The museum ship Pommern
“Grain Race” Winner 1930 & 1937!
“If you are on Åland, a visit to the Pommern is a must. Experiencing and walking around the well-signposted and well-documented ship with your own senses awakens both imagination and curiosity.”
Below the Badhusparken in the western harbor of Mariehamn lies the barque Pommern, one of the few remaining sailing ships in the world. She lies there quietly, reminding us of Mariehamn’s bygone days as the home port for the large sailing fleets once owned by Åland’s shipowners.
The unique aspect of Pommern is that she is still in her original condition as a cargo ship. Many of her sister ships remain, but all have been more or less rebuilt.
Pommern was built in 1903 out of steel and rigged as a 4-masted barque. She was built in Glasgow, commissioned by the shipping company B. Wencke & Söhne in Hamburg.
She is 95 meters long and 13 meters wide. The height of the mainmast is 50 meters, and her draught is 7.5 meters. When all sails are set, they together cover a total of 3240 square meters of sail area.
The crew on board usually consisted of 26 people. However, voyages with only 20 crew members were made, especially from Australia, as one or two occasionally gave in to their sense of adventure and disappeared ashore.
Pommern was sold in 1906 and had two different owners between 1906 and 1923. After the end of World War I, Greece received Pommern as war reparations. Åland’s shipowner Gustaf Erikson learned that she was for sale in the Dutch city of Delfzijl and sent a ship inspector. The purchase was made almost immediately, and Gustaf Erikson bought Pommern from the Greek state for £3,900, which was quite a lot of money even at that time.
Pommern then mostly sailed on the route between England and Australia. With her total cargo capacity of 4050 tons, she could carry an average of 49,000 bags of wheat.
The wheat ships at that time unofficially raced against each other. The Grain Trade or “The Grain Race” record was set in 1933 by the ship “Parma” with 83 days. Pommern’s fastest voyage was made in 94 days in 1936.
In 1939, Pommern made her last voyage from Hull in England to Mariehamn. Since then, she has remained in her home port, except for the second half of 1944, when she was towed to Stockholm to serve as a grain warehouse for a short time.
In 1947, Gustaf Erikson passed away, and Pommern was put up for sale. Unfortunately, she required significant repairs, and as the age of sail was coming to an end, she remained unsold. In 1952/1953, Edgar Erikson, Gustaf’s son, and his sister Eva Hohental decided to donate the ship to the city of Mariehamn.
If you are on Åland, a visit to the Pommern is a must. Experiencing and walking around the well-signposted and well-documented ship with your own senses awakens both imagination and curiosity. Today, you can download an app on your phone for a guided tour of the ship.
There are numerous photographs displayed with images from the bygone days when the ship crossed the great oceans with whipping winds and meter-high waves… Together with our guide, we dream away for a while and enjoy the wings of history…
Welcome to the museum ship Pommern!
More information about Pommern can be found here:
An article about the Line-crossing Ceremony on Pommern »
Photo & Text: Björn Pettersson
Facts from: See Åland and Pommern’s website
Facts about Pommern
- Launched: January 13, 1903
- Length: 89.18 meters at the waterline, 94.67 meters overall
- Beam: 13.21 meters
- Draft: 6.2 meters
- Sail area: 3240 m²
- Speed: max 16 knots
- Displacement: 3950 dwt
- Radio signal: OHQW
