A ship used as a floating bar and restaurant in Norfolk helped rescue Danish Jews in the Holocaust, it has been revealed.

The Albatros was Europe’s last functioning cargo sailing ship until 2008, when it made its final commercial voyage.

In October 1943 the vessel carried fleeing Danish Jews to safety in Sweden during the large-scale rescue of the country’s 7,000 Jews. The 70th anniversary of the rescue is being marked next month.

Henry Rasmussen, who owned the Albatros during the war, and smuggled arms for the Danish resistance, sold the Albatros in 1980 to Dutch sailor Ton Brouwer.

Mr Brouwer has now converted it into a pub, pancake restaurant and music venue permanently moored in the port town of Wells-next-the-Sea in Norfolk.

He said: “Captain Rasmussen was seen as a hero in his Danish port. I asked him why he did this for the Jewish refugees. He said that he had to, otherwise who else would have done it?