CARRIES SWEDEN’S FLAG

Evening Star, Issue 22069, 1 July 1935, Page 11

CARRIES SWEDEN’S FLAG

FAST BARQUE ABRAHAM RYDBERG FOURTH SHIP OF TRAINING SCHOOL The four-masted barque Abraham Rydberg, ■which was in the news when she made a speedy voyage from Australia to Falmouth with a load of grain, is the fourth vessel of that name owned by the Abraham Rydberg Foundation Seamen’s School, the only permanent establishment for the training of officers for the merchant service of Sweden. Mr Abraham Rydberg, the founder, was a rich Stockholm ship owner and merchant, who died in 1845, leaving a will signed ten years prior to his death, devoting a considerable portion of his fortune to the founding of a school at Stockholm for the “ training of boys to become skilful proficient seamen. The first school ship was a little brig named the Cail Johan. In 1880, she was replaced by the first Abraham Rydberg, a full-rigged ship of only 149 tons gross, built by Andersson, of Garish am. She was renam.ed Abraham in 1912, when the new Abraham Rydberg was built, and is still afloat asi a trader under the Swedish flagsecond Abraham Rydberg, a small fullrigged steel ship of 262 tons gross, was lengthened in 1925 and served till 1928, when she was sold to an American yachtsman and is now known as The Seven Seas, and is still ship rigged. The present Abraham Rydberg was built on the Clyde by Connell and Co., and was launched with the name Hawaiian Isles in 1892. . She sailed under the Hawaiian flag, her owner being Nelson, of San Francisco. In 1900 she was sold to Welch and Co., of San Francisco, who contrived somehow to get her under the flag of the U.S.A.. by carrying out work which increased her gross tonnage to over 2,400. Later she belonged to the Matson Line and in 1910 the Alaska Packers’ Association acquired her and renamed the ship Star of Greenland, running her in its particular service until it disposed of its fleet of sailing ships in 1929. The Swedish Company then bought her and fitted her out as a sea-going training ship. Built of steel the Abraham Rydberg is in length. 269 ft, breadth 43.2 ft, and in depth 23,6 ft. -Her tonnage is 2,345 (net 19661. Her rig is that of a four-masted barque. Captain Tamm, her master, is now quite at home in London and Australian his fine ship and her crew of fair-haired boys being very popular wherever then go. The training system is a very good and thorough one. The discipline maintained is excellent, the boys’ welfare being considered of great importance. “ For nearly 100 years Sweden has Great Britain and Sweden, the latter had a sailtraining system. Comparing has no great empire whose very existence depends upon her shipping and in point of trade and wealth is far behind Great Britain, yet this small country has enough sagacity to»believe in and carry on the important duty of sail training ” (writes Captain J. R. Hamilton, of Bluff). The crew of the Abraham Rydberg includes five officers and 40 cadets, there are no seamen carried. The cadets, whoso ages range from 16 to 20 years, have to make one voyage of about 11 months’ duration. Owing to restrictions of Swedish laws and regulations in regard to training of officers.for the merchant service, the foundation is not qble to carry out the whole of its programme yet, and within the limited period of nine to twelve months seamanship, signalling and boat drill receive first consideration. To meet expenses the Foundation Board receives _ interest on the funds, a regular subsidy from a society in Stockholm, premiums paid by the cadets, £4O each, and freights earned on the voyage of the ship. Occasionally a moderate subsidy lias been received from the Government on special application. The total of all these incomes amounts to between £7,000 and £B,OOO.