South Georgia Whaling stations used these old sailing hulls as coal hulks for their whale catchers to bunker from. When the Whaling ban was placed in the early 60's the Norwegiens just took the oil and people from their bases and abandoned everything. Their thinking was that this ban was only short term. Aside from that there is no profit cleaning up their mess. So the vessels broke their moorings and ran aground sinking. Very sad.
Concordia is a sailing school ship which takes final year high school students predominently from the states and Canada. I sailed for a year as second mate and six months as mate. first trip we circumnavigated the south pacific!
Deception Island is a flooded caldara which small ships can sail into. as you pass through the entrance you turn to starboard and enter a small bay where there is a mess of iron and a hut which is all that remain from an old sealing station and later a research station. The island is towards the top of the Antarctic Peninsula and is still a live volcano
This photo has the remains of one of the small work boats they used for transfering goods and seals from the hunting vessels to the factory.
All dressed up for one of the many weddings we conducted aboard the Flying Cloud. A good crew who were in the main always happy despite working 12 months on with only one month off to see their families.
I was aboard this vessel as Chief Mate and completed nine months. It was too much going around in very small circles.
Tradewind snug in behind a wall of ice. Yes that is all ice and it reached up even further along the side of a very tall mountain that dominated over the small bay.
Yes very cold and it is the peak of the summer!
Here is a photo of Tradewind making its way slowly intowards the Argentinian research base situated on the continent of Antarctica. Our only time we actually stood on the continent proper.
A tropical Paradise at the North East corner of Brasil. More importantly it is a Reserve and so the wild life is abundant, great for snorkeling and the water is so warm.
I was Chief Mate for this leg of the journey.
I can only imagine what it must seem to them having a large vessel such as ours charging through there fleet.
The skill and speed which the balinese handled these small but swift craft was a joy to watch. What a contrast between there light swift sailing vessels of traditional design and our heavy modern steel goliath.
Such a huge fleet of tiny sailing vessels, fishing in the traditional manner. A sight similiar to this could easily be imagined a century ago.
Despite her age (Launched 1921) the Falie was a great vessel to sail and when we had a steady crew aboard we were regularly flying the gaff topsails, which were huge!
My first sailing vessel as a crew member was aboard the Falie. I joined as a deckhand and moved to Bosun before making Chief Mate. The two years aboard were just great.
We arrived on the weekend and even though tied alongside the Maritime Museum, the place was like a ghost town and boring.
But what a great shot.
This was the standard Promo shot used to advertise this great ship. It certainly was a rare sight to for the vessel to have all of its sails up. When she did the vessel could move very fast. At one stage when I was on watch we were in the Pacific it was night time and we were hit by a very strong squall. Too late to send the students up and take in sail so we just hung on and away we went, a comfortable 16 knots thank you very much!
I have only sailed aboard the Eye once and that was from Sydney to Hobart 1990. Since then I have been a regular visitor of the great vessel and have always had a soft spot for her. Here she is getting ready to start the 92 Cutty Sark Tall ship race from Boston to Liverpoole.
Two weeks after joining the Flying Cloud we were in dry dock, what a start to my adventures in tropical paradise. Hot dry and very long hours not something one often thinks about when thoughts are cast to sailing in the Caribbean
My First experience with a floating drydock. Not a bad operation except the dock walls blocked out any chance of the trade winds from reaching us and so it was like an oven.
Just one of those moments when walking back to the vessel one morning. I just had to take a photo.
