Tall Ship Pommern

The Aland Postal Service issued a new stamp with postage value of 0,55 Euro named "Pommern” which Celebrated 100 Years" on the 6th of June 2003. The stamp depicts a ship named "Pommern" which was built in 1903 in Glasgow by a German shipping company. Originally the ship was named "Mneme" after the Goddess of Memory Mnemosyne, until it changed ownership in 1906 when it was renamed Pommern. At that time the ship used to sail between Europe and South America. In 1923, Gustaf Erikson from Aland the world's last big sailing ship owner, bought the ship. As with most of his fleet, Pommern sailed in the grain races and carried grain from Australia to Britain. In 1939 Pommern sailed to her homeport Mariehamn and remained there until she finally was donated to the Town of Mariehamn as a museum ship. Pommern is one of four original masted steel barque in the world today. A trip to Australia took almost a year to manage and life was hard. The space on ship you had to share with pigs, sheeps. dogs, cats and rats.....Food and water where strictly rationed, meat stored in salt somethimes even for several years, where called "Old ropes", (strings from hawsers, in old days produced from hemp). And when the rain come, after a long heated trip in the Tropics, the sailors where happy, at least they could have a bath.

The picture on the stamp was taken from a painting by an Australian painter named Arthur Victor Gregory. This painting was done in 1931 and shows the Pommern with full sails caught in a storm. The artwork may be admired at the Aland Maritime Museum. Pia gave me this nice FDC.