Denmark Sailing ships 2015

Over the years, Denmark has been depicted as a sea-faring nation on many postage stamps. This time, we are turning our attention to the Danish training ships, which play an important role for young people wanting a maritime education or a thorough introduction to life at sea.

The four stamps depict the training ship KØBENHAVN, which disappeared in 1928, the two current training ships DANMARK and GEORG STAGE, while the last stamp depicts FULTON, which is primarily used for school trips for primary and lower secondary school pupils, continuation school etc.

KØBENHAVN

The five-masted bark KØBENHAVN was
built for the East Asiatic Company. When launched in 1921, the ship was one of the largest sailing vessels in the world. In De- cember 1928, she left Buenos Aires bound for Adelaide, where she was expected
about two months later. However, the ship disappeared without trace on the voyage. Despite an extensive search, no drowned sailors or wreckage were ever found, nor has it ever been established what caused the ship to go down.

DANMARK

After the loss of KØBENHAVN, the training ship DANMARK was built. The new ship was finished in 1932, having been built for the sole purpose of training sailors for the merchant navy.

The state-owned ship takes 80 trainees. It is managed by the maritime and polytechnic

training centre MARTEC in Frederikshavn in northern Jutland. Since 2010, the language of instruction on board the ship has been English. This strengthens the linguistic skills of the future seamen, while also making it possible for trainees from other countries to do a basic training course on board DANMARK.

GEORG STAGE

The three-masted full-rigged ship GEORG STAGE was built in 1934 to replace an older ship of the same name. The full-rigger belongs to the foundation Stiftelsen Georg Stages Minde, which was set up in 1882 by the shipowner Frederik Stage in memory of his son Georg, who died at an early age.

GEORG STAGE houses one of Denmark’s four nautical training colleges and is also
the oldest civilian nautical training college
in the world. The three-masted full-rigged ship takes 63 trainees. It embarks on a cruise every year in the summer months.

FULTON

The three-masted schooner FULTON was built in 1915 and entered service in the North Atlantic, for example sailing dried cod from Newfoundland to Spain. Since 1970, when the National Museum of Denmark took over the schooner and refurbished

it, FULTON has been based in Marstal on the island of Ærø where she was originally built. In the 1970s and 1980s, FULTON
was captained for many years by Mogens Frohn, who devoted much of his life to a project aimed at giving disadvantaged youth

the opportunity to have a fresh start in
life. Today, the Fulton Foundation runs the schooner, which is primarily used for school trips for primary and lower secondary school pupils, continuation school students etc.

TRAINING SHIPS – A POPULAR STAMP IMAGE
It is not the first time that Post Danmark is issuing postage stamps featuring images of the Danish training ships. Back in 1993, four stamps were issued with images of training ships drawn by Bo Bonfils and engraved by Arne Kühlmann. Both GEORG STAGE and DANMARK were included in the series. Even further back, in 1976, Post Danmark issued a charity stamp to mark the bicentenary of the United States Declaration of Independence.

Technical Details

Issue Date: 13.06.2015
Designer: Post Danmark Stamps/Per Ingemann
Illustrator: Kobenhavn/Danish Maritime Museum, Danmark/Morten Beck Risom, Georg Stage/Photogeapher Unknown and Fulton/Jakob Jensen, Dawings: Martin Morck
Process: Offset
Colours: 4 Colours
Size: 26.5 x 36.6mm
Values: 7 KR