Purchasing a Historic Ship for Fun and Profit
So, as I am sitting at my computer writing this, I have just returned to the UK from Den Helder, where I had been working on cleaning and preparing my historic ship for its return to the UK later this year. I purchased this particular vessel after it had been laid up for five years, before that it was the world's oldest working cargo vessel and sailed without an engine around the west coast of Europe, transporting wine and olive oil. It was the second ship in the fleet of Fair Transport, who also owned the Tres Hombres and the Tres sails across the Atlantic multiple times a year, transporting rum. But before she was a cargo ship for Fair Transport, Nordlys was a cargo ship in Norway, transporting firewood for close to a century, but again, that was not her original life.
Her original design purpose was as a fishing vessel, in particular, what is known as a converter smack. A converter smack is a unique style of fishing boat, local to the east coast of England around Great Yarmouth and Lowestoft, in the summer, spring and winter they would act as a normal, gaff-rigged sailing trawler towing a beam trawl, however in autumn they would be remasted with pole masts that were tabernacled and lugrigged to allow for herring drifting when the schools of herring came down from the North.
Jubilee was built in 1887, which means that she is the last sailing converter smack in existence and considering that she has been commercially operating for a century and a half, it is my goal to restore her and give her a new lease of life. My plan is to sail her back to the UK to Lowestoft, where she was originally built and restore her, then convert her into an eco-friendly research vessel for marine biology, oceanography and expedition platform.
As we plan to sail her back later this year, it was my job over the past week to clean her and prepare her for habitation so the crew can live on board for the trip back across the North Sea. When we first arrived, the task seemed insurmountable, mould was growing on all the interior surfaces and the previous occupants had left blankets and pillows and mattresses that had got damp and were also infested with mould. I do believe disposing of them was the worst part of the job, but everything moved surprisingly quickly and once you started the job, it was amazing how quickly and how dramatically the improvements came. It was really rewarding to see this boat that looked so sad come back to life.
We left the fo’c’sle to be used mainly as rope storage on the trip back as, although it was used by the previous owners as their crew quarters, there is no natural light and the bunks were and still are incredibly cramped. We decided to use the hold instead as we can sling hammocks in there as we will not be transporting the 25 to 30 tons of cargo that she would have been carrying when in revenue-earning service.
So that is where we started in the galley and the saloon, this took multiple days to clean, but eventually it was done. The mattresses were disposed of and the mould was removed from the walls. The galley and saloon, although much smaller than the hold, took an equal amount of time for they had been ransacked by thieves, who had stolen all of the wiring and the portholes, so it allowed the weather to get in causing damp and more destruction. The cooker was unsalvagable, it had rotted away to the point of no return, however, we could not remove it without removing the entirety of the galley, so we removed all of the bits we could and spent a long time cleaning what was left to a point where it would not cause any major diseases. The walls were scrubbed down with mould remover and sanitary spray along with the dining table, which, for the life of me, I cannot understand how the nine crew members could be seated at the same time. But again, once all the rubbish was removed, we found that it was actually quite a pleasant place to be.
Once those areas had been completed we started on the jigsaw puzzle that was the stern cabin which contains both the skipper's cabin and the navtable. The drawers and panels for this area had been scattered across the boat so, after cleaning all of them, it was a fun and interesting task to rebuild what was left and again became incredibly rewarding. This might also be a pleasant place to stay in the future. Once all the navigation equipment has been reinstalled, I am sure she will look even more like a vessel, but at the moment, I am incredibly pleased with how she is coming along.
Aside from the monumental task of cleaning this vessel, there were also many other enjoyable aspects of my trip to Den Helder, one of which was the plethora of wildlife that we could see from the deck. In the mornings, we would have a flock of starlings sitting in the mast singing and chirping, whilst in the water we would have many ducks swimming past. One of the most impressive sights was a breeding pair of crested grebes that were in full mating display. It was such a wonderful thing to relax and watch these birds. Most afternoons we would get a visit from a ship's cat, not from Nordlys but from another vessel in the harbour, who would come by and visit all of the boats. He has to have an airtag on his collar and we were told whenever we leave Den Helder we must do a thorough check of the boat to make sure he is not on board so as not to accidentally kidnap him, for he tends to enjoy having naps in the sun or in warm places on board ships. We found evidence of his presence in the skipper’s cabin in the form of paw prints in the dust.
I appreciate anyone reading this, and I will leave a link to my GoFundMe page here as I would also appreciate any donations to this enormous and costly project. Thank you.
