Feuerland (ship)

The sailing ship was designed as an ocean-going fishing boat. Since Plüschow was familiar with the harsh weather conditions in the South Atlantic from his previous voyages, the builders used oak wood for the frames and planking. Every part is oversized. This ensures multiple safety features, to the point that there is a tight frame spacing every and an thick planking at the waterline; interior lining and strong stringers provide additional sturdiness. Thanks to its strong construction, the ship successfully withstood the storms and drifting glacial ice in the fjords of Tierra del Fuego. As built, Feuerland measured along the deck, with a beam of , a draft of and a sail area of . The vessel's propulsion consisted of a Caterpillar 3208 8-cylinder V-engine creating . ==Feuerland==

In November 1927, Gunther Plüschow began his Tierra del Fuego's expedition to the southern tip of South America. His journey included stops in England, Portugal, the Canary and Cape Verde Islands before he crossed the Atlantic to Brazil. There, he visited German emigrants in port cities like Bahia and Rio de Janeiro, as well as the German emigrant colony of Blumenau. After assembling the aircraft, Plüschow and his co-pilot and cameraman Ernst Dreblow became the first to fly over the Darwin Range, a southern extension of the Andes, to the Argentine town of Ushuaia. Captain Günther Plüschow and his cameraman died in an accident 1931 during an aerial survey mission over Lago Argentino in Argentine Patagonia. His plane experienced a wing collapse during a landing approach, causing it to invert. Dreblow fell out and his parachute failed. Plüschow, also wearing a parachute, was dragged down with the plane after his parachute snagged on the tail. ==Penelope==

Renamed Penelope, after Hamilton's youngest daughter, the ketch was operated by Plüschow's helmsman, Paul Christiansen, and engineer Seppl Schmidt for the Hamilton family until the late 1930s. During this time, she completed multiple voyages between the Chilean mainland and the Falkland Islands, with her final journey to the South American mainland occurring in June 1938. George Betts, chief engineer of the ketch at the time, recalled in 2006 that the vessel seldom hoisted its sails. In those days, Penelope´s complement consisted only of three permanent crewmembers, with another hired sailor if necessary. At the time of the 1982 Argentine invasion, Penelope, which main task was to ferry livestock through the Falklands channels and coves, was ordered to transfer children from Port Stanley boarding hostel across Falkland Sound to their homes in West Falkland. The children embarked at Port Egg, west of Goose Green, on 4 April. While sailing the Falklands Sound, the ketch was overflown by two unidentified aircraft. ARA Penelope After evacuating more children from Darwin to Port Howard, Penelope remained moored at Speedwell Island, the usual area of operations for the sheep-carrier sailboat. After the report was confirmed by the armed coaster ARA Monsunen, Penelope was seized by a platoon of Argentine naval commandos who were flown in by helicopter some hours later. Ferguson and the chief engineer were retained by the Argentine Navy for a week in order to instruct the new personnel on the ship's operation. The other three former crewmembers were airlifted to Port Stanley. One Argentine crewmember, naval conscript Roberto Herrscher, who was incorporated partly due to his English proficiency, later wrote a chronicle of his days on board ARA Penelope. During that time, Penelope participated in the search for survivors of ARA Isla de los Estados, sunk by the frigate HMS Alacrity off Swan Island on 11 May. The next day, while at anchor at Fox Bay, Penelope was lightly damaged in the course of the attack of a package of Harriers. On 19 May the ketch headed to Port King in order to offload cargo from the Argentine merchant ship Río Carcarañá. at anchor and disabled as a consequence of an air strike. On the night of 26 May, while Penelope was at anchor, awaiting to load supplies from ARA Bahía Buen Suceso, Argentine positions and the pier at Fox Bay were shelled Herrscher states that the small sailboat was violently rocked by the blasts, which shattered the cabin windows, and that he had a narrow escape when one splinter pierced a fuel tank just a few inches from where he was laying face down. On shore, an Argentine naval conscript (from ARA Bahía Buen Suceso) died from the accidental discharge of another serviceman's rifle while taking cover. The loading of supplies, consisting of 30 fuel drums, concluded by the end of May. Penelope and her cargo reached Port Stanley on 2 June, when she had been presumed lost from some time. The finding of diesel fuel in a cove allowed the small vessel to complete her trip. Five of Penelope's complement, all of them non-commissioned officers, managed to escape captivity by embarking on board ARA Almirante Irízar, an icebreaker converted into hospital ship which was allowed to evacuate wounded Argentine personnel. González-Llanos and Herscherr, the first as a naval officer and the second because his English skills were needed for talks between British and Argentine officials, were taken prisoners and eventually evacuated from the Falklands aboard the transport Norland. In 1989, the FIC sold Penelope to Finlay and Bob Ferguson; seafarer and farmer Michael Clarke bought the ketch from them in 1993. The vessel was stationed at West Point Island and was employed to transport ornithologists and scientists to the western islands. These islands, distinguished by their unique avian colonies, represent one of Earth's most biodiverse animal habitats. By 2004 Penelope was being replaced by a modern motorboat of similar capabilities, the steel-hulled Condor. ==Second time as Feuerland==

Bernd Buchner, a German skipper, bought the ship to Clarke in April 2006. Although the oak hull had endured the rough South Atlantic weather, in a trip from the Falklands that included stopovers at Comodoro Rivadavia, Puerto Madryn and Mar del Plata, the dilapidated Oregon pine deck began to leak severely by the time they were approaching their destination. To ensure the safety of the ship and crew, they decided to transport the Feuerland as cargo on the German container ship Monte Cervantes, which successfully delivered it to Hamburg by the end of June. The ketch, now a historical monument, was in such bad shape that it was eventually decided that she would be rebuilt in the Flensburg Museum Shipyard. The total cost of rebuilding Feuerland was estimated by 2019 in £1.5 million. == See also ==