The Barque Viking
Here we are, all about the Viking, from this web site:
http://www.liseberg.se/Liseberg/Engelska/Liseberg+Island/Accomodation/Hotel+Barken+Viking/HISTORIA/HISTORIA.htm
The Barken Viking was built in 1907 by Burmeister & Wain in Copenhagen, Denmark. She is a four-masted barque, in other words, all the masts have yard arms except the after-sail. Today there are only ten four-masted barques in existence and only five of these still sail.
The Barken Viking was originally built to be used as a training ship for sailors for the rapidly growing Danish merchant fleet. At that time, seaworthiness and cargo capacity were given top priority. One day in July of 1909 the captain recorded in the ship’s log a speed record, 15.5 knots while carrying a full cargo of wheat from Australia.
Building a sailing ship in 1906 when more and more of the world’s shipping was by motor vessel may have appeared strange. By 1930 sailing ships had only 2% of the world’s tonnage to compete for. However, the Viking was not the last sailing ship to be built. As late as 1921, for instance, a gigantic sailing ship, the five-masted Köpenhavn was launched. That ship was ill-fated and sank seven years later and the entire country of Denmark mourned its loss.
The Viking launched
Crown Princess Alexandrine christened the Viking before thousands of onlookers on the 1st of December, 1906 and by the beginning of 1907 she stood ready to leave the Burmeister & Wain shipyard in Copenhagen. On the 19th of July she began her maiden voyage when a tugboat towed her to Hamburg where she took 2,530 tonnes of coke on board. The crew spent 203 days at sea and rounded Cape Horn twice before docking in Hamburg again.
During the following years the Viking was commissioned many times until, towards the end of World War I, the world’s shipping lanes began to change. At that time, the Viking sailed between North and South Africa.
In September, 1921, the shipping market was so poor that the owners. DFDS, decided to put the ship in mothballs while waiting for better times. Three years later the Viking was once again plying the high seas, transporting timber from Sundsvall to Melbourne. In 1927 she was once more put in mothballs in Copenhagen and then, two years later, put up for sale.
The Viking under the Finnish flag
In the summer of 1929 Gustaf Eriksson acquired the Viking and added her to his already impressive fleet of windjammers. Her port of call now became Mariehamn on the island of Åland. Even if many young sailors still received their first experience aboard the Viking, no formal schooling in seamanship was given.
Making money was the most important thing in Gustaf Eriksson’s world. So he had a number of passenger cabins built and sold births. At most the Viking could take 32 passengers and the cost was 25 Finnish shillings a night.
By 1948 the owner felt that it was no longer possible to continue and began looking for a suitable buyer. This proved difficult and scrapping the Viking appeared to be the only alternative. She was towed to Holland and became a part of the Rotterdam Shipping Exposition in 1950. No fewer than 518,000 people visited the Viking during two and a half months.
The Viking moves to Göteborg
In 1944 an association, The House of Shipping” was formed. Its purpose was to provide a home for different shipping institutions. After four years of having various building proposals turned down the idea was born of housing these institutions on board a large sailing ship. All eyes were turned towards the Viking and a large collection began in order to acquire the necessary funds. During the autumn of 1950, the ship was purchased for the sum of 261,000 Swedish Crowns. The following year the ship was sold by the association to the City of Göteborg.
On the 17th of September of that year, Prince Bertil of Sweden opened the school of seamanship on board the Viking. In the beginning there were two classes; seamanship and ship’s cook training. During the 1960s another course was added, that of catering management. In 1979 the school was enlarged to house 300 students. As of the 1st of May, 1998 the Barken Viking is operated by Lisebergs Restaurant AB.
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