page_title: Suomen Joutsen
section_title: After the war (1945–1961)
hierarchical_section_title: Suomen Joutsen / History / Suomen Joutsen (1930–) / After the war (1945–1961)
caption_attribution_description: English: Suomen Joutsen in the 1950s.
context_page_description: Suomen Joutsen is a steel-hulled full rigged ship with three square rigged masts. Built in 1902 by Chantiers de Penhoët in St. Nazaire, France, as Laënnec, the ship served two French owners before she was sold to German interest in 1922 and renamed Oldenburg. In 1930, she was acquired by the Government of Finland, refitted to serve as a school ship for the Finnish Navy and given her current name. Suomen Joutsen made eight long international voyages before the Second World War and later served in various support and supply roles during the war. From 1961 on she served as a stationary seamen's school for the Finnish Merchant Navy. In 1991, Suomen Joutsen was donated to the city of Turku and became a museum ship moored next to Forum Marinum.
context_section_description: After the war, Suomen Joutsen participated in the demining of the Finnish coastal waters, for which purpose she was fitted with an engine repair shop and a sauna for the crews of the minesweepers. She served in this task until the mine clearance was finished in 1948, but was afterwards used as an accommodation and supply ship for different branches of the Finnish Navy. In 1955–1959 she was stationed in Upinniemi.
  While Suomen Joutsen served as a supply ship for the minesweeping fleet, her crew rebuilt the rigging dismantled before the war and the school ship spent a couple of days sailing in the Baltic Sea in late 1948. Although there were plans to reactivate her as a school ship for either the Finnish Navy or the Finnish Merchant Fleet, or both, there were issues with her naval ensign — as a naval school ship she would not be allowed to carry cargo or be crewed by civilians, but a civilian flag would force her to pay expensive harbour fees. There was also no longer need for a civilian full rigged school ship. In 1949–1951, Suomen Joutsen conducted a number of short training and promotional sailings in the Baltic Sea, but never ventured further than the southern tip of Gotland.
  Although everything was ready for the first post-war school sailing, President J. K. Paasikivi was against the voyage — sailing a full rigged ship so soon after the war while the Finnish war reparations to the Soviet Union were still being paid was deemed too flamboyant. It was Paasikivi who, as the director of the Finnish Export Society in the 1930s, had been one of the major supporters of Suomen Joutsen. The danger of stray naval mines had also not completely disappeared. In 1961, the Finnish Navy purchased HMS Porlock Bay, a Bay class frigate, as the new school ship.
caption: Suomen Joutsen in the 1950s.
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