A voyage on a tall ship

TRAVEL | New Zealand
High up in the sails:
Tom Milligan learns
to catch the wind;
at the helm,
professional sailor
A voyage
on a
tall ship
A
word you often hear on board a tall ship is
“Heave!”, and it is something you want to hear
often. e command, which tells you to pull on a
system of ropes, also contains every sailor’s hope: that the
sails will fill with wind, and that the ship will soon be sailing farther out into the broad, blue ocean.
e Soren Larsen, a tall ship based in Auckland, New
Zealand, offers even non-sailors a practical way to experience life at sea. During the southern hemisphere summer,
she goes on short training voyages from the country’s
northern coast. ere’s no pressure: the guest or “voyage”
crew can do as much or as little work as they like. But on
this great wooden ship, you find you want to be a part of
it all, as changes in the wind and the waters of the Pacific
start to define how you spend your days.
Built in Denmark in 1949, the Soren Larsen originally
carried cargo. An English captain bought her in 1978, and
she became famous in Britain for her role in a television
series called e Onedin Line. After a major restoration,
several films followed, including one about Antarctic explorer Ernest Shackleton. For that, the ship sailed to the
Arctic Circle and into the icy waters off Greenland.
Fortunately, I’ll be able to sail in warmer waters. With
a group of other travellers, I am going to spend several days
sailing between the coastal islands of New Zealand, learning the workings of the old-fashioned ship and going
ashore to explore nature reserves. We will start from the
historic town of Russell in the Bay of Islands region, and
end in Auckland, New Zealand’s largest city.
The proud Soren Larsen:
a trip on the tall ship teaches
passengers about life at sea
Fotos: Ian Hutchinson; Rosemary Findley
Einmal Seemann spielen und als Crewmitglied auf Zeit den Alltag auf einem
Großsegler hautnah miterleben:
Vor der Küste Neuseelands ist für
ROSEMARY FINDLEY dieser Traum
in Erfüllung gegangen.
Old Christ Church:
in historic Russell
Before leaving land, I go on a short tour of Russell. Its
deep-water harbour has attracted ships since the early
1800s, when it was New Zealand’s first permanent European settlement. Back then, the port was known as “the
hellhole of the Pacific”, a place where prostitutes did a
lively trade with sailors who had been at sea far too long.
When Charles Darwin visited on the HMS Beagle in
1835, he called Russell a “stronghold of vice”. Perhaps
hoping to save a few souls, the English naturalist and his
ship’s captain, Robert FitzRoy, gave £15 towards the
building of Christ Church, today New Zealand’s oldest
Arctic Circle [)A:ktIk (s§:k&l]
ashore [E(SO:]
cargo [(kA:gEU]
explorer [Ik(splO:rE]
Heave! [hi:v]
hellhole [(helhEUl]
HMS = Her Majesty’s Ship
[)eItS em (es]
naturalist [(nÄtS&rElIst]
stronghold [(strQNhEUld]
vice [vaIs]
voyage [(vOIIdZ]
Polarkreis
an Land
Frachtgut, Schiffsfracht
Forscher(in),
Forschungsreisende(r)
Hau-ruck!
Dreckloch
Naturforscher(in)
Hochburg (→ p. 57)
Laster
Schiffsreise
12|10 Spotlight
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