The 'Prasident Frieherr Von Maltzahn'

 

The 'Prasident Frieherr Von Maltzahn' is a ketch rigged fishing cutter built in 1928 in Cranz, Germany. She was similar in design to a modern-day small tall ship. She was built by the well-respected J.J. Siestas Shipyard which became well known in later years for building high-quality cargo ships and container ships until the yard closed around 2010.

The fishing vessel was built for Herr Holst and Herr Fock, two fishermen who fished in the North Sea. In World War Two, she was commissioned by the German Navy as a minesweeper under her registered number NC274. After the war, she sailed again as a fishing cutter fishing for tunny, a species of tuna, in the North Sea.

One of her owners died in 1961, following which she was given in 1963 to a yacht club in Wischafen to be refurbished as a sailing boat for pleasure. Alas, her condition there deteriorated severely despite some efforts to repair her.

In 1983, the vessel was purchased by the Museum of Oevelgonne Port near Hamburg and over a six-year period, she was fully restored as a replica fishing cutter in accordance with her original design at the Behrens Shipyard in Finkenwerder, a small island near Hamburg. Her relaunch in 1989 coincided with her participation in the 800th anniversary celebrations of Hamburg Port.

I recall the 'Prasident' visiting Wicklow harbour in the late 1990s with her sailing training crew and young people on board. I was invited on board by the crew to look around and was fascinated by the high-quality restoration work done on her. The crew kindly gave me a postcard diagram of the rig when under full sail, which I drew inspiration from to paint the ship's mural on the East Pier not long after.

Funnily, in recently retouching this mural, I noticed that I had left out the 'h' in the spelling of 'Maltzahn' from a previous retouching exercise that I had done. The spelling in my latest retouching now reads correctly, you will be glad to see!

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