Even though the Greenland Trade Department had had meagre
success with its first two power-driven ships, the screw-propelled
barquentine Godthaab turned out to be third time
lucky.
Godthaab, which was delivered from Sandefjord in 1898,
was smaller than her predecessors, but she had a long career.
Except from the years of the occupation 1940 to 1945, during
which the ship was laid up in Copenhagen, she sailed up to
1954. For many years she was the most solidly built ship of the
Greenland Trade Department, designed for navigation in
Angmagssalik, the only settlement on the east coast at the
time, and was occasionally lent to the navy, when it was found
necessary to show the flag in the Denmark Strait and further
north.
Together with the somewhat larger screw-propelled
barquentine Gustav Holm, Godthaab was also used as an
expedition ship on the east coast.
Issued 20.10 2003 Greenland Philatelic