Belem (ship)
Encyclopedia
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Barque
A barque, barc, or bark is a type of sailing vessel with three or more masts.- History of the term :The word barque appears to have come from the Greek word baris, a term for an Egyptian boat. This entered Latin as barca, which gave rise to the Italian barca, Spanish barco, and the French barge and...
from France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
.
- Construction year: 1896, launched on 10 June 1896
- Maiden voyage: on July 31, 1896 to MontevideoMontevideoMontevideo is the largest city, the capital, and the chief port of Uruguay. The settlement was established in 1726 by Bruno Mauricio de Zabala, as a strategic move amidst a Spanish-Portuguese dispute over the platine region, and as a counter to the Portuguese colony at Colonia del Sacramento...
and BelémBelémBelém is a Brazilian city, the capital and largest city of state of Pará, in the country's north region. It is the entrance gate to the Amazon with a busy port, airport and bus/coach station...
, Brasil - her namesake - Shipbuilding: Chantiers Adolphe Dubigeon, Nantes (Chantenay-sur-Loire).
- Home Port: NantesNantesNantes is a city in western France, located on the Loire River, from the Atlantic coast. The city is the 6th largest in France, while its metropolitan area ranks 8th with over 800,000 inhabitants....
- Flag : FranceFranceThe French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
.
She was originally a cargo ship, transporting sugar from the West Indies, cocoa, and coffee from Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
and French Guiana
French Guiana
French Guiana is an overseas region of France, consisting of a single overseas department located on the northern Atlantic coast of South America. It has borders with two nations, Brazil to the east and south, and Suriname to the west...
to Nantes
Nantes
Nantes is a city in western France, located on the Loire River, from the Atlantic coast. The city is the 6th largest in France, while its metropolitan area ranks 8th with over 800,000 inhabitants....
, France. By chance she escaped the eruption of the Mount Pelée
Mount Pelée
Mount Pelée is an active volcano at the northern end of the island and French overseas department of Martinique in the Lesser Antilles island arc of the Caribbean. Its volcanic cone is composed of layers of volcanic ash and hardened lava....
in Saint-Pierre de la Martinique
Martinique
Martinique is an island in the eastern Caribbean Sea, with a land area of . Like Guadeloupe, it is an overseas region of France, consisting of a single overseas department. To the northwest lies Dominica, to the south St Lucia, and to the southeast Barbados...
on 8 May 1902. All Saint Pierre roads were full of vessels, no place to anchor the ship. Captain Julien Chauvelon angrily decided to anchor some miles further on in a beach - sheltered from the exploding volcano.
She was sold in 1914 to Hugh Grosvenor
Hugh Grosvenor, 2nd Duke of Westminster
Hugh Richard Arthur Grosvenor, 2nd Duke of Westminster GCVO DSO was the son of Victor Alexander Grosvenor, Earl Grosvenor and Lady Sibell Mary Lumley, the daughter of the 9th Earl of Scarborough...
, 2nd Duke of Westminster
Duke of Westminster
The title Duke of Westminster was created by Queen Victoria in 1874 and bestowed upon Hugh Grosvenor, 3rd Marquess of Westminster. The current holder of the title is Gerald Grosvenor, 6th Duke of Westminster....
, who converted her to his private luxurious pleasure yacht, complete with two auxiliary Bolinder Diesel engines 300 HP each.
In 1922 she became the property of the beer baron Sir Arthur Ernest Guinness, who renamed her the Fantôme II (French spelling) and revised the rig from a square rigger. Hon. A.E. Guinness was Rear Commodore of the Royal St. George Yacht Club, in Kingstown, Ireland from 1921-1939. He was Vice Commodore from 1940- 1948. Hon. A.E. Guinness took the Fântome II on a great cruise in 1923 with his daughters Aileen, Maureen, and Oonagh. They sailed the seven seas in making a travel round the world via the Panama
Panama Canal
The Panama Canal is a ship canal in Panama that joins the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean and is a key conduit for international maritime trade. Built from 1904 to 1914, the canal has seen annual traffic rise from about 1,000 ships early on to 14,702 vessels measuring a total of 309.6...
and Suez Canal
Suez Canal
The Suez Canal , also known by the nickname "The Highway to India", is an artificial sea-level waterway in Egypt, connecting the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea. Opened in November 1869 after 10 years of construction work, it allows water transportation between Europe and Asia without navigation...
s including a visit to Spitsbergen
Spitsbergen
Spitsbergen is the largest and only permanently populated island of the Svalbard archipelago in Norway. Constituting the western-most bulk of the archipelago, it borders the Arctic Ocean, the Norwegian Sea and the Greenland Sea...
. During her approach to Yokohama
Yokohama
is the capital city of Kanagawa Prefecture and the second largest city in Japan by population after Tokyo and most populous municipality of Japan. It lies on Tokyo Bay, south of Tokyo, in the Kantō region of the main island of Honshu...
harbour while sailing the Pacific Ocean the barque managed to escape another catastrophe - an earthquake which destroyed the harbour and parts of Yokohama city. Hon. Arthur E. Guinness died in 1949. The 'Fantome' was moored in the roads of Cowes
Cowes
Cowes is an English seaport town and civil parish on the Isle of Wight. Cowes is located on the west bank of the estuary of the River Medina facing the smaller town of East Cowes on the east Bank...
, Isle of Wight
Isle of Wight
The Isle of Wight is a county and the largest island of England, located in the English Channel, on average about 2–4 miles off the south coast of the county of Hampshire, separated from the mainland by a strait called the Solent...
.
In 1951 she was sold to the Venezian count Vittorio Cini, who named her the Giorgio Cini after his son, who had died in a plane crash near Cannes
Cannes
Cannes is one of the best-known cities of the French Riviera, a busy tourist destination and host of the annual Cannes Film Festival. It is a Commune of France in the Alpes-Maritimes department....
on 31 August 1949 . She was rigged to a barkentine and used as a sail training ship until 1965, when she was considered too old for further use and was moored at the Island of San Giorgio Maggiore, Venice
Venice
Venice is a city in northern Italy which is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. It is the capital of the Veneto region...
.
In 1972 the Italian carabinieri
Carabinieri
The Carabinieri is the national gendarmerie of Italy, policing both military and civilian populations, and is a branch of the armed forces.-Early history:...
attempted to restore her to the original barque rig. When this proved too expensive, she became the property of the shipyard. In 1976 the ship was re-rigged to a barque.
Finally, in January 1979, she came back to her home port as the Belem under tow by a French sea-going tug, flying the French flag after 65 years. Fully restored to her original condition, she began a new career as a sail training ship.
'Belem' is an abbreviation of the town Bethlehem.
Current specifications of the Belem
406 tons and 51 m of length.- Riveted steel keel (for older parts).
- Iron sheet : 11 mm.
- Ballast in hull : 4,500 pig irons of 50 kg each.
- Hull length without bowsprit : 51 m.
- Bowsprit length : 7 m.
- Extreme length: 58 m.
- Waterline length : 48 m.
- Midship width: 8.80 m.
- Moulded depth: 4.60 m.
- Draught : 3.60 m.
- B.R.T. : 534 tons.
- Displacement : 750 tons.
Masting - Rigging
- Steel masts in 2 parts (lower mast, topmast).
- Main mast height above waterline level : 34 m.
- Lower yards in steel, top gallant and royal yards in wood.
- About 220 points of running-rigging.
- About 250 simple-blocks, double-blocks and triple-blocks.
- 4500 m of running-rigging in polyamid rope.
Sails
- Number of sails : 22.
- Sail area : 1000,5 m² (all above, without storm sail).
Propulsion and equipment
- Driven by 2 diesel motors: Fiat-Iveco, 300 HP each (installed at the beginning of the '70 by the Cantieri Navali e Officine Meccaniche of Venice), 1500 rpm at full throttle.
- Reducer-inverters : Masson 1/6.
- 2 propeller shafts, 2 four-blade propellers.
- 3 generators.
- Diesel storage : 40 tons.
- Cruising range : 24 days at 7 knots, about 4 000 nautical miles (7400 km).
- Fresh water storage : 20 tons.
- Production of about 3 tons/day par diolyzer.
- Electric windlass.
- 3 hydraulic capstans (two small on the bridge, one of each side, used to hoist upper yards, but never used during traineeships, one large on the poop, in front of the mizzen mast, used to heave tight hawsers during mooring operations).
Performances
- Maximum speed with engine on flat calm sea: 8 to 9 knots.
- Maximum speed with sails: 11 to 12 knots.
- 75° abeam wind capability.
- Duration to set all sails by good weather conditions : 30 to 40 mn.
- Duration to heave tight all sails by good weather conditions: 50 to 60 mn.
- Duration of a complete tacking : 15 to 20 mn depending on wind conditions.
Crewmen
- 16 men: - 1 captain, - 1 chief officer, - 2 lieutenants, - 1 chief engineer, - 2 cooks, - 1 boatswain, - 1 carpenter, - 7 yardmen (two from the French National Service until 2000).
- Personal management by la Société Nantaise de Navigation.
- Maximum number of trainees: 48 (two watches of 24, divided in third of 16).