Heller 80888 Passat

The Passat is a German sailing ship (windjammer) from the 20th century. The keel for the ship was laid in 1911, the launch took place in the same year, and commissioning took place at the end of 1911. The ship was built at the Bohm und Voss shipyard in Hamburg, Germany. The length of the ship was 115 meters by 14.4 meters wide. The unit had no on-board armament.

The Passat was, and still is, counted among the so-called windjamers, or "windbreakers" - huge and largest sailing vessels ever built, which used all the most modern technologies of the early twentieth century. On a large scale, steel was used to build such vessels - both for the construction of structural elements and for the plating, and a much smaller crew was required to operate the rigging than on the sailing ships of the nineteenth century. The windjambers were also able to reach speeds of 18 knots. Some people refer to these impressive ships as "the swan song of the Age of Sailing Ship". At the time of commissioning, the SV Passat was used as a merchant ship, also during the First World War. The unit did not take part in World War II, spending a large part of it in Finland. After 1945, the vessel was still on active cruises - incl. across the Atlantic, to be decommissioned in 1957. In 1959, the Passat was purchased by the city of Lübeck, where it is today and serves as a museum ship and hostel.