My family has been looking for my great-grandfather and his crew from the sail-training ship Admiral Karpfanger on their way back from Port Germein in Australia - around Cape Horn. The ship and crew went missing shortly after the annexion of Austria by the Germans in 1938. My grandfather's name was Reinhold Walker and the complete list of his crew and officers can be found at http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Admiral_Karpfanger.
We are not sure if the ship has sunk, ended up at the Chilean coast or on the US West Coast where my great-greandfather has showed up at a naval base around 1935. All I know is that in one of their last communications the news of the birth of the second officers child (whose name was Otto Piper) and possibly the annexion of Austria by the Nazis has been transmitted. After that no news have been passed on to my great-grandmother and my grandma who was waiting for her dad to return for her confirmation. Here are a few pictures of the crew and the ship. Any help is appreciated since my now 91 year grandma and my Dad have been looking for any clues ever since! http://i.imgur.com/8gOBOS7.jpg http://imgur.com/5up31d0 http://imgur.com/bURbh0V http://imgur.com/yr2WCR7
A full dropbox with pictures and newspaper snippets can be made available if anyone is interested. If this is the wrong subreddit, please let us know and we'll happily post to a better one. It would just be great to get some closure after all these years!
I did some google-fu and found the ship referenced on this wiki-list. It pointed to two further sources. http://sailing-ships.oktett.net/138.html which contains some information prior to German service, and the Miramar Ship Index which has further information but requires a subscription.
That list and Wreck Site agree that fragments of the ship washed up on Navarin or Navarino Island (not sure which spelling is correct). The wreck site article also includes the name of the survey ship sent to find it, the Bahia Blanca.
Your next step would be to consult the Chilean newspapers that cover the region. Additionally, you would need to determine if there was a Coast Guard service in place at that time or equivalent. If there was they will have a wrecking report, though it is most likely on hard copy.
You could also try /r/genealogy. They're pretty good at digging.
