Alexander von Humboldt

Laid down at Bremen in 1906 as the first of four sister ships, she began life as the lightship Reserve Sonderburg. As a relief lightship she moved between stations, mostly in the Baltic, and was often renamed: Reserve Holtenau in 1920 and, from 1945, a station of her own as the lightship Kiel.

In 1957 a Finnish freighter rammed and badly damaged her; she was towed into shallow water where she settled on the bottom. Repaired and modernised, she returned to station in 1959. In 1967 a lighthouse replaced her and she moved between stations again, now mainly in the North Sea, but kept the name Kiel.

Decommissioned in 1986 when an automated light buoy took over her station, she was laid up at Wilhelmshaven, damaged in a collision and repaired before being towed to Bremerhaven as Confidentia.

On the initiative of Captain M. Hövener, and with support from the Beck brewery of Bremen and the merchant Harms, she was converted into a windjammer for young people. From her commissioning on 30 May 1988 she was the flagship of the Sail Training Association Germany and the Deutsche Stiftung Sail Training, renamed to honour the German explorer, geographer and naturalist Alexander von Humboldt (1769–1859).

She sailed many events: the Columbus Grand Regatta in 1992, the Cutty Sark Tall Ships Race in 1995, Baltic Sail in 1996, the Aberdeen–Trondheim–Stavanger–Gothenburg race in 1997 and Kiel Week in 1998. In 1998/99 she made a world voyage following Alexander von Humboldt's trail, covering 14,870 nautical miles in 204 days and crossing the Equator for the first time. In 2005/2006 she sailed to South America and rounded Cape Horn.

When the foundation commissioned Alexander von Humboldt II in 2011 she was put up for sale. A German businessman bought her and offered day sailing from Freeport, Grand Bahama, but the venture failed. She returned to Bremerhaven in May 2013, served as a hotel ship in Bremen's Europahafen from April 2015 to October 2016, and was then moved to the Schlachte quay on the Weser.