Barba Negra

Built in Norway in 1896 as a two-masted ship for Arctic whaling, first named Moder. She later carried fish in northern Norway and the Lofoten Islands, and when refrigeration displaced the salt fish trade she turned to general cargo. Her rig was cut down in the 1940s and she was given an engine.

Refitted as a barquentine in the 1970s, she was used for whale watching and research and for Caribbean charter voyages. She joined the 1974 parade of sail in the Solent and the Tall Ships Race during the American bicentenary, and served as a centre for maritime environmental awareness and as an art gallery.

Captain Gerhard Schwisow donated her to Ship Shaped Adventures, an association intending to use her as a floating summer camp for terminally ill children and for children who had lost parents or siblings to war. She was by then in very poor condition and sank beside a dock in Savannah, Georgia; the plan was to raise her and restore her over two years.