Joachim Ringelnatz' erste Reise als Schiffsjunge auf dem Segler 'Elli'

Abstract

In his autobiography Mein Leben bis zum Kriege (Berlin, 1931), the writer Joachim Ringelnatz (real name: Hans Bötticher, 1883-1934) describes his first journey as a seventeen-year-old ship’s boy on the barque 'Elli' of Oldersum near Emden. In the year 1901, the adventure took Ringelnatz from Le Havre to Belize and from there back to Liverpool. The Schiffbau- und Schifffahrtsmuseum Rostock has in its possession a ship’s portrait of the barque 'Elli' ex 'Louis IX'. Measuring 93 x 60 cm, the painting by an unknown artist was executed after 1901. This portrait of the barque 'Elli' is the only object in the Rostock Schiffbau- und Schifffahrtsmuseum ever to have played a role - if only a very small one - in the history of German literature. The barque was built in St. Malo in 1877 and originally sailed as 'Louis IX'. under French flag. In 1901 she was sold to a German buyer; from then on her port of registry was Oldersum. In April 1901, under German flag for the first time, the 'Elli' set sail in Le Havre with the seventeen-year-old ship’s boy Hans Bötticher on board. He described the toilsome everyday life of a ship’s boy on a sailing ship already quite advanced in age. When the ship arrived in Liverpool, Bötticher signed off. The barque 'Elli' stranded in October 1902 on a journey from Archangelsk to Liverpool at the entry to the White Sea and was lost. The crew survived.