Monday, January 08, 2007

Gotheborg, the East Indiaman from Sweden

Sat 6 Jan. Mingloid, Merciless, Winnie the Pooh and her sista, Cherry Berry, head on down to the Promenade at Vivocity for a personal guided tour of the Svedish vessel, the Gotheborg. I was especially interested in meeting this ship as I'd been to Gothenburg, the motherland of this vessel.



Above : The ship (on ze left) docks at the Promenade in the body of water between Vivocity and Sentosa. [Somehow, those Quay cranes to the right (if that's what they're called) remind me of the Imperial Walkers in Star Wars]


Above : Siva, one of the 4 Singaporeans on board the vessel, shares his experience as a crew, sailing the HK-Singapore leg of the journey. Read more about their adventures here.


Above : Mingloid, moi and Winnie climb the upperdeck of Vivocity for a more wholistic view of the Swedish beauty! For an account of our adventures for that morning, click here or on photo above for lotsa photos and write-ups...


Other websites you may wana check out :-

The Gotheborg Project
SOIC

Looking back, I don't think I've been on many large vessels (not counting the liveonboard ones that bring you to the dive havens or deep sea fishing, or those at ferry terminals which ferry you or your bike or vehicle from 1 place to another)....let's see...

* USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN 69) - I remember it as "the Ike" - my parents brought me on this boat when I was yeh high (probably that of one of the stubs that you tie a rope around). Couldn't remember much except for the little pins they were distributing with "I LOVE IKE" printed on them. Still have one of those pins at home, somewhere.

* RV Heraclitus - From 1995 to 2006, it carried out coral reef studies with the Planetary Coral Reef Foundation around the world, exploring the islands and cultures of the Pacific while collecting data on the health and vitality of coral reefs. It made a stop in Singapore, and that's when a bunch of me Koh Kong Marine Conservation mates (including moi) took the chance to jump aboard and dream about sailing around the world on this lovely converted Chinese junk!

*Star Aquarius - Spent Chinese New Year on one of these cruises with my family many years ago. Great fun, except when you're sleeping just above the engine. Just found out it's now called Pearl of Scandanavia!

One vessel I would have loved to visit is none other than Jacques Cousteau's famous, Calypso - which was featured in Cousteau's long-running television series about the world's oceans! At least our claim to fame was that it sank in one of our shipyard's shallow waters after it had arrived in Singapore following a research and filming mission in China and Vietnam.

The date? 8 January 1996! That's exactly 11 years ago, today!

6 comments:

LingtheMerciless said...

Thanks for the heads up, Jeffiles!

Wish we could all sail on Infinity and beyond! :P

You, on the other hand, have done much more than any of us could have dreamed of! Double :P

Anonymous said...

glad u have the photos of Gotheborg! went down without my lens and in the end, bought the postcards, the book, the magazine. Too bad i can't get hold of their video. 8-(

i shared your photos with my friends, hope you don't mind. they bring back some little memoirs of the sea for us (http://www.tallshipstock.com/jifung.htm). 8-)

thanx!

LingtheMerciless said...

haha! I ran out of batteries after taking the first 2 photos, so had to run to the Vivocity Supermart to replenish them! Heng ah!

pls feel free to share the photos around!

is the tallshipstock website yours?

Anonymous said...

good pics and narration. i bought all the stuff related to her except for a pictorial of Gotheborg taken by a chinese photographer. I intend to ask my friend to buy from Guangzhou.

the brigantine shown is "STS Ji Fung" owned previously (before her fateful sinking in Greece) by the Hong Kong School of Outward Bound. 12yrs ago, some of us sail-trained on her for a month, sailing between HK & Philiphines. My instructor at that time was a British, Andy Brown. Before he joined OBHK, he & his friend became the 1st to cycle across the South America, South Africa & Australia unsupported. If you search in Amazon, you can find his book, "Discovery Road". 8-)

LingtheMerciless said...

My God! I have such adventurous friends, it puts my life to shame!

Guess I should try sailing at least once in my life.....and have a go at cross-country bike-touring too!

When are you authoring your first book? I chope one order!

Anonymous said...

omg what a small world. when i was on Ji Fung, I was also trained by Andy as well... duno he has published a book, thanks for telling!