Nordwind, sister to Ostwind Image: ClassicSailboats.org

Yesterday we posted about the patrol ship, the Grille, described by some as “Hitler’s yacht.” Today we will look at a second vessel to bear the same title — the Ostwind.

In 1936, the German government had two racing sailboats built, the Ostwind and the Nordwind, reputedly because the German sailing team had performed poorly in the previous Olympics. The Ostwind was seized by the Americans in 1947, while the Nordwind was said to be taken by the British and renamed White Rose. The two sailboats were designed by Heinrich Gruber, a well-known naval architect of the day, and were 85′ overall. 

Was the Ostwind really Hitler’s yacht? It seems doubtful. There is allegedly a photograph of Hitler and his Mistress Eva Braun taken aboard the boat, but there is no real evidence that Hitler spent much time aboard. The legend of the Ostwind as Hitler’s yacht seem to spring up in the 1950s when the boat was in the United States and a group of investors attempted to raise money to restore the boat and make it a museum. Stories of romantic getaways on the yacht arose as did an account that Hitler had a special fondness for the boat and always referred to it as his “special lady.” These tales seemed to originate in the decades after the war, however.

The investor’s plans fell through and for years the Ostwind sat abandoned at a marina in Jacksonville. For a while she was left alone but as word got out that she was “Hitler’s yacht” vandals crept in to strip her, either to collect souvenirs or to attempt to exact revenge on the memory of her notional owner.  

Finally, in 1989 a group of 100 Holocaust survivors bought what was left of the yacht. They understood that she was not, in all probability, “Hitler’s yacht.” Nevertheless, she was built in Germany while Adolf Hitler was in power. They decided to sink her offshore on the 50th anniversary of the ill-fated voyage of the MV St. Louis.

The voyage of the MV St. Louis has come to be known as the Voyage of the Damned. In 1939, more than 900 Jewish refugees set sail aboard the liner bound from Germany to Cuba, only to find that Cuban officials would not admit them.  As St. Louis then passed off Miami Beach, its passengers pleaded to be allowed to enter the United States. The Government refused. The ship returned to Europe, where more than half its passengers eventually fell victim to the Holocaust. 

In early June 1989, as an airplane flew overhead pulling the sign ”Never Again,” Ostwind was sunk in 275 feet of water off Miami Beach, as the survivors looked on from a nearby boat and applauded and cried.

The Ostwind is marked on the charts as the Ostwind Reef, Latitude: 25.77978 Longitude: -80.05683.