– We had preferred to be under sail, and almost felt the urge to excuse ourselves a little ...
On Wednesday, 14 May, Statsraad Lehmkuhl was sailing at three knots west of Ireland, heading south toward the Mediterranean. The weather was fine, and the light breeze and calm sea were perfect for varnishing and other routine maintenance.
– There’s a positive correlation between the number of bare knees and the number of crew members engaged in maintenance. We need both, wrote Jens Joachim Hiort in his captain’s report.
One big family
The crews of the European tall ships stay in close contact. Many have been cadets or crew members aboard the same ships, and together they form one big family. So it was no surprise that Jens knew the Danish training ship Danmark was nearby.
– We can report that ‘Danmark’, a Danish training ship (full rigged) that has provided us with many a skilled sailor, is on its way from Bantry Bay (Ireland) to Reykjavik. Do we dare to hope for a meeting at sea, one of the next few days, Jens wrote in his report.
Full-rigger
The training ship Danmark is a full-rigger, with square sails on all three masts. Statsraad Lehmkuhl is a barque, with square sails on the two forward masts and a fore-and-aft sail on the aft mast. A barque is just as fast as a full-rigger but can be sailed with a smaller crew. In fact, that’s why the Danes chose to rig their ship as a full-rigger:
– It was built as a three-masted full-rigger, as this type of rig was considered the most complex and demanding, and would keep the most hands busy, they write on the ships website.
Statsraad Lehmkuhl is the older of the two, built 111 years ago, but Danmark also has a long history, built at Nakskov Shipyard in 1933. The ship is slightly smaller than Statsraad Lehmkuhl, measuring 77 meters in length with a mast height of 39 meters, compared to Statsraad Lehmkuhl’s 98 meters and 48-meter mainmast.
– A beautiful sight
Thursday, 15 May was just as fine as Wednesday, and early in the morning the lookout spotted sails on the horizon. Jens was impressed:
– It was a beautiful sight to behold when we met with the Training Ship Denmark this morning. They had really gone to great lengths to make themselves look good. All the sails were set, and the cadets were lined up on deck waving their hats.
Danmark was running with the wind at her back. Statsraaden was heading into the wind, under engine power, with not a single sail set.
– Us - heading south, in a bit of a hurry to the next research stop - motoring. We are proud of the important work we’re taking part in with the ESA, but ‘face to face’ with colleagues airing out their entire wardrobe on Thursday morning, wrote Jens in the captain’s log.
Not entirely pleased
Jens wasn’t entirely happy. He would have loved to have all sails set aboard his ship as well:
– We had preferred to be under sail. We almost felt the urge to excuse ourselves a little and could have shouted: “We can see that you’re sailing, but do you have an astronaut on board?”, or “… have you found anything exciting at a depth of 1200 meters lately?”, but we let it go... We’ll rather say – thank you very much for meeting us, Danmark!! Have a nice trip, you look great!
The training ship Danmark arrives in Reykjavik on 27 May. Statsraad Lehmkuhl sails into the port of Nice just under a week later - on 3 June.
