This autumn marks 90 years from the first voyage of the last five-mast commercial sailing ship Kobenhavn.

Sailing ship turned into barge

There were seven five-mast ships built in Europe: three of which were built in the end of the nineteenth century and four at the beginning of the twentieth century. These were the largest cargo sailing ships, which brought their owners a substantial profit. Until the Panama Canal was opened, the cargo of grain, nitrate, iron ore and other bulk was transported in such sailboats. Danish East Asia Company, which had business with Asian and South American countries, bought such cargo sailing boats for economic reasons. The bark Kobenhavn was requested and its building process initiated in 1913 in Scotland. During World War II, the British Navy confiscated the carcass of the ship and turned into an oil barge, transporting it to Gibraltar. The further fate of the ship is unclear. So suddenly, the first attempt to build a five-mast sailing ship in Europe ended.

Not the biggest, but the most beautiful

At the end of war, East Asia Company has decided to use the existing drawings and build the same boat in Edinburgh. The construction took several years. The sailboat was lowered into water only in the spring of 1921. Among five such vessels, the 132 meter long Kobenhavn was not the biggest. For its steel corpus and proportionate hull, it was considered one of the most beautiful wind jammers. The ship’s front was decorated with the statue of armored knight.

The ship was exceptional for its novelties. It had additional 500 hp diesel engine, electric winches, adjustable pitch propeller, radio equipment and watertight bulkheads. According to the seafarers, the ship was well built and could resist sea and its dangers. The boat had the capacity of 7900 tons and was not only used for cargo, but also for the educational purposes. It was planned that it will sail with 15 regular crew members and 45 cadets. When the ship arrived to the Copenhagen’s port, it was visited not only by the Danish royalties but also by about 10 thousand interested spectators.

Sailing around the world

Kobenhavn sailed for the first time on October 26^th in 1921 from the Copenhagen port. Its trip around the world took 404 days. The ship could expand 4644 square meters of sails and easily reached the speed of 16 knots. During the trip around the world, ship visited a lot of ports. First of all, the ship sailed through the Atlantic Ocean, crossing the dangerous Cape Horn and shipping its first cargo to San Francisco. From then on, it went on to Honolulu and from there visited such ports as Vladivostok, the Chinese port of Dalian, near the Yellow River and many other ports. The ship returned to Europe through the Cape of Good Hope. Because of its good maneuverability, generated by the auxiliary engine, it was the first five-mast ship to sail through the channels of Suez and Panama. For seven years, the sailboat successfully transported cargo to Argentina, Australia and Southeastern Asia. Since most of the crew were cadets trainees working without a salary, such flights were profitable to the Company of East Asia.

The fateful voyage

Kobenhavn sailed into its last fateful journey on December 14, 1928 from Buenos Aires. As always, it received additional 45 Danish Maritime Academy students. On this occasion, I would like to remind that Lithuanian envoy in Scandinavia Jurgis Savickis was searching for a place of practice for the Lithuanian maritime students, trained in Kaunas and appealed to the Danish sailboat owners. However, the owners preferred the nationals of their country. Maybe it is a good thing that they did not agree to take on Lithuanian students because at the time when Lithuanian students were on Finish sailboats, the Danish five-mast ship disappeared without a trace.

After leaving the shores of Argentina, the ship was supposed to sail to Australia and after receiving the cargo of wheat go back to Europe. On December 21^st, the last radio connection was made with the sailboat. When the sailboat did not make any attempts to make radio connection, the huge operation to find the ship was initiated, spanning the South part of Atlantic Ocean and Antarctic, but nothing was found. In January 1930, Lloyds Insurance Company declared five-mast ship Kobenhavn missing and removed it from the ship register.

The reasons behind the disappearance of the ship are still unknown. The only trace of the ship’s crash was seven skeletons found in the Namibian desert in 1932. According to the buttons found on the skeletons, it was concluded that they belonged to the Danish merchant navy cadets. Thus, at least one of Kobenhavn’s boats reached the shore, but the sailors died from hunger and thirst on the African coast.

Of all the five-mast ships, the German Pamir ship lasted the longest and sank during the storm in 1957.