A comeback on the Elbe: The pilot schooner “No. 5 Elbe” is back under sail

8 June 2019 should have been a good day. The pilot schooner “No. 5 Elbe” had only just returned to Hamburg after spending several months in dry dock at Hvide Sande in Denmark. New outer planks, a new stern, a meticulously restored hull structure: the refit had cost 1.5 million euros. There were 43 people on board as the ship was sailing on the Lower Elbe.

At 1.54 pm, near Stadersand, two headsails came loose. Whilst the crew were busy dealing with this, the “No. 5 Elbe” was according to the subsequent investigation report on the wrong side of the fairway. The oncoming container ship ‘Astrosprinter’ was unable to change course. A collision occurred.

The full accident report Read more from the Federal Maritime Accident Investigation Bureau here.

Whilst the BSU report sets out the sequence of events leading up to the accident in detail, the question of liability has not yet been conclusively resolved. One thing is clear: eight of the 43 people on board sustained minor injuries in the accident. The badly damaged pilot boat managed to reach the mouth of the Schwinge, ran aground just before the pier and sank.

• ​Pilot boat ‘No. 5 Elbe’: Interim report by the marine accident investigators
• ​Pilot boat ‘No. 5 Elbe’: Back on top

More than 140 years on the world’s oceans

What sank in the Elbe was no ordinary sailing vessel. Built in 1883 by H. C. Stülcken’s widow in Hamburg, the gaff schooner served for three decades as a pilot tender in the Elbe estuary and the German Bight. After being decommissioned in 1924, the ship passed through several owners before coming into American hands, where it was renamed the ‘Wander Bird’.

Skipper Warwick M. Tompkins crossed the Atlantic 13 times in her and rounded Cape Horn in 1936–37. His children, Ann and Warwick, aged four and six, were part of the crew. In 2002, the Hamburg Maritim Foundation brought the schooner back to Hamburg from Seattle; in 2016, it was added to Hamburg’s list of listed buildings.

Salvage, shipyard, comeback

The accident was followed by the salvage operation, then a return to the shipyard in Hvide Sande. The keel was broken, several frames had to be replaced, around 130 metres of hull planking renewed and the port bulwark repaired. According to the Friends of the Pilot Schooner No. 5 Elbe association, the total cost of the salvage and restoration amounted to over two million euros, funded in part by the federal government, a grant from the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg, and private donations.

Since then, volunteer members of the Friends’ Association have reconstructed the interior fittings, the rigging and the ship’s engineering systems. At the end of September 2026, the ship was back on the Elbe under sail for the first time. The club has announced that it is not yet complete. However, the test run served to assess what is already working and where there is still room for improvement.

The story of the “No. 5 Elbe” told in an NDR documentary

Anyone wishing to follow the schooner’s history and its journey back to the Elbe in detail will find a useful supplement in the ARD media library.

The NDR documentary ‘Phoenix from the Elbe – The Seven Lives of the Hamburg Pilot Schooner’ From the series “Die Nordstory” has been available since 9 October 2026. It traces both the eventful history of this historic ship and the long process of reconstruction following the accident.

You can also watch the full NDR documentary here: