Pommern (ship)

This article is about the Finnish sailing ship. For the German battleship, see SMS Pommern.
Pommern at Mariehamn, Finland in 2005.
Career
Name: Mneme (1903-08)
Pommern (since 1908)
Owner: F Laeisz
G Erikson
Municipality of Mariehamn
Builder: J Reid & Co
Launched: 1903
Status: Museum ship
General characteristics
Class and type:Windjammer
Tonnage:2,376 GRT
2,114 NRT
Length:95 m (312 ft)
Beam:13 m (43 ft)
Draught:7.5 m (24 ft 7 in)
Propulsion:Sails, 3,420 m2 (36,800 sq ft)
Sail plan:Barque
Complement:26
The Pommern, anchored in the western of Mariehamn's two harbours, Västerhamn.

The Pommern, formerly the Mneme (1903–1908), is a windjammer. She is a four-masted barque that was built in 1903 in Glasgow at the J. Reid & Co shipyard.

The Pommern (German for Pomerania) is one of the Flying P-Liners, the famous sailing ships of the German shipping company F. Laeisz. Later she was acquired by Gustaf Erikson of Mariehamn in the Finnish Åland archipelago, who used her to carry grain from the Spencer Gulf area in Australia to harbours in England or Ireland until the start of World War II. After World War Two, she was donated to the town of Mariehamn as a museum ship.

She is now a museum ship belonging to the Åland Maritime Museum and is anchored in western Mariehamn, Åland. A collection of photographs taken by Ordinary Seaman Peter Karney in 1933 showing dramatic pictures of life on a sailing ship rounding Cape Horn can be found in the National Maritime Museum at Greenwich.

The Pommern has the reputation of being a "lucky ship". She survived both world wars unscathed, lost only four crew members at sea on her journeys, and she won the Great Grain Races twice, 1930 and 1937. She is one of the most popular landmarks of Åland, and is visited by thousands of visitors annually.

Four other Clyde-built tall ships are still afloat:

Technical details

See also

Further reading

External links

Media related to Pommern at Wikimedia Commons

Coordinates: 60°05′50″N 019°55′31″E / 60.09722°N 19.92528°E