A recently restored German wooden schooner has sunk after colliding with a feeder containership near Hamburg.
The incident involving the Elbe No 5 and the 809-teu Astrosprinter (built 2007) occurred on the River Elbe on Saturday.
Media reports suggest that a failed tack steered the schooner directly into the path of the Cyprus-flagged vessel, reported the UK’s Guardian newspaper.
Six adults and two children were reportedly injured in the incident. However, all 43 passengers aboard the vessel were rescued.
“If we hadn’t been in the vicinity there could have been fatalities,” a fire service official, Wilfried Sprekels, told the local newspaper Stader Tageblatt.
A team of restores is said to have spent nine months and $1.7m making the wooden schooner, originally built in 1883, seaworthy again.
