Also named as the “Empress” , she was built in the Deich-Tor shipyard in Hamburg by Dutch shipbuilders. The blue prints were started in 1663, but consultations and negotiations hampered the actual construction until the spring of 1667, when work on the hull actually commenced. The woodwork was finished in 1668, the armaments were then installed, and the ship took up service in 1669.

From 1669 to 1683, the ship saw service as an escort vessel on voyages to the Spitzbergen and the West. On 10th October 1683, whilst she was on the Cadiz route, a fire broke out in the bows, quickly spreading throughout the entire ship. Despite valiant efforts to extinguish the flames, the fore eventually reached the Arsenal, and the ship exploded. The cause of the fore remains unknown.

Admiral B. Karbfanger, along with forty-two of his one hundred and seventy sailors and twenty two of the fifty soldiers, lost their life in an attempt to save the ship. The body of the Admiral received formal honours from all the ships at anchor in the port, and was buried with great ceremony in the Foreigners cemetery on the seafront of Cadiz.

A monument erected on the tomb by King Charles II of Spain to honour the Admiral, remained standing for one hundred and twenty five years, until the French removed the cemetery in order to enlarge the port.

It was not until 1897, that Hamburg honoured her great son by erecting a monument designed by the Sculptor R. Okelmann on the Kersten Miles Bridge. Detailed information about the tragedy of the Wapen Von Hamburg can be found in the letters of the shipbuilder Rudolf Menche. The four-masted “L’Avenir” built for Belgium, was in 1937 re-baptised the “Admiral Karbfanger” , when it was purchased by the HAPAG as a training vessel. One year later, the curse of the Wappen struck again, and she was recorded lost at sea with all hands aboard.

 

 

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