The ''Prinz Valdemar'' was a 241-foot steel-hulled

schooner A schooner () is a type of sailing vessel defined by its rig: fore-and-aft rigged on all of two or more masts and, in the case of a two-masted schooner, the foremast generally being shorter than the mainmast. A common variant, the topsail schoon ...

named after Prince Valdemar of Denmark. It was built in 1891 in

Helsingør Helsingør ( , ; sv, Helsingör), classically known in English as Elsinore ( ), is a city in eastern Denmark. Helsingør Municipality had a population of 62,686 on 1 January 2018. Helsingør and Helsingborg in Sweden together form the northern ...

Denmark ) , song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast") , song_type = National and royal anthem , image_map = EU-Denmark.svg , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark ...

along with its sister ship ''Prinsesse Marie'', as one of the last great ships of the

sailing ship A sailing ship is a sea-going vessel that uses sails mounted on masts to harness the power of wind and propel the vessel. There is a variety of sail plans that propel sailing ships, employing square-rigged or fore-and-aft sails. Some ships c ...

era. It was based in

Esbjerg Esbjerg (, ) is a seaport town and seat of Esbjerg Municipality on the west coast of the Jutland peninsula in southwest Denmark. By road, it is west of Kolding and southwest of Aarhus. With an urban population of 71,698 (1 January 2022)

, although registered on the nearby island of Fanø. The ship was sold to

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...

in 1911 and then to the US. The ship was next purchased by German interests and used as a blockade runner, before being interned at

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...

. ''Prinz Valdemar'' was sold to an American company and briefly used to haul coconuts from

Nicaragua Nicaragua (; ), officially the Republic of Nicaragua (), is the largest country in Central America, bordered by Honduras to the north, the Caribbean to the east, Costa Rica to the south, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. Managua is the cou ...

. There is a model of ''Prinz Valdemar'' at the Customs Museum of Copenhagen.

Miami harbor

The ship sank in the mouth of the turning basin of

Miami Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a East Coast of the United States, coastal metropolis and the County seat, county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade C ...

harbor on 10 January 1926. It was on its way to becoming a floating hotel, during the heady days of the Florida land boom of the 1920s.The Tropical Twenties
Railroads had already begun raising shipping rates in response to the strain created by the population boom, and when the sea route to Miami was blocked the city's image as a tropical paradise began to crumble. Investors were seeing primarily negative press on Miami by 1925, and the rising prices that fueled the land boom stopped rising. The first Miami real estate bubble had burst. The former ''Prinz Valdemar'' was towed to near

Bayfront Park Bayfront Park is a public, urban park in Downtown Miami, Florida on Biscayne Bay. The Chairman to the trust is Ary Shaeban. Located in the park is a bronze statue of Christopher Columbus sculpted by Count Vittorio di Colbertaldo of Verona, one ...

and enclosed behind a steel bulkhead. After 1937, the area around the ship's hulk was filled in, and grass grew around the former vessel. Several businesses operated from the hulk, including an aquarium, a restaurant, and a beer garden. During World War II, it served as a recreation facility for U.S. Navy petty officers. After the war, the aquarium continued to operate out of the vessel until the city declined to renew its lease in 1949–50. After the departure of the aquarium, the hulk briefly served as a city youth center, but City of Miami engineers declared the vessel unsafe. It sat empty for about a year until it was sold for scrap. The vessel was dismantled in November and December 1952, and was described by the Associated Press in mid-December as "a heap of twisted metal on the edge of palm-lined Biscayne Boulevard".{{cite news , title=Tired old Miami landmark lost as land-locked ship scrapped , agency=Associated Press , newspaper= Corpus Christi Caller-Times , location=

Corpus Christi, Texas Corpus Christi (; Ecclesiastical Latin: "'' Body of Christ"'') is a coastal city in the South Texas region of the U.S. state of Texas and the county seat and largest city of Nueces County, it also extends into Aransas, Kleberg, and San Patrici ...

, date=December 14, 1952, page=11–B The wheel of the Valdemar is on display at the HistoryMiami Museum on Flagler Street.

References

*Johs. Bredmose Simonsen
''Niels Winther & Co., A Shipping Company in Esbjerg''
with picture of the ship. History of Miami