''Danmark'' is a

full-rigged ship A full-rigged ship or fully rigged ship is a sailing vessel's sail plan with three or more masts, all of them square-rigged. A full-rigged ship is said to have a ship rig or be ship-rigged. Such vessels also have each mast stepped in three s ...

owned by the

Danish Maritime Authority The Danish Maritime Authority (Danish: Søfartsstyrelsen) is the agency of the Danish Government responsible for regulating and administrating Danish maritime affairs. The Danish Maritime Authority (DMA) is part of the Ministry of Industry, Busi ...

and based at the in Frederikshavn,

Denmark ) , song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast") , song_type = National and royal anthem , image_map = EU-Denmark.svg , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of Denmark , establish ...

Description

''Danmark'' is in overall length with a beam of and a depth of , with a gross

tonnage Tonnage is a measure of the cargo-carrying capacity of a ship, and is commonly used to assess fees on commercial shipping. The term derives from the taxation paid on ''tuns'' or casks of wine. In modern maritime usage, "tonnage" specifically r ...

of 790 tons. She was designed for a crew complement of 120 but in a 1959 refit this was reduced to 80. Although she is equipped with a 486-hp diesel engine capable of in other respects she retains many primitive features: for example, the steering gear lacks any mechanical assistance, and the stock anchors are raised by a capstan rather than a powered

windlass The windlass is an apparatus for moving heavy weights. Typically, a windlass consists of a horizontal cylinder (barrel), which is rotated by the turn of a crank or belt. A winch is affixed to one or both ends, and a cable or rope is wound arou ...

. The permanent crew has berths, but the trainees sleep in hammocks.

History

''Danmark'' succeeded ''

København Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...

'', a five-masted

barque A barque, barc, or bark is a type of sailing vessel with three or more masts having the fore- and mainmasts rigged square and only the mizzen (the aftmost mast) rigged fore and aft. Sometimes, the mizzen is only partly fore-and-aft rigged, b ...

which was lost mysteriously at sea at the end of 1928, as Denmark's principal training ship. Launched in 1932 at the Nakskov Shipyard in

Lolland Lolland (; formerly spelled ''Laaland'', literally "low land") is the fourth largest island of Denmark, with an area of . Located in the Baltic Sea, it is part of Region Sjælland (Region Zealand). As of 1 January 2022, it has 57,618 inhabitan ...

and fitted out the following year, she was built to train officers of the Danish merchant marine. In 1939 she visited the United States to participate in the 1939 Worlds Fair in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, but at the outbreak of hostilities in

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

she was ordered to remain in US waters to avoid capture by the Germans. She was then based in

Jacksonville, Florida Jacksonville is a city located on the Atlantic coast of northeast Florida, the most populous city proper in the state and is the largest city by area in the contiguous United States as of 2020. It is the seat of Duval County, with which th ...

, and maintained with the help of the

Danish American Danish Americans ( da, Dansk-amerikanere) are Americans who have ancestral roots originated fully or partially from Denmark. There are approximately 1,300,000 Americans of Danish origin or descent. History The first Dane known to have arri ...

community there. After the

attack on Pearl Harbor The attack on Pearl HarborAlso known as the Battle of Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service upon the United States against the naval base at Pearl Harbor in Honolulu, Territory of Hawaii ...

the captain, Knud L. Hansen, offered the ship to the U.S. government as a training vessel. This offer was accepted, and ''Danmark'' moved to

New London, Connecticut New London is a seaport city and a port of entry on the northeast coast of the United States, located at the mouth of the Thames River in New London County, Connecticut. It was one of the world's three busiest whaling ports for several decade ...

, to train cadets at the

United States Coast Guard Academy The United States Coast Guard Academy (USCGA) is a service academy of the United States Coast Guard in New London, Connecticut. Founded in 1876, it is the smallest of the five U.S. service academies and provides education to future Coast G ...

there. Approximately five thousand cadets were trained before the ship was returned to Denmark in 1945. Her designation in the U.S. Coast Guard was USCGC ''Danmark'' (WIX-283). She resumed her training duties the following year. In recognition of her wartime service, a bronze plaque was placed on the

mainmast The mast of a sailing vessel is a tall spar, or arrangement of spars, erected more or less vertically on the centre-line of a ship or boat. Its purposes include carrying sails, spars, and derricks, and giving necessary height to a navigation lig ...

, and ''Danmark'' was given the honor of leading the parade of ships at the 1964 Worlds Fair in New York. Experience with ''Danmark'' led to the acquisition of the USCGC ''Eagle'' from Germany at the end of the war as a training vessel. Training voyages continue to be offered, not only to Danes but also to those of any nation interested in learning the basics of seamanship on a large sailing vessel. The ship was one out of seven ships that was used for filming in the British BBC TV-series

Onedin Line ''The Onedin Line'' is a BBC television drama series that ran from 1971 to 1980. The series was created by Cyril Abraham. The series is set in Liverpool from 1860 to 1886 and covers the rise of a fictional shipping company, the Onedin Line, na ...

(1971-1980). The ship was involved in a collision with USS ''Minneapolis-Saint Paul'' in September 2022. ''Danmark'' was being towed by a tugboat at the time. File:Danish tallship Danmark.png, Line art of the Danmark

References

External links

Training Ship Danmark
from MARTEC site
Skoleskib DANMARK
from martec {{in lang, da Ships built in Denmark Tall ships of Denmark Training ships Three-masted ships Full-rigged ships 1932 ships United States Coast Guard Academy Ships of Denmark