The 43 passengers and crew aboard the "No 5 Elbe" were rescued after the vessel was in collision with the Cyprus-flagged container ship Astrosprinter on the Elbe River at Stade near Hamburg around 1230 GMT Saturday.

The 37-metre-long pilot schooner, built in 1883, was Hamburg's last remaining seagoing ship from the era of wooden ships and could be rented for harbour excursions, according to local media reports.

The ship had just been renovated over eight months in a Danish shipyard where it was fitted with new outer wooden planks and a new stern.