“Pamir: All hope gone”: The sinking of the four-masted barque of the German merchant navy made headlines around the world in September 1957. “The Sailing Ship Pamir, […] the elegant lady of the sea who defied steam and oil lies at the bottom of the ocean, battered by a roaring hurricane in mid-Atlantic solitude,” wrote the Daily Express on its front page two days after the disaster.
The “Pamir” was loaded with barley on its way from Buenos Aires to Hamburg when it got caught in a heavy storm about 600 nautical miles southwest of the Azores. The hurricane hit the 114 meter long and 14 meter wide windjammer with full force. The sailor lists and the load slips. At around 11:30 a.m. local time, the crew began to radio SOS. The last location report from 12:01 p.m. is a dramatic call for help: “Heavy hurricane – all sails lost, 45° list, danger of sinking.” Shortly thereafter, the “Pamir” capsizes and sinks about half an hour later in the storm-lashed waves.
60 ships from 13 nations and eleven airplanes searched for the sailors for seven days. It is the largest rescue operation in history so far. Nevertheless, only six of the 86-strong crew can be rescued. Five of them are recovered from a shattered lifeboat two days after the sinking. 18 hours later, the search teams discover the novice seaman Günther Haselbach in another flooded lifeboat.
The news of the ship disaster triggers dismay in the Federal Republic. The crew consisted mainly of very young men, cadets, cabin boys, sailors who were to be trained on board the sail training ship. More than half were between 16 and 18 years old. The sinking of the “Pamir” also heralds the end of the freighter. When, just a few weeks after the accident, the sister ship “Passat” got caught in a storm and also had major problems with a cargo that had slipped, the end of this era was sealed. Since then there have been no sailing training ships as freighters