Internationales Maritimes Museum Hamburg

The beautiful M/S Kandelfels was built in Bremerhaven and delivered to the shipping company Hansa in 1954. This cargo ship had a crew of 56 and also room for 11 passengers. An interesting anecdote took place on the ship in June 1961. While sailing from Rotterdam to Karatschi the crew found a lion running free on deck. The animal was being transported to a zoo and had managed to get free of it’s cage. The crew - who was surely not expecting to have to deal with that kind of danger - reacted fast and was able to get the lion in a corridor and close it. After a new cage was brought aboard, the crew lured the animal in it using meat as bait. Neither the lion nor anyone in the crew was hurt in the process. The Kandelfels continued her rather long existence under that name until 1977. Then she was sold and renamed M/S Silver Coast. Her last name was M/S Athens Star From 1980 to 1986. Her model in a scale of 1:100 is part of our exhibition on modern maritime logistics on deck 6.

Whats a great story, can you imagine. We just had to deal with a racoon, and man, that was quite the excitement on board. I can only imagine what kind of excitement we'd have with a lion.