Built as an oceanographic research vessel by the BOEL yard in Temse, Belgium for the Royal Belgium Navy.
Launched as the ZÉNOBE GRAMME (A 958).
Displacement 136 ton, dim. 28.15 x 6.85 x 2.80m. (draught)
One 6-cyl. auxiliary diesel engine 230 hp, speed under engine, 8 knots.
Bermuda ketch rigged, sail area 700m²
1961 Delivered to the Belgium Navy.
The Sail Training Ship Zénobe Gramme was originally designed as an
oceanographic research vessel by the naval architect Van Dijck and was built in
1961 at the former Boel shipyards in Temse, Belgium. She is named after the
scientist Zénobe Gramme, the inventor of the dynamo (1869). She was used as
a research vessel until 1970, since then she has exclusively been used as a
sail training and public relations vessel.
BNS Zénobe Gramme, a 29 m (92 ft) Bermuda Ketch, is owned and operated by
the Belgian Navy.
The ship has been adopted by the Bruxelles Royal Yacht Club. Her home port is
the Belgian Naval base in Zeebrugge. The crew consists of 1 Officer, 6
crewmembers and 10 trainees.
She participated in The Tall Ships Races for the first time in 1972 has been a
regular participant ever since. She won the Cutty Sark Trophy in 1976 and the
Hans Reith Memorial Trophy and the Sail Training International Ince Trophy in
2003. She has covered 300.000 Nautical miles (557.000 km) since 1961 till September 2008.
Total of sailing hours since commissioned, 30,061 hours till September 2008.
Belgium 2012 sg?, scott?
Source: http://www.yachtweb.be/yachting/zenobegramme.pdf. Belgium Navy web-site.
The Vikings did use maps to navigate their ships. One of the oldest preserved Icelandic map of the North Atlantic known is the Skalholt Map, which dates from 1590 and was made by Icelander Sigurdur Stefansson. It shows the North Atlantic with its shorelines and islands.
For the Vikings to be able to sail for long periods without sighting land, however, required some other form of navigation. The course may have been held by reference to the celestial bodies. Or using the shadow cast by a stick onto a slab, the height of the sun could be found and the course determined. Another aid possibly used was so-called sunstone. This is a kind of quartzite that breaks up the rays of the sun and made it possible to locate the sun even in cloudy conditions.
Viking ships were the pride of any Viking sailor. These ships were made of wood with a rudder, mast, and rigging with a square sail made from wool. From archaeological finds in Norway, Denmark and Sweden we know that these ships were sharp-sterned with high raised prows. The prow and stern were very similar in design. Most of the oldest Viking ships can be divided into two different groups: the longship/warship and the trade vessel/Knarr. Longships have been measured 16 to 36 meters in length and the largest could be manned by a crew of around 100, of which 78 manned the oars. The trade ships had much smaller crews of 6-12 men.
Faroe 2002 6.50 Kr. sgMS?, scott?
Source: Faroe Post
