Built as a ship rigged steel sailing vessel by Huygens & van Gelder at their Concordia shipyard at Amsterdam for W.A.Huygens, Bussum, Netherlands.
1897 laid down.
1898 Launched under the name EUROPA.
Tonnage 1.911 grt., dim. 258.7 x 42 x 23.6ft. Average draught 23 ft.
One cabin with two berths for passengers.
Could carry 26 sails with a total of 2.037 square meters of sail.
Capacity for 24 ton fresh water.
Crew 25.
Her maiden voyage was from Amsterdam to Batavia under command of Captain Gunther Bona, a very slow voyage, after a passage of 99 days she arrived there.
The next year she did much better.
09 March 1899 sailed from New York with a full cargo of cask of paraffin bound for Adelaide in Australia.
Arrived there on 19 May after a passage of only 71 days, this stunning quick voyage did give her in shipping circles the nickname “The Flying Dutchman”.
After returning to New York she made a second voyage from this port to Adelaide in 77 days, still a record voyage.
She made two consecutive passages between New Zealand and Batavia via the turbulent Strait of Torres, the first passage in 42 days en the second voyage in 44 days.
Still under command of Capt Bona she made more fast passages:
Gravesend to New York in 36 days.
New York to Melbourne in 90 days.
Then from Newcastle, NSW to Falmouth via San Francisco in 135 days.
Liverpool to Wellington, New Zealand in 95 days.
Dunedin to Tocopilla, Chile in 42 days.
Tocopilla to the Isle of Wight in 99 days.
1904 Command was taken over by Captain Wiebes at Rotterdam.
Her last voyage under Dutch flag was also under command of Captain Wiebes.
18 October 1906 under tow of the tug SCHELDE she left Rotterdam in ballast for Frederikshald, Norway where she arrived on 21 October.
28 November after loading a full load of timber, the EUROPA sailed from Frederikshald, stayed at Frederiksstad due to bad weather and via Madeira (28 December), where the Norway pilot was disembarked, she headed for the south, passed Cape of Good Hope on 11 February 1907.
21 March she arrived off Melbourne after a passage from Frederiksstad of 110 days.
24 April sailed from Melbourne after the cargo of timber was discharged in ballast for New Castle, NSW, where she arrived on 01 May.
07 June sailed from New Castle with a full cargo of 3.300 ton coal, with a freight of 12 shillings a ton, the 12 shillings paid only the expenses of the voyage, he had chartered out the EUROPA for a full cargo of saltpeter out of Chile for 20 shillings a ton, and across the Pacific she sailed to Caleta Colosa, Chile (near Antofagasta) a voyage with much bad weather and head winds, one man was lost (Rudolf Andersen) when he fell overboard during bad weather.
21 August arrived off Caleta Colosa, and anchored on the road on 22 August after a disappointed passage of 76 days.
After arrival the next charter fell through, when she arrived very late, and the saltpeter freights from Chile got lower than when the owner got a charter for the ship for 20 shillings a ton, the owner refused a new charter for 18 shillings a ton.
08 January 1908 when shifting from Caleta Colosa road, one of the anchors of the EUROPA got foiled with an anchor of the ALSTERKAMP, and both ships collided, without any damage to both ships, the EUROPA got free and anchored outside again. At least on 10 January she sailed from the bay in ballast for Australia again.
19 April arrived at Port Phillip for orders, after a passage of 100 days. The EUROPA was chartered to load a full cargo of grain for 31 shillings a ton, but the charterer bought the charter back for £400, the price of grain was fallen so low in Europe that he did not want to ship his grain anymore to that part of the world.
24 April the EUROPA received orders to proceed to Melbourne for docking, and then to wait for orders.
19 May new orders were received from Holland the ship had to load a full cargo of nickel ore at Port Perie for Dunkirk. at only 17 shillings a ton.
23 May early in the morning she sailed from Melbourne and via the south coast of Australia she sailed to the Spencer Gulf, after a stormy passage she arrived on 11 June at the road of Port Pirie.
22 July she left from this place and headed to Europe via Cape Horn, which she passed on 12 September.
25 November she arrived at Dunkirk.
After arrival she was put on the sale list, the financial results of the voyage were disgusting. And the last Dutch tall ship was sold.
1909 Sold for £4.800 to A/S Lotos (J.A. Henschien & Co.) at Tvedestrand, Norway, renamed in LOTOS.
Under command of Capt. Gregersen she sailed from Dunkirk.
August 1916 Sold to A/S ODDERO (Thv. B. Heistein & Soner A/S and registered in Kristiansand S, Norway.
January 1917 renamed in ASRA by owners.
05 May 1917 was she torpedoed by a German submarine U-58 (Kl Wippern) in position 55 40N 12 10W, 140 n.m. nw of Tory Island Ireland while on a passage from Belfast to New York in ballast.
She was stopped after the submarine fires four shots into her rigging, her crew went into the ship boats, and then she was sunk by gunfire.
One of her lifeboats were after 38 hours, found by the Danish ship HANS BORGE. However, this ship was later that day torpedoed and sunk 10 miles from Balderic, Northern Ireland.
The crew, including the rescued sailors from ASRA, got away in her lifeboats, and after 15 hours, landed at Balderic.
The second lifeboat from ASRA, reached Innistchurch, Ireland after 50 hours.
Nicaragua 1996 2.50cor sg?, scott2150f.
Source: Europa Ahoy by A.C.Metzelaar. Great Classic Sailing Ships by Kenneth Giggal. Dan Rodlie; Skipet 01/1988, Norwegian Ships Sunk WWI.