Gustav Erikson

Gustaf Adolf Mauritz Erikson (1872 in Lemland – 1947 in Mariehamn) was a ship-owner from the Åland islands. He was famous for the fleet of windjammers he operated to the end of his life, mainly on the grain trade from Australia to Europe.

Erikson was involved in sailing for virtually his entire life. He went to sea at age 9, was commanding a sailing vessel in the North Sea trade by age 19, and was master of a number of square-rigged vessels before becoming an owner.

His ships were bought cheaply as most shipping companies switched to steam ships about the turn of the century; Erikson would often acquire ships at shipbreakers prices. In the early 1920s there was still some competition for the windjammers sold – the shipping company F. Laeisz even ordered new sailing ships in the 1920s – but in the 1930s Erikson owned a significant share of the operational windjammers of the world. In March 1935, he purchased ''Moshulu'', "one of the finest steel barques afloat", for only $12,000.

By the late 1930s, the South Australian grain trade was virtually the only profitable use for windjammers, and then only if the ship owner minimized costs as much as possible. Erikson supplied his ships adequately with crew and supplies as these were necessary for his ships to sail quickly and efficiently, but supplied neither more crew nor equipment than was necessary. Erikson's large four-masted barques would routinely sail on voyages of with less than 30 crew.

In 1935, 19-year old Richard Brinsley Sheridan published his book ‘’Heavenly Hell: The Experiences of an Apprentice in a Four-Mast Barque’’, describing his ten-months in Erikson’s barque Lawhill. Richard Brinsley Sheridan, ‘’Heavenly Hell: The Experiences of an Apprentice in a Four-Mast Barque’’ London: Putnam, 1935.

A young Eric Newby sailed to Australia on ''Moshulu'' in 1938–1939, as part of the South Australian grain trade. At the time she was owned by Erikson and part of the last "great fleet of sailing ships". Newby chronicled his trip in '' The Last Grain Race'' and ''Learning the Ropes'', where he wrote that Erikson was both respected and reviled by the crew, who knew him only as "Ploddy Gustav". Of the 13 ships which took part in the 1939 grain race, 10 were Erikson ships.

Ships

* '' Tjerimai'' (1913–1925, three-masted composite (wood on iron frames) barque, 1 550 t, built 1883 in Amsterdam. Sank in the North Sea in a collision with a Dutch trawler, the captain died)
* ''Åland'' (1913–1914, ex ''Renée Rickmers'', four-masted iron barque, 3 300 t, built 1887 in Glasgow. Ran aground on a coral reef off New Caledonia as lighthouses were unlit, wrecked, crew saved)
* ''Fredenborg'' (1914–1916, three-masted wooden barque, built 1881 in Geta, Åland, about 700 t. Sold, wrecked same year)
* ''Borrowdale'' (1916–1917, three-masted iron barque, 1 850 t, built 1868 in Liverpool. Torpedoed by Germans by the mouth of the Bristol channel, crew saved)

* '' Grace Harwar'' (1916–1935, three-masted full-rigged steel ship, 2 950 t, built 1889 in Glasgow. Sold to be scrapped)
* ''Professor Koch'' (1916–1923, three-masted steel barque, 2 350 t, built 1891 in Glasgow. Collided with an iceberg, continued to Montevideo, was deemed wrecked)
* ''Ingrid'' (1917–1919, wooden barquentine, 650 t, built 1907 in Geta. Took refuge in Falmouth, deemed as wrecked. The English repaired the ship, mounted an auxiliary engine and sailed it in West India among other places, scrapped 1939)
* ''Southern Belle'' (1917–1919, three-masted wooden barque, about 850 tons, built 1871 in Nova Scotia. Sold)
* ''Margareta'' (1917, four-masted steel barque, 3 100 t, built 1889 in Glasgow. Torpedoed in the Irish Sea, crew saved)
* '' Lawhill'' (1917–1942, four-masted steel barque, 4 600 t, built 1892 in Dundee. Taken as war prize by South Africa)
* ''Woodburn'' (1919–1924, three-masted steel barque, 2 600 t, built 1896 in Glasgow. Sold to Fiji to be a coal barge)
* Rigel (1919–1920, steamship, 500 t, built 1918 at Hietalahti Shipyard and Engineering Works, Helsinki. Sold.)
* ''Edgar'' (1920–1922, steamship, 1250 t, built at Hietalahti Shipyard and Engineering Works. Sold to Germany.)

* ''Herzogin Cecilie'' (1921–1936, four-masted steel barque, built 1902 in Bremerhaven. Ran aground in the English Channel, off Devon, wrecked)
* ''Loch Linnhe'' (1922–1933, three-masted iron barque, 2 200 t, built 1876 in Glasgow. Ran aground in the Kökar archipelago in 1933, wrecked)
* ''Pommern'' (1923–1953, ex ''Mneme'', four-masted steel barque, 4 050 t, built 1903 in Glasgow. In Mariehamn when the war broke out 1939 and did not sail any more, given to the city of Mariehamn as museum ship)
* ''Carradale'' (1923–1924, four-masted steel barque, 3 300 t, built 1889 in Glasgow. Sold to be scrapped)
* ''Penang'' (1923–1940, formerly ''Albert Rickmers'', three-masted steel barque, 3 250 t, built 1905 in Bremerhaven. Torpedoed in the Atlantic, all 18 men lost)
* '' Archibald Russell'' (1924–1948, four-masted steel barque, 3 950 t, built 1905 in Greenock, Scotland. In Hull when World War II broke out, seized 1941, returned to the shipowner 1948, sold to be scrapped)
* '' Killoran'' (1924–1940, three-masted steel barque, 3 050 t, built 1900 in Troon, Scotland. Sunk by German auxiliary cruiser Widder off the Canary Islands, crew released 1941)
* '' Olivebank'' (1924–1939, four-masted steel barque, 4 400 t, built 1892 in Glasgow. Ran on a mine in the North Sea 8.9.1939, 14 men drowned)
* ''Carmen'' (1924–1934, three-masted wooden barque, 850 t, built 1921 in Granboda, Åland. Abandoned near Bornholm 2.9.1934, left to the rescuers)
* ''Polstjernan'' (1924, four-masted wooden schooner, 1600 t, built 1920 in Dragsfjärd, Finland. Sold 7.3.1924 to Koivisto Primorsk?])
* Baltic (1924–1939, four-masted wooden barquentine, 750 t, built 1919 in Lemland, Åland. Sold to Rauma r to Uusikaupunki?">Uusikaupunki.html" ;"title="r to Uusikaupunki">r to Uusikaupunki?.
* ''Hougomont (barque)">Hougomont'' (1925–1932, four-masted steel barque, 4 000 t, built 1897 in Greenock in England. Unrigged in a tornado off Australia, became a breakwater (structure)">breakwater