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 This
spectacular three-masted topsail schooner sails almost all year round
under the captaincy of her German owner Hanns Temme who bought her in
1981 and had re-fitted her for her current purpose by 1991. She is based
in Stralsund and crewed by an international mix of volunteers and young
people, mainly students, a lot of whom come from Steiner schools.
 The
'Fridtjof Nansen' named after the famous Norwegian Polar explorer,
has had several names since being built in 1919 in Kalundborg, Denmark.
52 metres long with a 6.80 metre beam and a draught of 3.20 metres, the
ship, for that is what she is, has a gross weight of 400 tons and a sail
area of 850 square metres with a 32 metre mainmast.
 The
'Fridtjof Nansen's average speed is between 6 and 7 knots although
she has been known to creep along at 1˝ knots or surf down waves at an
exhilarating 11 knots too.
The ship does two main types of voyage each year. In
summer she is engaged in short Baltic trips, taking school groups and
anyone else who wants to go, and giving basic sail-training. She
undertakes a longer winter voyage, generally three months. For example, her
2000/2001 winter trip took her to Kiel, Heligoland, Grimsby, Cherbourg,
Lisbon, Madeira, the Azores, the English Channel and she was expected
home on the 21st of April 2001. One of her recent previous voyages was eight
months long and the students continued their conventional school studies
on board.
Read more about the crew and
life aboard the Fridtjof Nansen on the next page...
You may like to visit the website at http://www.fnansen.de
and see more photographs of this unusual vessel and her crew.
Photography: B/W Postcard (by Heike Dugge) provided by crew.
'Fridtjof Nansen' in Horta and crew aloft by Chris Price.
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