Legendary Lehmkuhl

Passing her centenary in 2014, the sailing ship .Statsraad Lehmkuhl" has not only become the very icon of Bergen's maritime heritage, but also a much loved and admired aristocrat among the world's sailing ships. At her ripe age she is doing more than 25,000 nautical miles a year, sailing the North Atlantic every autumn and winning international trophies.

Legendary .Lehmkuhl" traces her origin back to the German empire, built in Bremerhaven as .Grossherzog Friedrich August" in 1914. Being ceded to Great Britain as war reparations in 1920, she was acquired by Kristofer Lehmkuhl and brought to Bergen the following year to become the sail training ship .Statsraad Lehmkuhl". After training two generations of seafarers she was saved for Bergen by the shipowner Hilmar Reksten and eventually donated to the Foundation for the sailing vessel Statsraad Lehmkuhl in 1978.

At that point a long and demanding struggle began to revive .Lehmkuhl" as a living sailing ship. After 13 years in lay-up she was back under sail in 1986, and the gradual upgrading to the latest safety regulations was only completed in 2004 after substantial investment. This was achieved by the collective effort by committed persons and contributions from the government, city, county and private sponsors, including the Friends of Lehmkuhl Association.

At the age of 100 .Statsraad Lehmkuhl" is in better condition than ever and is being operated more intensively than ever before.