Paraparaumu RSA has gifted a model of the Pamir to the Maritime Union of New Zealand Wellington.
Paraparaumu RSA has gifted the Wellington branch of the Maritime Union of New Zealand a model of the barque Pamir.
Paraparaumu RSA's Billy Powell writes about the ship -
The Pamir, a four-masted barque, was one of the famous Flying P-Liner sailing ships of the German shipping company F Laeiz.
She was later bought by Captain Gustaf Erickson, of Mariehamn, Finland.
Erickson, by the 1930s had acquired a fleet of 14 large sailing vessels, and ran them mainly in the Australian grain trade.
So it was under the ownership of Erickson that she entered the Port of Wellington in 1941 where she was seized as a prize of war by the New Zealand government on August 3, 1941.
Until 1949 Pamir sailed under the New Zealand flag, manned by New Zealanders.
In 1947 the New Zealand government made the decision to dispose of the barque, possibly returning her to Erickson.
With offers in the wind from Glasgow shipbrokers whose clients wanted to hulk her, Pamir sailed from Wellington bound for London on October 3, 1947.
From the time she entered the English Channel Pamir attracted a huge amount of interest and her passage up the Thames on December 23 was celebrated by sirens and ships whistles, as she passed, other ships dipped their ensigns.
Negotiations for the future of the Pamir became protracted, and it was decided to load cement in London, and slag in Antwerp for a return voyage to Auckland.
During her stay in London on March 3, Pamir was paid a visit bythe then Princess Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh.
She sailed from Antwerp for Auckland on May 11, 1948, arriving in Auckland on August 18.
On September 24 it was decided to return the Pamir to the Finnish Government. On December 21 she left Auckland for Wellington.
On November 12 the barque was handed over to her previous owner, and on February 1, 1949, Pamir, under a Finnish flag, sailed in ballast from Wellington bound for Falmouth for orders.
She was the last commercial sailing ship to round Cape Horn.
She sank in a storm on September 21, 1957.
Jim Gibson, a crew member in 1946, was at the club for the presentation along with Bernie Atkins who was at sea when they received her May Day call in 1957.
She is now back to her last New Zealand port and the Maritime Union of New Zealand for safe keeping.
