The ferry Bunte Kuh (1957-). The yard model of the “Bunte Kuh” is part of the display dedicated to the personality our founder Prof. Peter Tamm in the Entrance Hall of the museum.
This beautiful model of a ferry has a great importance for the maritime collection of Prof. Peter Tamm. But let’s start with the story of this ship – named “Bunte Kuh”, after the ship used by Simon von Utrecht to capture the pirate Klaus Störtebeker in 1401, as the legend says. This “Bunte Kuh” (that translates to „Colorful Cow“) was built between 1956 and 1957 at the Norderwerft shipyard in Hamburg for the HADAG, the ferry company of Hamburg. The Bunte Kuh was part of the fleet the company used to take tourists to the island of Heligoland in the North Sea during the warm months of the year. The ship had this duty until she was sold to Greek owners and renamed “Stella Solaris” in 1962. She was then sold to the Sheikh of Qatar in 1971, and transformed into a private yacht named “Naief”. After that, we have no data on what became of her.
Now back to the story of the model: this is the original yard model of the “Bunte Kuh”, made by the Norderwerft shipyard in 1956. On that year, the shipyard was celebrating 50 years of business. They ordered to write a book on the history of the company to the back then 27 years old journalist Peter Tamm. The young man had already an extensive collection of smaller ship miniatures and other maritime objects. As payment for his work, he got this model from the shipyard. This was the first yard model in a larger scale in his collection. If you have a look to what we have been posting during the past years, you will see that it was not the last. Prof. Tamm made the largest private maritime collection worldwide that he eventually turned into this museum. We continue the work in his name.
The yard model of the “Bunte Kuh” is part of the display dedicated to the personality our founder Prof. Peter Tamm in the Entrance Hall of the museum.