Duchesse Anne
The Duchesse Anne as Grand Duchess Elizabeth
- Grand Duchess Elizabeth
The Duchesse Anne is the only surviving French sailing ship with three masts and is named after the Duchess Anne de Bretagne. The former Grand Duchess Elizabeth was the first German merchant navy training ship.
Construction and launch
The ship was a Grand Duchess Elizabeth of the shipyard John C. Tecklenborg in Geestemünde (today Bremerhaven ) built in 1901 for the German training ship club as a full-rigged ship in steel and entered on March 17, 1901 on its maiden voyage. It was named after the Oldenburg Grand Duchess Elisabeth Alexandrine of Mecklenburg -Schwerin Mathilde ( 1869-1955 ). The Grand Duchess Elisabeth was constructed by Shipyard Director Georg W. Claussen and had three sister ships.
The launch took place on March 7, 1901. Originally, the godmother, Grand Duchess Elisabeth of Oldenburg, baptism should make, but due to illness of her husband, Friedrich August (Oldenburg, Grand Duke ), they opted not to attend the event. The participation of Kaiser Wilhelm II ( German Empire ) was also provided, but due to a recently perpetrated on him in Bremen assassination, at which the Emperor had been slightly wounded in the face, accounted for his participation. The baptism took place Godmother her brother, Duke Adolf Friedrich of Mecklenburg, before, and kept doing the following naming ceremony speech:
The ceremony was attended by pages of the Imperial Navy Admiral Hans von Koester, Admiral Prince Heinrich of Prussia (1862-1929) and Rear Admiral Richard Aschenborn part. Also in attendance were the directors of the Hamburg -America Line and the North German Lloyd.
Since the godmother was prevented, she sent the following telegram to the owners of the training ship:
History
First, colloquially called Lisbeth training ship was used by the German merchant marine. In 1946 it as reparations to France and was renamed Duchesse Anne. The ship lay for many years in Lorient and Brest and was then provided for scrapping. On private initiative, it was then preserved in its state as a training ship. In 1981 it was finally purchased for a symbolic price of one franc by the city of Dunkirk and restored in many years of work. The Duchesse Anne is there today as a museum ship in the harbor.