Ship to Search for Missing Kobenhavn

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 634, 10 April 1929, Page 9

Ship to Search for Missing Kobenhavn

OVERDUE FOUR MONTHS EXPEDITION TO ANTARCTIC (Australian and N.Z. Press Association) (United P.A.—By Telegraph — Copyright) (Received 10.15 a.m.) CAPETOWN, Tuesday. A rescue ship is being despatched to-night from Capetown to search the Antarctic for the Danish training ship Kobenhavn, which left Montevideo, South America, on December 14 for Australia and has not been heard of since. 'J'HE Kobenhavn, the world’s largest sailing ship, is a steel five-masted barque of 3,901 tons. She has 70 cadets on board. She left Buenos Ayres on December 12 for Australia, and she has not been heard of since then. Some of the most prominent families in Denmark are affected. The Koebenhavn is rated at Lloyds as a steamer, as she has an auxiliary engine and a screw, as well as a sailing vessel. She was built in 1921 by Ramage and Fergusson, Ltd., of Leith, and is owned by the AtlanticEast Asiatic Company of Copenhagen, after which city she is named. She is 368 ft in length and carries wireless, The vessel was rigged as a five-masted anc * under full sail she spread 56,000 square feet of canvas. Her four square-rigged masts were 197 ft in height from keel to truck. Her lower masts v eighed 23 tons each, and the lower yards 4J tons each. On her masts she carried about 4Bi miles of standing rigging, weighing about 27 tons, 23 miles of running rigging, weighing 23 tons, 1,200 blocks, and 8 tons weight of sails in two complete suits. Designed primarily as a training ship th© Kobenhavn was lavishly furnished In her living accommodation. Under the poop, which was 112 ft in length, was the accommodation for the master, officers, engineers, and instructional staff, the cadets being housed in a large deckhouse abaft the mizzenmast. On her maiden voyage she carried a master, four mates, schoolmaster, doctor, two engineers, and one greaser, two cooks, a baker, two stewards, two boatswains, a carpenter, a sailmaker, wireless opei'ator, 28 seamen, and 18 cadets. On recent voyages the ship has carried 70 cadets and no seamen. The Danish people were justly proud of the Kobenhavn, which on her lirst visit to Copenhagen was inspected by the King and Queen of Denmark and over 12,000 people. Baron Juel-Brock-dorff, of the Royal Danish Navy, superintended her building and commanded her for several voyages. More recently she was commanded by Captain Christiansen. A notable feature of the Kobenhavn was her magnificent figurehead, a lifelike carving of Absalom the soldierpriest, who founded Copenhagen, clad in chain armour and carrying a battleaxe. The Kobenhavn, notwithstanding her carrying capacity, has a good turn of speed under sail, and had made some good passages. Tn 1925 she sailed from London to Bangkok, via the Suez Canal, in 64 days, and at the end of that year from Plymouth to Melbourne in 81 days. Tn 1926 she sailed from Java to Copenhagen in 86 days, and out to Adelaide in 78 days. On the latter passage the Kobenhavn was only 67 days from the Lizards to Adelaide, and slm a.verae-cn 11 knots for 21 days, running her eastingdown from the Cape.