OLDEST AFLOAT?

Evening Post, Volume CXXIV, Issue 69, 18 September 1937, Page 24

OLDEST AFLOAT?

SWEDISH BRIG'S CLAIM

There is another claimant for the title of the oldest vessel afloat. Captain P. A. Grueland, writing in "Sea Breezes," gives details of the Swedish brig Hvalfisken, which has been afloat for 136 years.

The Hvalflsken was built as a snowbrig in Kalmar, Sweden, by John Ekeb^om in 1801 under the name of Zenongen, but a bill of sale dated a month later says that she was then sold to the Den Kongelige Gronlanske Handel of Copenhagen and her name changed to Hvalfisken (Whalefish). This Koyal Danish Greenland Co. was given a Royal Charter in 1799 and is a company that is still in existence, although unfortunately it no longer possesses any sailing ships. The Hvalfisken was 210 gross and her dimensions were 88.8 ft x 21.4 ft x 14.7 ft. She did her first voyage under Captain Nis Elberg, sailing from Copenhagen and arriving at Greenland in the early part of 1802. She is a "bluff bow" ship with a square stem. The foremast goes through the fo'c'stle and forms the middle of the table there. She carried royals on both masts.

These Greenland ships often had severe weather conditions and in the winter time were troubled with ice which frequently meant them having to winter there. The story is told that on one voyage in 1812 they were early caught in the ice vk "ids. Davis Strait and such was the intense cold that the crew gave up hope of escaping. In the meantime the Greenlanders from the Crown Prince Island had observed a sailing ship imprisoned in the ice and set off to find what ship it was. When they arrived on board, the absence of the crew led them to believe that it was a "dead ship.". They eventually discovered the crew sitting tight and. comfortable in the fo'c'stle celebrating Christmas Eve. With the aid of the Eskimos they were eventually able to arrive at Crown Prince Island, and the rest of the winter was spent in the mouth of Disko Bay.

This old vessel continued her long career without suffering any serious casualty or one that delayed her from completing her many voyages. She was in no way a flyer, but during the war of 1807-14 she is said to have run away from the British Fleet in Kattegat and arrived safe at Elsinore. She was a dry ship, a good sea boat, and could "manoeuvre on a plate," which was just the thing that was needed amongst the ice-packs and floes. Of her quick passages her best was recorded in 1892, when she sailed for the west coast of Greenland and was back in Copenhagen after five months' absence. Her homeward passage on that occasion was made in 30 days, which at that time was considered very fast. .

The Hvalfisken made 99 passages to Greenland (one a year) until the year 1900, then she was laid up and turned into a schoolship for the company; but after two or three years this scheme fell through and she was sold to the Copenhagen Amateur Sailing Club as their summer headquarters. In 1910 she was delivered to the Seamen's High School in Svendborg and moored in the harbour. In a few more months the old hooker will be scrapped and then the only brig left in Denmark will be the Tjalfe (also formerly one of the Greenland Co.'s ships).

The figurehead of the Hvalfisken look the shape of a fish head.