# Suomen Joutsen, ex Laënnec, ex Oldenburg



## mikko_m (May 3, 2007)

Hello!

Some questions from Forum Marinum -maritime museum Turku, Finland
Forum Marinum is a national special museum specialising in merchant shipping and naval history and also an active maritime centre.

We have in our collections several museum vessels including fullrigger Suomen Joutsen (ex Laënnec, ex Oldenburg)
Ship was built in St Nazaire 1902 and sailed as a cargo vessel under French and German flags until 1930. She was purchased to Finland as a training vessel for the Finnish navy in 1930 and renamed Suomen Joutsen (The Swan of Finland).
She made eight training voyages in 1930’s and served as a mothership and support vessel during the WWII.
In 1960’s she was rebuild as a stationed Naval trade School. The Suomen Joutsen became a museum vessel in 1988. She is currently stationed at the Forum Marinum, Turku, Finland.

We are building a new exhibition onboard the vessel and need some assistance. We know quite little about her earlier career as a cargo ship. 
the Laënnec was owned by Société Anonyme des Armateurs Nantais. She sailed her first voyage to Chile in 1902-1903 under the command of capitain Turbé.
The French capitains of the ship were Turbé 1902-1906, Achille Guriec 1906-1916, Emile Delanoë 1916-1920.
1920 she was sold to Germany H.H. Schmidt & Co. Hamburg and 1928 Seefart Segelschiffs-Reederei G.m.b.H., Hamburg.

The German capitains were Dietrich Baller 1923-1924, Otto Lehmberg 1924-1930.


We would be thankful if someone can provide us information on her sailings and cargoes before 1930. We have only some sporadic information from these years we know that she sailed at least to Chile and Australia.

Any information on her crew as Laënnec and Oldenburg?
Information on her owners before 1930?
Photographs?
During the WWI she was armed with two guns. Does anyone know when and which caliber? 


Curator Mikko Meronen
Forum Marinum
Linnankatu 72
20100 Turku
Finland
+358-2-282 9504
+358-50-342 7922

[email protected]
www.forum-marinum.fi


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## K urgess (Aug 14, 2006)

Welcome aboard, Mikko.
Let's hope someone in the crew will be able to help with your research.
Enjoy the voyage.


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## Frank P (Mar 13, 2005)

Welcome onboard Mikko, we have a Norwegian member named Stein who is very knowledgable about sailing ships, if he does not see your post you could send him a PM.

Cheers Frank(Thumb)


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## stein (Nov 4, 2006)

Oh well, seems the museum is well informed already, I doubt if I can add much. Besides there is a member here posting under the name of Historicus who is generally much better informed than me.

Leaving Saint-Nazaire for Cardiff in ballast on her first voyage she ran into an English collier that sank after the collision.
On the 12th of December 1911 she had discharged three quarters of a cargo of Saltpetre in Santander when a sudden storm blew her onto the steamer Rhenania lying inside of her, and then onto the wharf. The damage suffered demanded 20 days of hard work under the supervision of Captain Louis Lacroix, the marine superintendent sent out by the ship-owners, to make her seaworthy again.
During the war, in 1916, Captain Gurriec became ill when the ship was lying in San Francisco, but refused to leave the ship and died on the return journey. The mate that took over suc***bed as well my source (Louis Lacroix) says, whether he died or merely contracted the same disease I can’t make out. 

As these stories are recounted by both Villiers (The Bounty Ships of France, p 177) and Lacroix (Les Derniers Grands Voiliers, p 346) I am absolutely certain they are known to the museum already, but just to demonstrate some willingness at least I have posted it. There are, by the way, a sail plan and GA drawings of Chantieres de St. Nazaire E-types on pages on pages 246 to 251 of Jean Randier's, Grands Voiliers Français. Good luck, and get Historicus’s attention, he might be the one to dig up something. Regards, Stein.


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## benjidog (Oct 27, 2005)

Welcome to the site and congratulations on your excellent museum which I visited whilst on an assignment in Turku a couple of years ago.

I am sure our members will do what they can to assist and can see that some of them have already done so.


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## Norman Brouwer (Feb 15, 2007)

Harold Underhill devotes almost four pages to her history (Sail Training and Cadet Ships 1956). There is an article in the French magazine Chasse-Maree April 1997 "Le LAENNEC; Trois-mats carre de Nantes," by Daniel Le Corre.


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## stein (Nov 4, 2006)

I had forgotten those two sources Norman, I'd like to make excuses for that, as I in the posting above claimed to have made an honest try. In Chasse-Maree No 106 (damn hard to find without the number, the date is not shown on the outside of the magazine), there are 16 pages devoted to her, with some very good photographs taken onboard the ship. If the content of this article is not known, it really should be acquired, the issue is still available from the publishers. Or a request could be made to the library of Norsk Sjøfartsmuseum in Oslo to xerox the relevant pages, as they do subscribe to the magazine - inter-Scandinavian helpfulness to be expected. E-mail adress of the Library leader at Norsk Sjøfartsmuseum: [email protected] Contact page for reaching the editors of the Chasse Maree: http://www.chasse-maree.com/index.php/component/option,com_performs/formid,3/Itemid,18/ (They would not be unlikely to sit on more than what was in that article). But there are thanks at the end of this Chasse Maree article to among others Ulla Kallberg and Maija Fast, which sounds like Finnish names, and there are several wintry pictures of the ship in Turku, obviously taken quite recently, so it would be natural to suppose there having been contact between the author and the museum, and therefore to be little that is unknown in this article as well?
Underhill devotes some space to her build, beyond that has only the two incidents recounted above on her time as French, though he has about a page on her time as German. Regards, Stein.


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## mikko_m (May 3, 2007)

*Than you!*

Tank You all!

Thank you Stein and Norman for your help. I knew the article on Chasse Maree but Lacroix was new source to me I have to look it trough. Fortunately we seem to have it in the library of Maritime History Institute of Åbo Akademi here at our Museum.

I just got some copies in articles on some german newspapers about her as Oldenburg.

Here is photo of her at our museum.

She is in fine condition for her age 106 years. Tough not in sailing condition because she was converted as a Naval trade school in 1960's.

I would be thankful on any information if you find more.

Mikko Meronen


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## Historicus (Nov 29, 2007)

Hello,
Apart from what is written in the Chasse-Marée and apart from the books from Underhill, Villiers, Picard, Lacroix and Randier I have a list of several passages made by the LAENNEC/OLDENBURG. Although the list is not really complete it is too long to send here as a message. Perhaps curator Mikko Meronen cares to write to me so that I could see what is to be done.
In the meantime I have a few corrections to what has been mentioned here in Ships Nostalgia:
- French captains : Turbé stayed as captain until 1904, not 1906. From 1904 to 1906 the captain was Allaire (Jean Allaire, I think).
- Complete list of the captains for 1922 to 1930:
Diedrich Ballehr 1923-1924, Otto Lehmberg 1924-1925, Julius Volquardsen 1925-1927, Otto Lehmberg again 1928-1930.
- Also a correction about the date when the LAENNEC was sold to Schmidt : November 1922 (not 1920)

I think the SOUMEN JOUTSEN is a splendid and historically important ship,for she is the last of the former French bounty sailing ships. I wish her, the Museum and the staff every possible success.

Regards,
Luc, Antwerp, Belgium


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## erkki mikkola (Nov 6, 2007)

Hello from Turku Finland

There is a short film clip from her navy days at living archives by YLE the Finnish Broadcasting Company
http://www.yle.fi/elavaarkisto/?s=s&g=1&ag=1&t=&a=2361

Erkki Mikkola


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