germany 1989 60p sg2273, Scott? 800th Anniversary of the Hamburg Port, shows us two tugs, one fireship, a supertanker, and a sailing vessel on the left. Only the sailing vessel is identified as the RICKMER RICKERS.
Source: De Laatste Grote Zeilschepen by O. Schäuffelen. Sail Training Cadet Ships by H. A.Underhill.
Ships of the World by L. P.Paine. http://home.snafu.de/heldt.zedler/gross ... ckmers.htm
http://pc-78-120.udac.se:8001/WWW/Nauti ... 1896).html
http://www.rickmer-rickmers.de