The Danish sailing training vessel, Danmark, moored up in Palma this morning for a brief visit. The ship was one of seven vessels used in filming the British BBC TV-series Onedin Line between 1971 and 1980.
Danmark is 252 feet (77 m) in overall length with a beam of 32 feet (9.8 m) and a depth of 17 feet (5.2 m), and with a gross tonnage of 790 tons. She was designed for a crew complement of 120, but in a 1959 refit this was reduced to 80.
Although she is equipped with a 486-hp diesel engine capable of 9 knots (17 km/h), in other respects she retains many primitive features: for example, the steering gear lacks any mechanical assistance, and the stock anchors are raised by a capstan rather than a powered windlass. The permanent crew have berths, but the trainees sleep in hammocks.
Training voyages continue to be offered, not only to Danes but also to those of any nation interested in learning the basics of seamanship on a large sailing vessel.
After the attack on Pearl Harbor the captain, Knud L. Hansen, offered the ship to the U.S. government as a training vessel. This offer was accepted, and Danmark moved to New London, Connecticut, to train cadets at the United States Coast Guard Academy there. Approximately five thousand cadets were trained before the ship was returned to Denmark in 1945. Her designation in the U.S. Coast Guard was USCGC Danmark (WIX-283).