Ship’s log, diving shoe and pump foghorn: Rare nautical exhibits are being auctioned in Hamburg. A 1.5 meter tip of a whale penis is also for sale.
Rare nautical exhibits from the “Oevelgönner Seekiste” will be auctioned in Hamburg on Friday (May 20).
There are around 40 exhibits from the private collection of Hamburg captain Herbert Lührs in the Kendzia auction house – and thus an important piece of Hamburg seafaring history, as auctioneer Eva-Maria Uebach-Kendzia announced. The small museum, which was housed in an old captain’s house above the Strandperle, will be closed and will soon only be used as a residence.
Exhibits include a diving suit, a ship’s log and a pump foghorn. However, the most admired exhibit in the “Oevelgönner Seekiste” is the 1.5 meter long tip of a sperm whale penis. In the 1950s, seafarers gave the good piece to landlady Hermine Brutschin-Hansen, who once ran the pub “Bei Tante Hermine” on Hafenstrasse. She inherited the 1.5-meter part to Captain Lührs, in whose museum it was a top curiosity, so to speak, for more than 50 years.
