Laënnec

A steel fullrigged ship built in 1902 by Chantiers & Ateliers de St. Nazaire, St. Nazaire. Dimensions: 281'1"×40'7"×22'7" and tonnage: 2299 GRT and 2011 NRT.

1902 October: Launched at the shipyard of Chantiers & Ateliers de St. Nazaire, St. Nazaire, for Societe Anon. des Armateurs Nantais, Nantes. Assigned the official French Reg. No. _____ and signal ____.
1902: On her maiden voyage from St. Nazaire to Cardiff in ballast she ran down and sank a British collier off the Bristol Channel. The subsequent enquiry found that the Laënnec had not been sufficiently ballasted to get the required stiffness to be managable.
1906: Sold to Compagnie Plisson
1911 December 12: Damaged in a storm at Santander while discharging her nitrate cargo. Repaired on the spot under supervision of Captain Louis Lacroix.
1921: Laid up at St Nazaire and later towed to the Canal de la Martinière.
1922 November: Sold to H.H. Schmidt & Co., Hamburg, and was renamed Oldenburg. Employed as a cargo-carrying sail training ship.
1925 March: Left Hamburg in ballast for Callao.
1925 June 2: Came to Montevideo under jury rig after having lost her main topgallant and top masts and mizzen topgallant mast off Cape Horn.
1928: Sold to Seefahrt Segelschiffs-Rederei GmbH, Bremen, on behalf of the Nord Germanischer Lloyd.
1928: Sailed from Bremen to Valparaiso in 106 days.
1928: Sailed from Iquique to Bremen in 97 days.
1929: Sailed from Bremerhaven to Callao in 170 days.
1930 August: Sold to the Finnish Government and was renamed Suomen Joutsen. To be used as a sail training ship for the navy. Rebuilt and two Scandia engines were installed.
1939: Laid up and used as a submarine mother ship during the war.
1947: Rerigged and used under sail again.
1954: Last sailing.
1960: Towed to Åbo to be used as stationary seamen's school for the merchant navy.
c1995: The seamen's school closed and the ownership of the Suomen Joutsen was transferred to the City.

The ship is now a museum ship.

References:

Square-rigged ships, general references.
Lille, Sten & Grönstrand, Lars: Finlands djupvattenseglare.
Etelä-soumen kustannus oy, Lieto, 1979. 4to, 224 pp, ill.
Villiers, Alan & Picard, Henri: The Bounty Ships of France. The Story of the French Cape Horn Sailing Ships.
Patrick Stephens, London, 1972. +8vo, 240 pp, ill.

Updated 1998-06-18 by Lars Bruzelius

The Maritime History Virtual Archives | Ships | Search.