Oosterschelde

About

Oosterschelde’s sleek lines and huge sail area has sailed her charter crews around the world twice including a rounding of Cape Horn purely under sail in 2013, and as far afield as the Arctic, Australia and Antarctica. Be part of her guest crew as she continues to explore the very best cruising grounds with exciting schedules planned each year. It is not all hardcore sailing: Oosterschelde has the most spacious and elegant living space of all our fleet, and loves to explore warm places too like Cape Verde, the Caribbean, Brazil and Cuba. If you want an example of sail power, Oosterschelde is the real thing. A ‘National Historic Monument’ in the Netherlands, she is the only remaining working example of a large fleet of fast schooners that carried cargoes at the beginning of the last century.

Contact information

Call: +31 10 436 4258

Rotterdam, The Netherlands

Website:

Website

Mail: info@oosterschelde.nl

History

For the estuary in the Netherlands, see Oosterschelde. History Netherlands Name Oosterschelde Completed 1918 Identification IMO number: 5347221 MMSI number: 246011000 Callsign: PGNP Status Active General characteristics Type Topsail Schooner Tonnage 370 tons Length 50 metres (160 ft) Beam 7.5 metres (25 ft) Height 34.5 metres (113 ft) Depth 2.95 metres (9 ft 8 in) Installed power John Deere 6 cylinder, 500 hp Sail plan Topsail schooner, 891 square metres (9,590 sq ft) sail area Capacity Room for 24 embarked passengers, up to 120 passengers on daytrips Crew 4 to 8 Oosterschelde is a three-masted schooner from the Netherlands, built in 1918. She is the largest restored Dutch freightship and the only remaining Dutch three-masted topsail schooner. Her home port is Rotterdam. As a freighter with a deadweight of 400 tons, she transported mainly clay, stone and wood, but also herring, bran, potatoes, straw and bananas. In the 1930s, a heavier diesel engine was installed and some sail-rigging was removed (including the aft mast). In 1939, she was sold to a Danish shipping company and, rebaptised Fuglen II, became one of the most modern ships in the Danish fleet. In 1954, she was sold to a Swede, renamed Sylvan and thoroughly rebuilt to a modern motorised coaster. In 1988, she was brought back to the Netherlands. She had always been maintained well, but restoration to the original state turned out too expensive for private funding. So a foundation collected money from various sources, partly by selling shares in the ship. Restoration lasted from 1990 to 1992, with the help of her last Dutch captain, Jan Kramer, and three maritime museums to ensure authenticity. From 1996 through 1998 she made a trip around the world (route: Red Sea, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Japan, Australia, New-Zealand, Cape Horn, Antarctic, Açores). Maintenance is paid for through paying passengers and company presentations. A new voyage around the world started on 3 November 2012 and ended in May 2014. This brought the ship to Cabo Verde, Brazil, Cape Of Good Hope, Mauritius, Cape Leeuwin, New Zealand, Cape Horn and Antarctica.