Decks awash, the Sl'lren Larsen ploughs through heavy seas in the Southern Ocean nearing Cape Horn in December of 1991 . "There will be no passengers on this trip"--thefirst mate's words assume theirfull meaning as crew and voyage crew haul lines in heavy seas.
ence a unique adventure, others to learn traditional seamanship skills and sail training with a 19th century rig. Others come to see an alternative to modem urban living. The experience should not be the sole preserve of the 16- to 25-yearolds of the youth sail training ships. There is a nearly sixty-year range between the youngest apprentice and the most seasoned voyager and it really makes no difference-everyone has a role to play. There are not many communities today as dependent on themselves as a ship in deep ocean passage. The experience can be very rewarding." S¢ren Larsen was built in Nykobing Mors, northern Denmark, in 1949. She was one of the last single-hold Baltic traders and operated around Scandinavia and northern Europe in general cargo, timberand grain until 1972. She has a sparred length of 145' (105 feet on deck) with a beam of25' 6" and a displacement of 350 tons. Her hull is carve! construction with three-inch planking over seven-inch oak frames with a twoinch ceiling (lining), entirely iron-fastened. Part of the affection we grew to have for S¢ren Larsen and her consort, the 132-ft Eye of the Wind, 81 years old herself, was, undoubtedly, their ability to retain the spirit of their working pasts. On S¢ren's deck the weathered pin rail and heavily-built hatch coamings, and below, the huge oak beams and frames of the former cargo hold, which surround the main salon and recently-built cabins, speak of her past. The constant creaking as her hull works through the water and the unique aroma of tar and tallow that only a wooden ship exudes add to the atmosphere. She remains a working vessel, not a pristine museum piece-"a sailor's sailing ship," as someone said. She began her illustrious modem career in 1978, when Captain Davies bought the hull and fully re-decked and rerigged her in Essex, England, as a hermaphrodite brig. For five years she earned her living in film work and achieved fame in many films and TV series including "The French Lieutenant's Woman," and "In Search of the Marie Celeste." In 1982 Captain Tony Davies sailed S¢ren north, deep in the Arctic pack ice, for the filming of BBC 's "Shackleton" series. The following three years she operated under charter to the British Jubilee Sailing Trust, where she was adapted to give handicapped people of all ages the chance of sail training voyages. Overcoming the problems of a blind or wheelchair32
bound crew was especially rewarding and the success of
S¢ren's program led to the Trust commissioning a specially designed 152-ft bark, the Lord Nelson. In 1987, S¢ren Larsen was invited to participate in the First Fleet Re-enactment voyage from Portsmouth to Sydney as part of the Australian Bicentennial celebrations. S¢ren was the fleet flagship for the 22,000 mile journey via Rio de Janeiro and the Cape of Good Hope and led the 11-ship fleet into Sydney as the centerpiece of the Australia Day 1988 celebrations. Ship and crew then established themselves in New Zealand, running sailing cruises around the South Pacific Islands. By mid-November 1991, those idyllic tropical trips seemed far away indeed! At 0340 I was awakened for my watch and wearily wrenched myself from a warm sleeping bag to the sound of deep heavy thuds-crashing waves booming through the thick oak hull. Getting dressed in semi-weightless darkness could have been comical if it weren't such hard work. Up in the deckhouse a figure in dripping oilskins was struggling to steady a steaming kettle as he poured us a mug of coffee, looking distinctly relieved that his tum on deck was over. "Getting up out there," Charlie commented nonchalantly. The door required an unusual effort to open, I dimly thought to myself as I pushed it against the wind and stumbled on deck. The noise that assaulted me left me initially stunned, and any lingering sleepiness was instantly swept away by the howling wind. As water surged across the main deck, I could see that the l 2AM to 4AM watch was in a state of some excitement-not just at the awesome sight of the white sea crashing around us, but because the ship's longboat was at that moment attempting to brceak free of its lashings on the weather side of the deckhouse. Crouching low against the wind, three of us tottered about the deckhouse roof like stuntmen atop a speeding train as we resecured the boat. Much stirring stuff has been written about Southern Ocean gales, but whatever one reads, nothing really prepares one for the power and beauty of the reality. Feeling exhilarated and energized by the immensity of it all, we watched the seas build in the eerie pre-dawn light; felt no cold as the sea surged to our waists on the lee braces; and grinned as torrents of water crashed over the deck while we held on to the safety lines. Shorter than the old irom windjammers and with more SEA HISTORY 100, SPRING 2002