For the Love of a Ship
It is possible to fall in love with an inanimate object!
I have the incredible good fortune to work at a maritime museum. I get to spend time with Pommern, a sailing ship I am kind of in love with!
Pommern is a four-masted barque, the only one of its kind in original condition. She was built in 1923 in Scotland and was purchased by a very enterprising fellow from the archipelago I live on, called Gustaf Erikson. In the 1920s and 30s, he had the world’s biggest sailing ship fleet used for worldwide cargo shipping.
Pommern is now a museum ship and has been since the 1950s. Her last voyage was in 1939.
She travelled to Australia to collect wheat, transporting it to England, between 1923 and 1939. It took approximately 100 days to sail there, a month to unload ballast and load cargo and 100 days to sail back.
They were tough times!
The connection to my home country of Australia makes her extra special.
Oh, the things she must have seen! The weather, the waves, the crew! The beautiful beaches of my home state of South Australia.
I feel truly blessed to be able to work onboard (she is open from May to September) and to look out to her lovely shape during the winter months.
It is a full-time job keeping her in good shape. A careful balance that a small team works on constantly. She is one of the areas most-loved attractions. A piece of living history that was so important during her lifetime.
~thanks for reading~
Lisa lives in an archipelago between Finland and Sweden. When she is not writing poetry and other things, she is at work with Pommern.