Pictured here among the weathered docks and tired cranes of the Gdansk shipyard, is Choren' s current project, the sailing cruise ship Gwarek. The 360-ft vessel will feature "propulsion sails," as used on the much smaller Oceania (inset) . These sails employ a computerized set of blocks and winches and allow close-to-the-wind course setting and sailing efficiency, but her yardless masts denied Oceania classification as a square rigger at the 1987 Baltic Tall Ships Rendezvous in Kiel, Germany . PHOTO BY THAD KOZA
1921. Dar Mlodziezy was, thus, an historically and culturally important assignment and project. Dar Mlodziezy not only subsumed a tradition, she fostered a new class, as her lines became the prototype for the five square riggers which the Gdansk shipyard built for the Soviets: Mir, Druzhba, Khersones, Pallada and Nadiezhda (which is completed but awaits delivery and resolution of new market mortgaging by the Soviets). The Dar Mlodziezy has served as good-will ambassador for her native Poland and has completed extended voyages to Australia, Japan and Canada, along with regular participation in Cutty Sark Tall Ship sails and various European festivals, such as Sail Amsterdam and Sail Hamburg. She regularly embarks with a full-time staff of 42 officers and crew, led by Captain Taddensz Olchenowicz, and a cadet complement of 150, which is characteristically international in composition. The summer of 1987 was a propitious time in Gdansk, Poland. The hardships of martial law had been lifted, and the shipyards were busy with production: 22
Mir had just finished her sea trials as the first of four contracted ships in the Dar Mlodziezy class and Druzhba was dockside having her masts stepped and aligned. With six ships complete, the drawing boards of Choren's Ship Design office were still busy, and projects were being completed for international clients in Germany, Finland and Japan. It was at this time that I met Zygmunt. I was given a tour of the shipyard, viewed the Mir, and boarded the uncompleted Druzhba. Choren was engaging and enthusiastic about his projects. As I was leaving, he asked me to be a courier for an important package. This proved to be the final drawings of the rigging and modifications for the conversion, for the German Sail Training Association , of the German lightship Kiel into the Alexander von Humboldt, a bark with striking green sails. For the last five years, Choren has not be.en idle. He has overseen the design for the brig Fryderyk Chopin and the brigantine of the Japanese Sail Training Association, Kaisei. The newest of these projects, Fryderyk Chopin, has been the
idealistic project of another famed seafaring Pole, the circurnnavigator Captain Krysztof Baranowski. Envisioned as a floating classroom for international sailtraining crews, the brig was designed to maximize the number of sails, buntlines and yards for energetic sail-setting maneuvers. Clearly, however, herelegantlines fuse the rhythms of the seas with the romance of the ship. The Chopin made her debut in the parade of ships of OpSail '92. Interestingly, Kaisei was originally designed as a private yacht named Zew, with a topsail schooner rig. After sea trials and her purchase by the Japanese Sail Training Association, she was modified and converted to a brigantine with dormitory cabins. She, too, appeared in New York in July, en route to Japan. Despite the differences in rigs and hull lengths, all of these square riggers embody the principles of safety, comfort and speed, while expressing the elegance of a Zygmunt Choren design. D A maritime photographer and sailing ship enthusiast, Thad Ko za contributes regularly to Sea History. SEA HISTORY 62, SUMMER 1992