Dad on the sailing ship Beatrice 1925/26

abl078
1925, when my dad was 18 years old, he decided to become a sailor and try to make a career at sea. To enter the navigation school he needed a lot of practice from ships at sea and of that at least 1 year from a sailing ship.
Therefore, he sent a letter of application, asking for an apprentice position, to the Pollux shipping company which owned the training ship Beatrice.
abl077
After some initial correspondence asking for a doctor's certificate he got this card, dated and postmarked 20 August 1925 and ordering him to be present at the Beatrice 3 days later. He had to promptly take the next train to Sundsvall.
abl049f
On August 22 he signed on the Beatrice.
Here, she is laying at the Skönvik sawmill outside the town of Sundsvall in September 1925.
abl013
On the Beatrice, September 1925. Arne is standing furthest to the left at the very bottom of the picture.
abl043
The ship sailed from Sundsvall via Gothenburg to Melbourne in Australia where it arrived 94 days1) after the departure from Gothenburg. After unloading they took in a cargo of grain (wheat) and other farming products1).
abl045
abl004
abl036
abl042
abl032
abl033
abl034
abl039
"The boat seen from the forecastle. The guy is Stig Staffg.rg, Gothenburger, and very likely me at the helm."
abl050
The Beatrice off the coast of Australia.
abl005
abl048
abl046
On the journey back from Australia, the ship passed Cape Horn on 9 May 1926 and the Falkland islands on 11 May2
After 116 days1) the ship arrived in London, though the whole journey from Sundsvall to Australia and back to Gothenburg took a year.
abl009
abl035
Calm weather and inactive sailors who have caught an albatross for fun. When the poor bird should be released it took the chance to give one of the men a deep cut into his arm.
abl047
Trying to catch a fish and got a pregnant shark...
Dad said they caught a big shark with small sharks in its belly. One of the men had the new-born small sharks swimming in a barrel on the deck for some days.
abl003
Taking (measuring) the height of the sun with a sextant.
abl051
s/v "Beatrice", Gothenburg, ex the English passenger vessel "Routenburn", built 1882.
First Swedish name "Svithiod". Broken up in Norway in 1932.
abl084
Jan Davidsson: Beatrice. Världens sista stora järnseglare, ex Routenburn, ex Svithiod. 1881-1932.
Forum. ISBN 91-37-06283-2.
Some data above (marked with 1 ) is taken from this book.
The steering wheel with the steering gear machine and a part of the main mast from the Beatrice can be seen at the maritime museum in Stockholm.
2 Private communication with Fredrik Welander, Gothenburg, based on notes in a diary.
More reading about sailing ships and the grain race from Australia

The story about the last journey with the Moshulu in 1938/39:
Eric Newby: The last grain race.
Eric Newby: Grain Race. Pictures of Life before the mast in a Windjammer.


Copyright © 2021, Cybis Elektronik & Data AB. www.cybis.se