I suppose the best place to start is in the beginning.
In 1883 in Hamburg, Germany, a 2-masted pilot schooner was christened Lotsenschoner No.5.
And here’s where I punt to the SF Chronicle for a summary of the next Century or so of the boat’s life:
So Harold Sommer is my cousin. Third cousin, I believe, on my Mother’s side, on her father’s side. My middle name is Sommer. He passed away in 2010 and the SF Chronicle has a great obituary on him with more details about his pivotal role in the amazing story of this ship. When I was a kid and we were driving through San Francisco, my parents and I got to take a tour of the ship during the renovation process. I got to use the facilities and she was a gorgeous vessel, even in a state of resurrection. We didn’t get to sail on her but we did get to walk around as she was moored in the marina, and Harold was our guide. Our extended family is pretty big and he was not the sort of cousin that my mom grew up seeing at the holidays necessarily, but it was still neat.
Fast forward a bit and in 1995, the Smithsonian recognizes Harold Sommer’s restoration work as “the most significant vessel restoration done by a private individual in the United States.”
In 1998, Harrold sold the ship to a pair of new owners whosailed her up to Seattle, WA.
About 4 years later she was sold to…the Hamburg Maritime Museum who brought her home as the last of her kind, and fully restored.
She has her own website (in German) http://www.lotsenschoner.de
And on that website are a bunch of videos in German with no subtitles that I’m dying to be able to understand.
I’m going to write to them and see if they have English versions, or could make some, but being the impatient geek that I am, are there any bilingual Dopers out there who might be willing to dub them or suggest (cheap) ways for me to get them translated/transcribed/dubbed?
Young ‘Commodore’ Warwick visited the ship once it was back in Hamburg, so his blurbs about knocking around the decks as a kid are in English at least.
But I found some more footage on their Youtube page of my cousin that is English and can at least be heard over the German voice-over. Apparently he went up to Seattle to say goodbye before she got loaded on the barge that took her back to Hamburg.