Kalmar Nyckel

The Kalmar Nyckel is a replica of a Swedish vessel used to colonise the Delaware. More information at http://www.kalmarnyckel.org/aboutship.asp

This is quite a good video of her although she is under motorised power at the time

I am currently aboard the Kalmar Nyckel, and have posted some new picture to my web album: picasaweb.com.kujakupoet Link Correction http://picasaweb.google.com/kujakupoet

I got an excellent shot of our boatswain climbing the mizzen shrouds to go unfoul the mizzen topsail that insisted on getting sucked under the fighting top in spite of the crow's foot. It is in the album 'Under Way'. Setting the mizzen topsail is rare in the Christina River; some of the crew had never seen it set at all.

You can find a picture of the helmswoman standing on the whipstaff using her body weight to keep it hard over after the command, "Helm hard right." You will also find it in the album 'Under Way'.

I got a picture of the port bower anchor hanging from the cathead which is located in the 'Ship Features' album.

Of course there arm mroe pictures of the ship's cats, located logically enough in the 'Ship's Cats' album.

Sadly, due to the poor connectivity here at the ship, my connection is so poor that I cannot easily give you direct URLs. I hope you enjoy anyhow.

If you would like to see the ship in person, she will be at Lewes, DE, Portsmouth VA, Yorktown, VA, Provincetown, MA, Martha's Vinyard, and other points. I will be crewing most of those voyage, so I'd be happy to say hello to anyone who hails the ship.

Some great pictures. Thanks for sharing

Well that was a pleasant hour ... and I even learned a little bit! Thanks for the great pics!

Fantastic.

Thanks for the kind words. I got a couple of good ones today: we received a fireboat salute in the Port of Wilmington, so I have those pix up, and also a shot of a crewman tying a shroud hitch in the shrouds. Sadly, my picture of our three pound cannon wrapped up in a Chinese stopper did not come out, which makes me sad.

Thanks for the video of the Kalmar Nyckel docking in Yorktown; I'll be on that trip this year.

Picasaweb.com/kujakupoet -- Check the Under Way album.

~K~

Came upon this video which shows quite a bit of the onboard fittings

That's her all right. I recognize several of the crew in spite of the fuzzy picture. I wasn't on that particular trip. We do have a chantey group associated with us -- the Wooden Nyckels.

Particularly noteworthy is the whipstaff -- not many of those in service. Looks like the helm is having an easy time of it; the stick's in the neutral position. The fish davit's on the foredeck, which is a useless chunk of wood if there ever was one. My ankle still hurts from tripping over it while dousing sail at midnight last voyage.

What great pictures and videos. Thanks. In the second video with the chantey singing what is the aluminium area they seem to be crowding round and how much time is generaly spent under sail instead of power?

Hurricane Earl blew through without much effect here -- nice safe harbor.

To answer your question: the aluminum is the gangway. Since they are only transitting from one end of Delaware to the other, they have not stowed it in the bilge, which requires breaking it down entirely into little pieces and having the smallest member of the crew crawl into the bilge tofit them into the available space like one of those torturous metal linking puzzles you buy in a game store.

In the open sea all time is spent sailing unless the schedule presses or the winds are dead. In a narrow waterway like the Delaware Bay and River, we usually only a get a little bit of sailing in because she only points to within six points of the wind.

We are in New Bedford, MA, an excellent hurricane hole. I posted further details of our visit at: NarrowSeas.blogspot.com

~K~

thanks for sharing. It is so great to sea ships such as yours being worked. A living dream. I'll check the blog.

The Kalmar Nyckel will appear in a National Geographic Special this spring (March, April?). THe title, I think is something like, 'The Ship the Changed the World.' It is a documentary on the 'ghost ship of the Baltic' an intact 17th century Dutch flute that has been found in the Baltic Sea.

The Kalmar Nyckel is a pinnace, which is a somewhat different hull, but she has the full rig, including operational sprit topsail, and is capable of ocean voyages, so was filmed to represent the speculation about what happens to the historic ship before she went down.

Malcolm Dixelius is the director, and has given presentations to us and the public about the 'ghost ship.' He calls it the ship that changed the world by focussing on the significance of the Dutch trade at this time. He mentions that at the time of the original ship, The Netherlands had 2500 ships afloat. The second largest naval power, England, had 182. This is the origin of the Dutch commercial empire, of capitalism, and the modern world. All those 'Dutch masters' we admire were funded by this trade.

When I know more about the program and when it will air, I will post it.

~K~

A Great Valintine gift to us who only can image the thrill of being part of a crew on a ship like this. What a visual experience you are so kind to share.

Looks like the ship will also be filmed for a BBC documentary, so we might get to see it this side of the Atlantic
www.wdel.com/story.php?id=34589

Delaware's tall ship will be part of a documentary to be filmed by the BBC.

This Tuesday, a British Broadcasting Corporation film crew will shoot footage of the Kalmar Nyckel in Lewes for a documentary detailing the story of James Annesley, an 18th-century Irish aristocrat whose uncle had him kidnapped and shipped to Delaware to work as an indentured servant so Annesley couldn't inherit land and other assets that were rightfully his.

12 years later, Annesley made his way back to Dublin and re-claimed his inheritance, but died before he could take possession of his land.

Astrodene wrote:Looks like the ship will also be filmed for a BBC documentary, so we might get to see it this side of the Atlantic
www.wdel.com/story.php?id=34589

Delaware's tall ship will be part of a documentary to be filmed by the BBC.

This Tuesday, a British Broadcasting Corporation film crew will shoot footage of the Kalmar Nyckel in Lewes for a documentary detailing the story of James Annesley, an 18th-century Irish aristocrat whose uncle had him kidnapped and shipped to Delaware to work as an indentured servant so Annesley couldn't inherit land and other assets that were rightfully his.

12 years later, Annesley made his way back to Dublin and re-claimed his inheritance, but died before he could take possession of his land.

Wow, Annesley's story sounds similar to Lewrie's start, doesn't it. I wonder how often similar stories played out in real life.