Danmark (1932 training ship)

Type

Full-rigged Ship

Period

20th Century

Nation

Denmark

Overview: Danmark is a steel-hulled, three-masted, full-rigged training ship launched in 1932 at the Nakskov Shipyard in Denmark, built to succeed the five-masted barque København, which had been lost mysteriously at sea in 1928. She remains in active service today as Denmark's principal sail-training vessel, based at the Maritime Training and Education Centre in Frederikshavn. Specifications: Danmark measures about 252 ft (77 m) in length with a 32 ft (9.8 m) beam and 17 ft (5.2 m) draft, at roughly 790 gross tons. She is full-rigged with 26 sails (including 15 square sails) totaling about 1,632 m² of canvas, and carries a permanent crew of 15 alongside 80 trainees. A 486-hp diesel engine gives about 9 knots, but she retains deliberately old-fashioned features such as unassisted manual steering gear and a capstan (rather than powered windlass) for raising her stock anchors. Service History: Fitted out in 1933, Danmark trained Danish merchant marine officers for decades. When Germany occupied Denmark in April 1940, the ship happened to be on a training cruise in Jacksonville, Florida; her captain, Knud L. Hansen, offered her to the United States, and after Pearl Harbor she served under the U.S. Coast Guard (as USCGC Danmark, WIX-283) out of New London, Connecticut, training thousands of American cadets until her return to Denmark in 1945. She continues to make transatlantic voyages and has visited U.S. ports on ceremonial occasions, including a notable call at New York's South Street Seaport. Notable Facts: A 1959 refit reduced her designed complement from 120 to 80 trainees. The ship's wartime service under the American flag is still commemorated in both countries as a symbol of the close Danish-American maritime relationship. For modelers, her clean full-rig sail plan, white hull, and figurehead-adorned bow make her a popular subject, and contemporary maritime paintings by artists such as Vilhelm Arnesen depict her under sail in the 1930s.