Albatros

Built in 1899 for Captain Jon Muller of Middleharnis, she carried cargo between Holland and the Baltic and came through the First World War under his command. Muller sold her in 1920 to Captain Lolk of Svendborg, and her first engine, of 80 hp, was fitted in 1933.

In 1941 Captain Rasmussen of Hobro bought her. He kept trading through the war and used her to carry Jews and political dissidents out of Nazi-occupied Denmark to neutral Sweden, bringing back guns and explosives for the Danish Resistance hidden among her cargo. In 1964 her rig was cut down to steadying sails and a stronger engine installed. Rasmussen retired in 1978 after thirty-seven years aboard, and she was laid up in Copenhagen.

Captain Ton Brouwer bought her in 1980 and sailed her to Amsterdam. Between 1983 and 1987 she was completely restored under the supervision of Germanischer Lloyd, her original rig reinstated, and in 1987 she was recommissioned as a sailing cargo vessel — classed to carry freight under sail.

From 1987 to 1997 Brouwer ran her as Europe's last cargo ship under sail, taking on disaffected young people, trainees from Dutch nautical colleges and members of the German Liekedecker association, and covering some 20,000 nautical miles a year. She held a regular contract carrying soyabean meal from Ghent to a mill at Wells, and also moved timber, phosphates, soda and corn between ports in Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Poland, Estonia, Germany, Scotland, the Channel Islands and the east and south coasts of England. Between 1990 and 1996 she brought more than a hundred cargoes into Wells-next-the-Sea.

In 1997–98 her hold was refurnished and she was licensed to carry passengers. From 1998 to 2000 Greenpeace chartered her as a floating venue for children's environmental education along the Dutch coast, and at weekends and in school holidays she sailed on charter. In August 2000 she was officially invited to Sail Amsterdam.

Since 2001 she has been based at Wells-next-the-Sea, where members of the local maritime community formed a trust, The Albatros Project, to support her use as an educational centre. She ran aground entering the harbour in April 2002 and spent a month ashore before a Dutch salvage team dragged her off with air bags and four heavy anchors.