Lilly will be refloated and will serve a proper purpose

Captain Hans’ “Lilly” soon to be refloated

An effort is to follow soon to raise Lilly, a vintage wooden boat that sank off the yacht club in Walvis Bay a week ago. The vessel belonged to the late Hans-Jörg Möller (Captain Hans), the well-known tourism businessman that was killed in an armed robbery at his home in Walvis Bay in June 2016.

The sinking of Lilly last Friday, 15 October 2020, is shrouded in sad irony, explains his widow, Mrs. Carol-Anne Möller. Her late husband purchased the vessel at Lüderitz on 15 October 2010 as a birthday present to himself. To the day ten years later [on Möller’s birth date], the vessel sunk.
Lilly was damaged in the Lüderitz harbour more than a decade ago and was subsequently scrapped. Möller was a keen historian, collector of vintage vehicles and historical arts and artefacts.
He spotted the vessel and decided to purchase her and restore her to her former glory. Lilly was towed to Walvis Bay in 2014 and moored off the yacht club at the position where she sunk last Friday.

It was through Möller’s research that it was determined Lilly was constructed in Norway in 1942, as a coast guard vessel for Adolf Hitler’s German navy. Germany deliberately constructed these vessels to look like fishing vessels, to confuse and ambush Allied ships.
After World War II, between 1946 and 1947, she was indeed converted into a fishing vessel. She sailed under two known names: Captain Nero and Pollux.
The vessel was later used for fishing in the United States but was returned to Germany in 1955. That was after an order by the then US President, Harry Truman, that German assets needed to be returned to post-war Germany. The vessel was again used as fishing boat working off Lübeck and Travenmünde in Northern Germany.
After several owners, the vessel was converted into a luxury cruiser. Among her new owners was the cosmetic company, Lilly. Subsequently she was named Lilly.
A German couple bought Lilly and sailed to Lüderitz. Lüderitz became her last home port before she was damaged and scrapped.  “It is a sad incident. My husband was very excited to restore Lilly”, Mrs. Möller told Namib Times. Mrs. Möller is determined Lilly will be re-floated and she will continue to have a useful life either in the water or out of the water.

The Möller family’s lives were shattered on the night of 17 June 2016. A gang of armed robbers invaded their home in Walvis Bay’s Paul Vincent street. The robbers pounced on the Möller family with utmost violence, lasting more than two hours.  Mr. Möller, who fought the gang with his bare hands, was shot in the upper body during the ordeal. He laid on the floor bleeding, listening as the robbers mercilessly assaulted his wife, looking for cash they thought was stashed in the house. The gang mistakenly believed there was millions stashed in the house, as shortly before Mr. Möller sold his business, Sunsail Catamarans. The couple’s children were in a room only meters away from where their parents were attacked. Gang members threatened to shoot them should they make a noise.
After the robbers fled, Möller was admitted to hospital in a serious condition. He succumbed a day later on 18 June 2016.
The gang of robbers was soon arrested and is currently on trial for murder, attempted murder, and a string of other charges relating to this horror incident. Mrs. Möller remains determined those who attacked them has to be brought to the book. She faces her husband’s alleged murderer and the other assailants in court for several years now since the murder.