Nazi Second-in-command Hermann Göring's Yacht Has Been Found Rotting Away at a Mooring in the Red Sea
Nazi memorabilia or a grand old yacht that warrants restoration?
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May 6, 2008 (FPRC) -- Hermann Görings 90 foot motor yacht "CARIN II" - an expensive gift to the wartime Luftwaffe leader from the German automobile industry in 1937, has been found lying at anchor in the Egyptian resort El-Gouna on the Red Sea. It is badly neglected and in need of repairs after having been impounded by Colonel Gaddafi with its owner and crew in 1987 in Libya.
During the Second World War Hitler was frequently aboard the vessel, as was Nazi propaganda minister Josef Goebbels, SS chief Heinrich Himmler and his security police leader, Reinhard Heydrich. Göring stored the finest wines and cognac aboard, hosted lavish dinners and shot seagulls from a specially constructed platform on the bow. During the summer of 1940 he sat on the green leather sofa in the boat's splendid wood-panelled salon and studied Battle of Britain operational maps on the burr walnut table.
The Carin II survived the collapse of the Third Reich virtually unscathed and was found, moored off Hamburg, by Field Marshal Montgomery who requisitioned it for the Royal Navy. The boat was first renamed the "Royal Albert" and then "Prince Charles" and for 10 years it provided a holiday home for the Royal Family cruising on the the Rhine and other German rivers.
The former chef recalls that the Royals used to fly to Frankfurt and then drive by Rolls-Royce to Wiesbaden-Schierstein where they could go by boat up the Rhine to Heidelberg or down to Holland. Prince Charles, as a boy, was kept busy peeling potatoes.
The Göring family eventually regained possession of the boat in 1960. (Hermann Göring committed suicide in 1946 with a cyanide capsule the night before he was to be hanged for war crimes after The Nuremberg Trials) The family sold the yacht to a Bonn printer, who renamed it "Theresia" and kept the boat for 12 years before selling it to the Hitler Diaries fraudster Gerd Heidemann.
Heidemann restored the name "Carin II" and entertained Göring's daughter Edda and numerous prominent ex-Nazis on board. Including Karl Wolff, former head of the SS in Italy and Himmler's liaison officer with Hitler, and SS General Wilhelm Mohnke, the last commander of the garrison defending the Reich Chancellery in 1945.
The "Carin II" was sold to Egyptian Mostafa Karim and his American wife, Sandra Simpson. Sailing in the Mediterranean in February 1987 a Force 9 Gale forced the ship off course. Libyan harbor authorities responded to the Carin II's distress signal and permitted it to dock in Benghazi. After the Carin docked, Libyan officials boarded the yacht, made the passengers disembark, and threatened to shoot them if they tried to leave. After holding them for three months, the Libyan authorities permitted Ms. Simpson to flee to Zurich. They continued holding Dr. Karim in solitary confinement and unsanitary conditions without proper food or medical equipment until November 1987. He died of stomach cancer five years later.
The vessel has been wasting away on the Red Sea ever since. Her Mercedes-Benz diesels haven't turned over in years and her teak and oak hull is probably only kept together by a thick layer of fibreglass that was applied in the eighties. The Göring Memorabilia - binoculars, parts of the library, photos, paintings, logbooks and the famous green Sèvres porcelain with the Golden family crest of the Reichsmarshall, the silver service, drinking cups and monogrammed ashtrays have long ago been plundered during several break-ins. At one time the entire stolen hoard was offered on a Nazi Memorabilia site for €48,500. Now it seems Sandra Simpson will be lucky to get half of that for what remains of the boat.
Sandra Simpson says "Over the life of this ship, all of the owners have been famous people. Each owner changed the ship a bit. It has been more like the evolution of a castle. However, on the outside, Carin II looks very much like the day she was built."
Saddam Hussein was interested in buying the "Carin II" at one stage - perhaps to house his collection of bizarre items - including a pair of Idi Amin's underpants.
More information plus extensive photographs here -
http://www.welcometowallyworld.com/frontpage/2008/4/26/hitlers-diary-hermann-goerings-yacht.html
Send an email to Malcolm Lambe of You Are What You Bleat
(33) 09 63 26 86 67
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