Built in Glasgow in 1903, the SV Pommern is now—75 years after going out of service—afloat and restored. She is tied up across the street from the Ålands sjöfartsmuseum, a maritime museum in Mariehamn, the delightful capital (and only town on) the chief island of the Åland Islands, a Finnish archipelago in the Baltic. Known as a lucky ship, she survived both World War I and II, and had very few casualties throughout her career. She is one of four remaining “Flying P-Liners,” sailing ships revered for their high speed and reliability that had names beginning with the letter P.
That she is “large” isn’t debatable: the four-masted barque is nearly 350 feet long, 43 feet abeam, and draws 22 feet, and her tubular steel masts rise to 157 feet above the water. Her cargo hold, a single open space loaded through four main deck hatches, can swallow nearly 8,400 cubic yards and hold 4,050 tons.
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