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 The
shipboard motto is "All of us are the crew" and, indeed, all
are expected to do their share of four-hour watches and the full range
of chores.
The average age of the students is around 16 years old.
Hanns Temme is the only permanent member of the ships complement and is
ship's doctor, tutor and counselor in addition to the normal duties of a
captain.
Boris, aged 22 is a watch leader and is also in charge
of the creation of the diary for the website which enables interested
parties to follow the ship in her voyages. A laptop is used to record
the journals of crew as they sail and make their stops. Everyone is
encouraged to do a share of the diary-writing, so that most of the
entries included in the journal of this voyage on the ship's website is
in German but the New Zealanders have covered one day of each week in
English.
Another watch leader is 23-year-old Jan, with
17-year-old Baldor as his watch partner. Baldor was a student on the
last winter voyage and elected to join the crew as a volunteer for this
trip. Baldor was, apparently, "...a bit of a handful" at the
start of his voyage as a student, but soon became enamoured of the
disciplined lifestyle aboard and is now admired for his responsible
attitude.
20-year-old Anneka was the third watch leader from the
start of this voyage as far as the Azores and left the ship in the
Azores to sail with a maxi racer returning from a triumph in Cuba and
bound for Spain, when one of the regular volunteers, Simon, now in his
mid-twenties and who has crewed with the Fridtjof Nansen since 1996,
opted to rejoin the ship there, along with his girlfriend, Annette, who
was one of the students on last year's trip...
Anni, who was Anneka's watch partner, also elected to
sail to Spain with the maxi racer. Other volunteer crew include
33-year-old Christophe and Sven, the machinist, who is 29 and on his
second voyage with the ship.
Volunteers contribute towards the cost of their food
and board and are not obliged to remain aboard for entire voyages, being
at liberty to disembark anywhere enroute to return to universities or
other employments.
 On
this voyage, the captain and watch leaders have had the able assistance
of a mixed crew including, for example Steffie Schnnachtel
(right), a university student, from Kiel in Germany, taking one of two
three-month sabbaticals that form part of her course in Education.
Steffie
would gladly make another voyage aboard the 'Fridtjof Nansen' as
would Annabel Harrison, a keen dinghy sailor in her native waters,
and her friends Jessie and Jo, all three from Auckland in New
Zealand. They are all finding life aboard ship fascinating and the
voyage a novel way to see Europe.
 Twenty-two
year-old Annabel (left), having enjoyed being involved in contemporary
dance, hopes to do a three year diploma course in it. She started to
learn to play the violin at the age of eight and is qualified as a
Suzuki method 'second block' teacher.
Jo wants to study as a chef. She
and Jesse helped stitch sails and re-paint the ship during their stay in
the Azores, whilst Annabel was elected to do the traditional dock
painting which crews of all the boats passing through Faial add to the
colourful array on the walls and walkways of the harbour.
All three of
these delightful young women had taken part in student exchange programs
with Germany and speak excellent German, although the captain likes them
to speak English and help students improve their practical use of the
language. The captain himself speaks good English as did a French crew
on the first leg of the voyage. Two of the students on this voyage,
Marlene and Luke, also speak excellent English, some of the other
students are a little more shy about demonstrating their language
skills...
 The students we met, from Kiel, Dresden, Stuttgart and Austria,
were all very well-mannered and charming, which would appear to be a
hallmark of the Rudolf Steiner schools.
Annabel Harrison was also
educated at a Steiner school, although hers was in Auckland, and
was delighted to discover that she had this in common with the younger
crew.
On each voyage, a small handful of troubled youngsters are also
taken aboard and remarkable improvements are usually noted by the end of
the voyage. One girl with learning disabilities, for example, had always
tried to solve her problems by running away from them. On board ship
there is nowhere to run and she was gradually learning to deal with
problems. With five weeks left to go, crew members said that she had
improved remarkably in her interaction with others and was, evidently,
changed permanently for the the better.
A boy who had driven his foster
parents to distraction, behaving like a hooligan , always seeking
attention and apparently unable to read body language in time to avoid
upsetting others, was also improving as the voyage continued, learning
to live peaceably with his peers. A couple of only children from wealthy
families, who had trouble adjusting to life as part of a group of equals
at the beginning of the voyage, had become more sociable and outgoing as
the trip progressed.
Alcohol is not permitted on the ship and crew who go ashore are
expected to avoid consuming alcohol if they will be on watch when they
return aboard. All crew are expected back by 2200 hours during shore
leave. The skipper is quite liberal but insists on knowing if crew
have had alcohol before a watch, in order to avoid accidents. He will
not, for example, allow crew to go up the masts whilst under the
influence. His sensible handling of these matters has demonstrated its
efficacy. There have been no accidents involving the masts in all the
time he has had the ship.
In their berths, crew may listen to personal stereos, with
headphones. The use of radios with loudspeakers is "...a little
taboo". Apart from the anti-social aspect of playing music which
may not appeal to all aboard, such 'background' noise is considered
detrimental by the captain. The idea is to get to know one another and
converse.
At some ports of call, students and volunteers are sent off on
orienteering trips, some of which can be a lot of fun. There is usually
one experienced trekker in the group, which sets off with not much more
than a compass, a tarpaulin, a couple of cooking pots and some
food. On this voyage, during a trek in Portugal, the group set up camp
in the twilight, surrounded by bulls which they ignored in their
exhaustion. They awoke the next morning to find local forest rangers
scratching their heads in surprise that nothing untoward had occurred in
the night! During their stay in the Azores, a group trekked up the
volcano on the island of Pico.
The students are encouraged to write letters home rather than
telephoning, apart from quick calls to let family know that they have
made landfall. At the start of the voyage, many of the students said
that they had felt awkward and lonely, not knowing any of the other
people on board, but all had soon formed friendships with adults and
other students alike and were enjoying life aboard.
You may like to visit the website at http://www.fnansen.de
and see more photographs of this unusual vessel and her crew.
Photography: Crew group shots presented to MarineZine by the
crew.
Individual portraits: Linnet Woods.
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