 Suomen Joutsen anchored outside Helsinki in 1932. | |
| History | |
|---|---|
 France | |
| Name | Laënnec |
| Namesake | René Laennec |
| Owner |
|
| Port of registry | Saint-Nazaire, France |
| Builder | Chantiers de Penhoët, Saint-Nazaire, France |
| Launched | 7 August 1902 |
| Maiden voyage | 23 October 1902 |
| In service | 1902–1920 |
| Fate | Sold to Germany in 1922 |
 Weimar RepublicWeimar Republic | |
| Name | Oldenburg |
| Namesake | City of Oldenburg |
| Owner |
|
| Port of registry | Bremen, Germany |
| In service | 1922–1930 |
| Fate | Sold to Finland in 1930 |
 Finland | |
| Name | Suomen Joutsen |
| Namesake | Finska Svan |
| Owner |
|
| Christened | 1 November 1931 |
| Identification |
|
| Nickname(s) | "Ankka" (The Duck) |
| Status | Museum ship in Turku, Finland |
| General characteristics (as built)[1] | |
| Type | Full-rigged ship |
| Tonnage | |
| Length | |
| Beam | 12.3 m (40 ft 4 in) |
| Height | 52 m (170 ft 7 in) from waterline |
| Draft | 6.35 m (20 ft 10 in) |
| Depth | 7.29 m (23 ft 11 in) |
| Sail plan |
|
| Crew | 24–36 |
| General characteristics (as school ship)[1][2] | |
| Displacement | 2,900 tons |
| Draft | 5.15 m (16 ft 11 in) |
| Installed power | TwoSkandiahot bulb engines (2 × 150 kW (200 hp)) |
| Sail plan |
|
| Speed |
|
| Complement |
|
Suomen Joutsen is a steel-hulledfull-rigged ship with threesquare rigged masts. Built in 1902 byChantiers de Penhoët inSt. Nazaire, France, asLaënnec, the ship served two French owners before she was sold toGerman interest in 1922 and renamedOldenburg. In 1930, she was acquired by the Government ofFinland, refitted to serve as aschool ship for theFinnish Navy and given her current name.Suomen Joutsen made eight long international voyages before theSecond World War and later served in various support and supply roles during the war. From 1961 on she served as a stationary seamen's school for theFinnish Merchant Navy. In 1991,Suomen Joutsen was donated to the city ofTurku and became a museum ship moored next toForum Marinum.
In 1902, the French shipping companySociété Anonyme des Armateurs Nantais ordered two 3,100-ton full-rigged ships fromChantiers de Penhoët inSaint-Nazaire. The first ship, launched on 7 August 1902, was christenedLaënnec afterRené Laennec, a French doctor and inventor of thestethoscope. On 18 September 1902 she was followed by the second ship, namedHaudaudine afterPierre Haudaudine, which was lost off the coast ofNew Caledonia on 3 January 1905.[4] On 23 October 1902Laënnec left Saint-Nazaire and headed toCardiff, England, to load coal bound forIquique, Chile.[1][5]
Laënnec was almost sunk on her maiden voyage when she collided with an Englishsteam shipPenzance in theBay of Biscay, sinking the fully laden steamer within minutes.Laënnec, also seriously damaged, was towed toBarry for repairs. One of the reasons for the incident was that she was not carrying enoughsailing ballast on her voyage from the shipyard, and as a result her rudder was not completely submerged in water, significantly reducing the maneuverability of the ship. Towards the end of the nine-month voyage, while carryingpotassium nitrate from Chile toBremerhaven, Germany, a minormutiny broke out when four crew members disobeyed orders from Captain Turbé.[1]
In 1906[note 1]Laënnec was sold to a French shipping companyCompagnie Plisson. She made several voyages across theAtlantic Ocean and aroundKap Horn to thePacific Ocean, and around theCape of Good Hope toAustralia under the command of CaptainAchille Guriec. On her way back to Europe she carried wheat or potassium nitrate.[1]
On 12 December 1911, while unloading potassium nitrate at the port ofSantander, Spain,Laënnec was severely damaged when a storm pushed her against the pier and ripped the ship from her moorings, causing the full-rigged ship to drift against a Dutch steam shipRhehania. As there was no shipyard large enough to accommodateLaënnec in Santander, the ship was emptied and inclined until her damaged hull plating was exposed and could be repaired within the harbour. The repairs took 20 days and the ship, which by that time had become a popular attraction for the local people, left Spain on 1 February 1912.[1] In 1914 themain mast ofLaënnec broke off and fell over the starboard side when the ship was struck by a heavy storm in theNorth Atlantic Ocean. She was towed toBrest for repairs.[5] On 12 June 1916 Captain Guriec died onboardLaënnec while the ship was passing the Cape of Good Hope on her way back to Europe. The command was assumed by thefirst mate who, according to some sources, also perished before the ship arrived in England. Later the command was given to CaptainÉmile Delanoë.[1]
When theFirst World War broke out,Laënnec was equipped with two deck guns. Due to the presence of GermanU-boats in Europe, the ship spent the war years trading in the United States East Coast. After the war, she arrived back to her home port, Saint-Nazaire, after a 150-day voyage from Australia to be stripped and laid up. On 1 December 1920Laënnec was put for sale.[1]
In late November 1922, after having been laid up for two years,Laënnec was sold to a German shipping companyH. H. Schmidt & Co. fromHamburg. After refitting she was renamedOldenburg after the city ofOldenburg and, through an agreement with the German school ship associationDeutscher Schulschiffverein, she became a school ship for the German merchant navy.[6] Among the men who received their training onboardOldenburg over the years was the German U-boat aceGünther Prien.
In 1925, while rounding Kap Horn,Oldenburg lost her main mast in a storm and had to seek shelter due to damaged rigging. After emergency repairs inMontevideo, Uruguay, she crossed the Atlantic and headed back to Hamburg. However, due to strong easterly winds she was forced to pass theBritish Isles on the northern side instead of theEnglish Channel. 78 days after leaving theRío de la Plata estuary,Oldenburg was taken into tow by a German tugboat and towed to Hamburg.[6]
In 1928Oldenburg was sold to another German shipping company,Seefart Segelschiffs-Reederei GmbH fromBremen. In 1930, on her last voyage under the German flag,Oldenburg was almost lost when the cargo ofphosphate shifted in heavy weather. After two weeks in a heavy storm, the longitudinal bulkhead gave way and the ship assumed a list of 55 degrees. Lifeboats, spareyards and the kitchen stove were lost overboard. However, the crew managed to righten the ship and sail her toMalmö, Sweden. After unloading the ship was moved to Bremerhaven to be laid up.[6]
Although the school ship was left out from theFinnish Naval Act of 1927, the Finnish Navy decided to keep looking for a suitable vessel and purchase it separately from the major fleet renewal program. Over the years, opinions both in favor and against a school ship had been presented, but it was generally agreed that such vessel would be in many ways beneficial for the Finnish Navy. Initially there was also disagreement about the type of the ship — some were in favor of a modern steam ship that could be used in the local waters while the others preferred a traditional sailing ship that would teach the cadets traditional seaman skills and bring them closer tomerchant mariners. The latter was also recommended by foreign naval officials, and finally the Finnish Navy agreed on a sailing ship. This was further helped by theWall Street Crash of 1929 that had brought the prices down, and the fact that windjammers had been largely replaced by steam ships.[7]
In April 1930, theParliament of Finland allotted 4,000,000Finnish markkas for procuring a second-hand full-rigged ship and refitting it as a school ship for the Finnish Navy. During the summer of 1930, the Finnish officials inspected a number of Finnish and foreign ships that were offered for sale. These includedGustav Erikson's four-mastedbarquesPommern andHerzogin Cecilie, and several other ships, but all were deemed either too large or too dilapidated. In the end, the most suitable candidate came from Germany whereOldenburg, a 28-year-old former school ship of the German merchant navy, was offered for sale.[7] After inspecting the ship in Bremen, the Finnish officials purchased her in August 1930 and the German crew sailed the ship to Helsinki.[5][8]
After having been handed over to the Finnish Navy,Oldenburg was towed toUusikaupunki for refitting. The work, which began in late 1930 and continued until November 1931, included replacing part of the bottom plating, building an additional tweendeck, refurbishing the rigging, painting the whole ship and rebuilding her cargo holds to accommodate up to 180 men. The shipyard was responsible for the structural alterations while 62 future crew members and cadets of the Finnish Navy were responsible for the other tasks, including carrying 1,200 tons of stones to the ship as sailing ballast.[2]
On 1 November 1931, after a number of delays,Oldenburg was renamedSuomen Joutsen (Swan of Finland) afterFinska Svan, a Swedish 16th century warship that took part in thenaval action of 7 July 1565 between Sweden and Denmark. After launching,Suomen Joutsen broke her moorings in the strong breeze and damaged two ships, gunboatKarjala andOsmo, a laid-up full-rigged ship built in 1869, before she was brought under control. On 4 November 1931, she left the shipyard for Helsinki, under tow and escorted by minelayerM-1.[9]
Due to delays during the refitting and later problems with the steam heating system, the first voyage ofSuomen Joutsen was delayed until late December. CaptainArvo Lieto proposed postponing the departure until the next autumn as Christmas was drawing near and the sea was already freezing, but on 21 December 1931President P. E. Svinhufvud ordered the ship to begin her first international school sailing under the Finnish flag.Suomen Joutsen was towed to the sea on the following day, but she had to wait for favourable winds outsidePorkkala until 28 December, at which point she had already been grounded once. The streak of bad luck continued when the ship was anchored inTrongisvágsfjørður inSuðuroy, Faroe Islands, after stopping to purchase more lubrication oil atTrongisvágur.Suomen Joutsen dragged her anchors in a storm measuring 11–12 on theBeaufort scale, drifting stern first towards the shore. After two trawlers and a tugboat managed to get the full-rigged ship safely to the harbour, it was found out that the rudder had been damaged and the ship was towed to England for drydocking. After repairs,Suomen Joutsen continued to theCanary Islands, where she remained for three weeks while Captain Lieto was relieved of command and replaced byJohn Konkola, who served as the captain of the school ship for six full and two partial voyages. From the Canary Islands,Suomen Joutsen headed south, but the refrigeration system failed 500 kilometres (310 mi) before theEquator and she had to turn back before aline-crossing ceremony could be held. However, the crew got some consolation when news about the end ofprohibition in Finland reached the ship while she was sailing towards Finland in the Baltic Sea.Suomen Joutsen arrived in Finland on 22 May 1932 and was drydocked atSuomenlinna shortly thereafter.[10]
The second voyage ofSuomen Joutsen began on 18 October 1932, and after stopping briefly in the Canady Islands andCape Verde, she crossed the Equator on 11 December for the first time flying the Finnish flag. On 24 December, the crew celebrated traditional Finnish Christmas outsideRio de Janeiro, Brazil, and arrived at the port on the following morning. The visit of "Cisne Blanco de Finlandia", the white swan of Finland, was widely covered in local newspapers. From Rio de Janeiro,Suomen Joutsen continued her voyage toMontevideo, Uruguay, and then, against her original sailing plan, toBuenos Aires. After leavingArgentine and visiting a number of ports in the Caribbean,Suomen Joutsen crossed the Atlantic and finally arrived in Finland on 3 May 1933. On the way back, her crew caught a number ofsea turtles for theHelsinki Zoo.[11]
On her third international sailing,Suomen Joutsen left Helsinki on 1 November 1933 and headed to theMediterranean, where she visited the ports ofMarseille,Alexandria andNaples. While heading towardsGibraltar on her way to the Atlantic, an English steam ship tauntingly offered to tow the Finnish full-rigged ship which was sailing slowlyclose to the wind. However, shortly afterwards the wind changed its direction andSuomen Joutsen overtook the steamer with a towing line hanging from the sternhawsehole, offering to provide assistance for the slower ship. After stopping briefly at the Canary Islands, the ship crossed the Atlantic and arrived in Haiti on 10 March 1934 after 25 days of sailing. The return voyage began six days later. On 6 April, while in the middle of the Northern Atlantic,Suomen Joutsen was hit by hurricane-force winds that caused the ship to list almost 56 degrees. She survived the worst storm of her career without major damage and arrived in Helsinki on 16 May 1934.[12]
Suomen Joutsen began her fourth voyage on 30 October 1934 and arrived at her first stop,Cartagena inSpain, in late November. While sailing towards theGreek port city ofPiraeus outsideSardinia on 7 December, she was overtaken by the Italian 51,000-tonocean linerSSRex which passedSuomen Joutsen at full speed of 31 knots (57 km/h; 36 mph) from a distance of only 50 metres (55 yards). Although the holder of theBlue Riband was a sight to behold, seeing a full-rigged ship underway in the open seas was also becoming a rare treat. After visiting various ports in the Mediterranean, the ship returned to the Atlantic and stopped briefly at Ponta Delgada, but crossed neither the Atlantic nor the Equator.Suomen Joutsen returned to Helsinki on 3 May 1935.[13][14]
The fifth voyage ofSuomen Joutsen was the longest the ship had ever done under the Finnish flag. After leaving Helsinki on 9 October 1935, the ship stopped briefly atLisbon, Portugal, and then continued across the Atlantic, eventually arriving in thePanama Canal on 26 December. It took eleven and a half hours to transit the 81-kilometre (50 mi) canal. After leaving Panama behind,Suomen Joutsen headed south and crossed the Equator on 4 January 1936 with appropriate ceremonies. Later the ship stopped atCallao inPeru andValparaiso inChile, where five men escaped after a local barkeeper had offered them full upkeep for playing at his bar. The men were later caught by local officials and returned to Finland, where they were sentenced for six months in prison. After leaving Chile,Suomen Joutsen sailed around theCape Horn without major difficulties and arrived in Buenos Aires on 21 March. From Argentine, the ship continued to Rio de Janeiro, where she encountered the Brazilian school shipAlmirante Saldanha, whose purchase had been inspired by the previous visit of the white swan of Finland.Suomen Joutsen sailed out on 14 April and due to heavy weather and headwinds, it took seven weeks to reach the Azores. On 9 May, Captain Konkola turned 50 and after the crew had sung "Happy Birthday to You" at 6:30 in the morning, he stuck his head out from the cabin door and yelled "Steward, give thembooze!"Suomen Joutsen arrived in Helsinki on 4 July 1936. After a number of disagreements regarding the use of tugboats in the foreign ports, Captain Konkola decided to sail the full-rigged ship all the way to the harbour, crossing the narrowKustaanmiekka strait at full sail. Finally, when the bow had already been moored atKatajanokka, he allowed the tugboat to push the stern against the pier and the fifth voyage was over.[15]
On her sixth voyage, the most important stop ofSuomen Joutsen wasNew York City, where the ship arrived on 3 March 1937. Prior to this, the ship had visited Portugal,Senegal and a number of ports in the Caribbean after leaving Helsinki on 2 November 1936. However, the ship's first and only visit to theUnited States under the Finnish flag was an important milestone and a major media event. When the ship was sailing up theHudson River, an American film crew came on board to capture her arrival, andSuomen Joutsen remained the center of attention for the six days she was moored at the western end of the35th Street. When the ship left New York, a member of the crew was accidentally left on the shore. However, he managed to talk a local tugboat captain to take him back to the school ship and, for solving the problem on his own initiative, was left without punishment. After stopping atOslo,Suomen Joutsen arrived in Helsinki on theMay Day of 1936. Among the first people to leave the ship was a man carrying a livingcrocodile under his arm, captured for the Helsinki Zoo.[16]
The seventh voyage ofSuomen Joutsen began on 20 October 1937 and took the ship first across the Atlantic to South America. After calling Montevideo, she continued east toCape Town, stopping atTristan da Cunha along the way. The seventh voyage has often been called the unluckiest one as three crew members were lost before the ship arrived back in Finland on 12 May 1938. On 7 February, a seaman fell from the bow mast and was buried at sea on the following day. On the way to Cape Town, a sergeant became ill and later died in a hospital inSouth Africa on 10 March. On 10 May, a member of the regular crew fell to the sea while painting the hull when the ship was underway in the Baltic Sea. Many thought that the deaths were due to the crew killing threealbatrosses earlier in the voyage. Finally, whenSuomen Joutsen was outside Helsinki, a small airplane flew too close to the ship and crashed into the sea, but the pilots were rescued.[17][18]
Suomen Joutsen left for her eighth and last international voyage on 27 October 1938. After stopping at Copenhagen for provisions and clearing the English Channel — and almost colliding with the Polish passenger shipPiłsudski — she continued to theBay of Biscay. However, 15-metre (49 ft) waves forcedSuomen Joutsen to turn back on 23 November and head toBordeaux to wait for the weather to clear. Captain Konkola, concerned about his ailing health, was relieved of his duty and replaced byUnto Voionmaa on 3 December 1938. Under his command,Suomen Joutsen crossed the Atlantic twice, calling the ports ofPernambuco in Brazil andSan Juan inPuerto Rico. On her last stop atRotterdam, there were already signs of amajor conflict in the air, and had the war started before the ship arrived in Finland, she would have headed to the United Kingdom.Suomen Joutsen arrived in Helsinki on 22 April 1939, after which she never left the Baltic Sea again.[19]
During the summer of 1939, the rigging ofSuomen Joutsen was partially dismantled and her hull was painted dark grey. She was used as asupply ship for the Finnish submarine fleet within the Finnish archipelago. When theWinter War broke out on 30 November 1939, she was stationed inHögsåra with the submarines andcoastal defence shipsVäinämöinen andIlmarinen. After threeSoviet scout planes flew over the ships, the fleet moved hastily to another safe location nearNagu only hours before eight four-engined enemy bombers overflew the previous anchorage. During the first weeks of the war,Suomen Joutsen was assigned to "moving supply depot" under theArchipelago Sea Fleet that consisted of the full-rigged ship and a number of barges and tugboats. She served in this task until the Winter War ended with the signing of theMoscow Peace Treaty on 13 March 1940. During theInterim Peace she was stationed inNaantali.[20]
When theContinuation War started on 25 June 1941,Suomen Joutsen resumed her old tasks as a moving supply depot under the Archipelago Sea Fleet. Since the Finnish Navy now had a dedicated submarine tender,icebreakerSisu, the former school ship was relegated to supplymotor torpedo boats. After the war ended on 19 September 1944,Suomen Joutsen was used as an accommodation ship in Turku.[20]
During the war, around 150 men were stationed onSuomen Joutsen. The ship was lightly armed with only two machine guns and around 40 rifles.[20] She survived the war largely intact, with only minorshrapnel damage from Soviet air raids.[21]
After the war,Suomen Joutsen participated in the demining of the Finnish coastal waters, for which purpose she was fitted with an engine repair shop and a sauna for the crews of theminesweepers. She served in this task until the mine clearance was finished in 1948, but was afterwards used as an accommodation and supply ship for different branches of the Finnish Navy. In 1955–1959 she was stationed inUpinniemi.[20]
WhileSuomen Joutsen served as a supply ship for the minesweeping fleet, her crew rebuilt the rigging dismantled before the war and the school ship spent a couple of days sailing in the Baltic Sea in late 1948. Although there were plans to reactivate her as a school ship for either the Finnish Navy or the Finnish Merchant Fleet, or both, there were issues with hernaval ensign — as a naval school ship she would not be allowed to carry cargo or be crewed by civilians, but a civilian flag would force her to pay expensive harbour fees. There was also no longer need for a civilian full-rigged school ship. In 1949–1951,Suomen Joutsen conducted a number of short training and promotional sailings in the Baltic Sea, but never ventured further than the southern tip ofGotland.[20][22]
Although everything was ready for the first post-war school sailing,PresidentJ. K. Paasikivi was against the voyage — sailing a full-rigged ship so soon after the war while theFinnish war reparations to the Soviet Union were still being paid was deemed too flamboyant. It was Paasikivi who, as the director of the Finnish Export Society in the 1930s, had been one of the major supporters ofSuomen Joutsen. The danger of stray naval mines had also not completely disappeared.[20][22] In 1961, the Finnish Navy purchasedHMSPorlock Bay, aBay class frigate, as the new school ship.[23]
In the late 1940s, theFinnish Seamen's Union proposed the Finnish government thatSuomen Joutsen should be turned into a stationary seamen's school. As nothing happened, the Union renewed its proposal with a different tone in the late 1950s when it learned that the government was planning to sell the old full-rigged ship for German scrap dealers and, in fact, the first payment had already been made. The Union gave its ultimatum on 29 April 1959 and when the government did not react, the crews of the inspection ships under the Finnish Maritime Administration went on a strike on 2 May. Before the action could spread, the government acceded and it was agreed thatSuomen Joutsen would be stationed in Turku. However, due to intentional delays nothing happened untilNiilo Wälläri, the leader of the Finnish Seamen's Union, presented his final ultimatum on 13 January 1960: if the preparations to turnSuomen Joutsen into a seamen's school did not begin immediately, the Finnish state-owned icebreakers would go into strike on 15 January, effectively stopping all foreign trade. Two days later,icebreakerSampo began towing the former school ship through the icefields towards Turku, where the convoy arrived on 17 January 1960.[24] This was also one of the last missions of the old steam-powered icebreaker before she was decommissioned and sold for scrap.[25]
Suomen Joutsen was rebuilt again in 1960–1961 and most of her interior was converted into classrooms, workshops and student accommodation — only the captain's salon remained in its original shape. Two new classrooms were also built on the deck, slightly altering the appearance of the vessel. The first classes were held on 1 March 1961, and on 4 May the school was officially opened. On the same day, the naval ensign was replaced with the civilian flag.[26]
Suomen Joutsen served as a seamen's school for 27 years, during which time 3,709 students received their basic training on board the full-rigged ship. In the 1980s, the facilities on board the school ship were becoming too small and increasingly obsolete, and there were talks about closing the school by the end of the decade. There was also discussion about turningSuomen Joutsen to a museum ship. The school closed its doors in 1988 and three years laterSuomen Joutsen was handed over to the city of Turku.[27]
Suomen Joutsen has been open to the public since 1991. She is one of the largest museum ships in Finland, slightly shorter but bigger bygross register tonnage than the four-mastedbarquePommern inMariehamn,Åland, and considerably bigger than the wooden barqueSigyn which is moored next to her.Suomen Joutsen was moved from her original location next toForum Marinum in 2002. Her extensive renovations since the late 1990s included drydockings in 1998 and 2006.[28] Since 2009 she has hosted a permanent exhibition about her career.
On 25 July 2001,Suomen Joutsen received minor damage when the 1938-built steamerUkkopekka collided with the museum ship. However, the damaged shell plating and frame were above the waterline, so the ship was in no danger of sinking.[29]
In 2006Pekka Koskenkylä, the founder of Nautor, revealed that theSwan line of luxury sailing yachts was named afterSuomen Joutsen.[30]
In September 2016,Suomen Joutsen was towed to Turku Repair Yard for drydocking. After inspection and maintenance of the underwater parts, which is typically done once in a decade, the museum ship should be good for another ten years.[31] The ship returned to Forum Marinum in late October.
During her time as the school ship of the Finnish Navy,Suomen Joutsen carried out eight long sailing voyages in 1931–1939. Although her rigging was refitted for sailing after the Second World War, she was only used for short voyages in the Baltic Sea until her retirement.[3]
An exhibition prepared by the Finnish Export Society was carried on three voyages.
Suomen Joutsen is a steel-hulled full-rigged ship with threesquare rigged steel masts. Both main mast and bow mast have sixyards, the longest ones being 27 metres (88 ft 7 in) long and weighing four tons, while the mizzenmast has five yards. The height of her main mast, which consists of three parts, is 52 metres (170 ft 7 in) from the waterline. The sail area ofSuomen Joutsen is 2,200 square metres (24,000 sq ft)[note 3] and three sets of sails, each weighing three tons, were carried on training voyages. Herstanding andrunning rigging consist of over 30 kilometres (19 mi) of manilla ropes and steel cables. The typical sailing speed ofSuomen Joutsen was around 12 knots (22 km/h; 14 mph), but once in theNorth Sea she reached a record speed of 16.4 knots (30.4 km/h; 18.9 mph) with onlytopsails and theforesail.[1][2]
Theoverall length ofSuomen Joutsen is 96 metres (315 ft 0 in). Her hull is 80 metres (262 ft 6 in) longat the waterline, has a beam of 12.3 metres (40 ft 4 in) at midship and depth of 7.29 metres (23 ft 11 in) to main deck. When she was carrying cargo, her tonnage was 2,393register tonsgross, 1,734 register tonsnet and 3,100 tonsdeadweight.[note 2] The ship drew 6.35 metres (20 ft 10 in) of water when loaded, but as a school ship she sailed with a ballast draft of only 5.15 metres (16 ft 11 in). With 1,200 tons of stones assailing ballast, her displacement was 2,900 tons andmetacentric height 0.699 metres (2 ft 3.5 in). Later some of the stone ballast was replaced with concrete and iron.[32] Internally her hull was divided into five watertight compartments.[1][2]
WhenSuomen Joutsen was converted to a school ship for the Finnish Navy, her general arrangements were changed considerably in order to accommodate up to 180 men on long international voyages. In addition to living quarters, bathrooms and toilets, this included building kitchens and six refrigerated rooms for provisions, workshops for a carpenter, shoemaker and tailor, laundry room, hospital with ten beds and a small isolation ward, classroom, library, canteen, and more storage space for sails, ropes, paint, sand and coal. Nine freshwater tanks with a total capacity of 206 tons were also built, but in order to conserve water a traditional Finnishsauna was not provided. Instead, hot steam could be diverted into the washing rooms under the forecastle.[2]
Originally built without auxiliary propulsion,Suomen Joutsen was refitted with twoSkandiahot bulb engines, each producing 200 hp, coupled to three-bladed fixed pitch propellers. The twin-shaft propulsion arrangement was very uncommon at that time. In practice the engines were found out to be underpowered, but they could still be used to assist manoeuvering in ports and in heavy weather. Two generators (5 kW and 8 kW) were added to produce electricity for about three hundred lights. WhileSuomen Joutsen had a steam boiler for central heating, she did not have steam winches — anchors and yards were lifted using amanual capstan.[2]
60°26′10″N22°14′13″E / 60.43611°N 22.23694°E /60.43611; 22.23694