page_title: Gustaf Erikson
section_title: Ships
hierarchical_section_title: Gustaf Erikson / Ships
caption_attribution_description: Original caption: “Viking (ship)” English: Viking, under Dannish flag. Dansk: Det danske sejlskib Viking.
context_page_description: Gustaf Adolf Mauritz Erikson was a ship-owner from Mariehamn, in the Åland islands. He was famous for the fleet of windjammers he operated to the end of his life, mainly on the grain trade from Australia to Europe.
  Erikson was involved in sailing for virtually his entire life. He went to sea at age 9, was commanding a sailing vessel in the North Sea trade by age 19, and was master of a number of square-rigged vessels prior to becoming an owner.
  His ships were bought cheaply as most shipping companies switched to steam ships about the turn of the century; Erikson would often acquire ships at shipbreakers prices. In the early 1920s there was still some competition for the windjammers sold – the shipping company F. Laeisz even ordered new sailing ships in the 1920s – but in the 1930s Erikson owned a significant share of the operational windjammers of the world. In March 1935, he purchased Moshulu, "one of the finest steel barques afloat", for only $12,000.
  By the late 1930s, the South Australian grain trade was virtually the only profitable use for windjammers, and then only if the ship owner minimized costs as much as possible.
context_section_description: Tjerimai (1913–1925, three-masted composite (wood on iron frames) barque, 1 550 t, built 1883 in Amsterdam. Sank in the North Sea in a collision with a Dutch trawler, the captain died)
  Åland (1913–1914, ex Renée Rickmers, four-masted iron barque, 3 300 t, built 1887 in Glasgow. Ran aground on a coral reef off New Caledonia as lighthouses were unlit, wrecked, crew saved)
  Fredenborg (1914–1916, three-masted wooden barque, built 1881 in Geta, Åland, about 700 t. Sold, wrecked same year)
  Borrowdale (1916–1917, three-masted iron barque, 1 850 t, built 1868 in Liverpool. Torpedoed by Germans by the mouth of the Bristol channel, crew saved)
  Grace Harwar (1916–1935, three-masted full rigged steel ship, 2 950 t, built 1889 in Glasgow. Sold to be scrapped)
  Professor Koch (1916–1923, three-masted steel barque, 2 350 t, built 1891 in Glasgow. Collided with an iceberg, continued to Montevideo, was deemed wrecked)
  Ingrid (1917–1919, wooden barquentine, 650 t, built 1907 in Geta. Took refuge in Falmouth, deemed as wrecked. The English repaired the ship, mounted an auxiliary engine and sailed it in West India among other places, scrapped 1939)
  Southern Belle (1917–1919, three-masted wooden barque, about 850 tons, built 1871 in Nova Scotia. Sold)
  Margareta (1917, four-masted steel barque, 3 100 t, built 1889 in Glasgow. Torpedoed in the Irish Sea, crew saved)
  Lawhill (1917–1942, four-masted steel barque, 4 600 t, built 1892 in Dundee. Taken as war prize by South Africa)
  Woodburn (1919–1924, three-masted steel barque, 2 600 t, built 1896 in Glasgow. Sold to Fiji to be a coal barge)
  Rigel (1919–1920, steamship, 500 t, built 1918 at Hietalahti Shipyard and Engineering Works, Helsinki. Sold.)
  Edgar (1920–1922, steamship, 1250 t, built at Hietalahti Shipyard and Engineering Works. Sold to Germany.)
  Herzogin Cecilie (1921–1936, four-masted steel barque, built 1902 in Bremerhaven. Ran aground in the English Channel, off Devonshire, wrecked)
  Loch Linnhe (1922–1933, three-masted iron barque, 2 200 t, built 1876 in Glasgow. Ran aground in the Kökar archipelago in 1933, wrecked)
  Pommern (1923–1953, ex Mneme, four-masted steel barque, 4 050 t, built 1903 in Glasgow. In Mariehamn when the war broke out 1939 and did not sail any more, donated to the city of Mariehamn as museum ship)
  Carradale (1923–1924, four-masted steel barque, 3 300 t, built 1889 in Glasgow. Sold to be scrapped)
  Penang (1923–1940, ex Albert Rickmers, three-masted steel barque, 3 250 t, built 1905 in Bremerhaven. Torpedoed in the Atlantic, all 18 men drowned)
  Archibald Russell (1924–1948, four-masted steel barque, 3 950 t, built 1905 in Greenock, England. In Hull when World War II broke out, seized 1941, returned to the shipowner 1948, sold to be scrapped)
  Killoran (1924–1940, three-masted steel barque, 3 050 t, built 1900 in Troon, Scotland. Sunk by German auxiliary cruiser Widder  off the Canary Islands, crew released 1941)
  Olivebank (1924–1939, four-masted steel barque, 4 400 t, built 1892 in Glasgow. Ran on a mine in the North Sea 8.9.1939, 14 men drowned)
  Carmen (1924–1934, three-masted wooden barque, 850 t, built 1921 in Granboda, Åland. Abandoned near Bornholm 2.9.1934, left to the rescuers)
  Polstjernan (1924, four-masted wooden schooner, 1600 t, built 1920 in Dragsfjärd, Finland. Sold 7.3.1924 to Koivisto [ Primorsk?])
  Baltic (1924–1939, four-masted wooden barquentine, 750 t, built 1919 in Lemland, Åland. Sold to Rauma [or to Uusikaupunki?]).
  Hougomont (1925–1932, four-masted steel barque, 4 000 t, built 1897 in Greenock in England. Unrigged in a tornado off Australia, became a breakwater in Investigator Strait in South Australia)
  Lingard (1925–1935, three-masted steel barque, 1600 t, built 1893 in Arendal in Norway. Collided with the Swedish s/s Gerda 1.11.1935, towed to Gothenburg, sold to the sailing ships' club of Norway. The crew of 21 of Gerda drowned in the accident)
  Ostrobotnia (1925–1934, three-masted wooden schooner, 800 t, built 1919 in Jakobstad. Scrapped at the Uusikaupunki yard)
  Winterhude (1925–1944, ex Mabel Rickmers, three-masted steel barque, 3 250 t, built
caption: Viking.
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