Belem (ship)
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The Belem is a three-masted barque from France.
She is now a sail training ship, but she was originally a cargo ship, transporting sugar from the West Indies, and cocoa and coffee from Brazil and French Guiana to Nantes, France. By chance she escaped the eruption of the Mount Pelée in Saint-Pierre de la Martinique on 8 May 1902.
She was sold in 1914 to the Duke of Westminster, who converted her to his private luxurious pleasure yacht, complete with auxiliary engine.
In 1922 she became the property of the beer baron Sir Arthur Guinness, renamed the Phantom II.
In 1951 she was sold to the Venezian count Vittorio Cini, who named her the 'Giorgio Cini' after his son, who had died in a plane crash near Cannes on 31 August 1949 . She was used as a sail training ship till 1965. She was then considered too old for further use and was moored at the Island of San Giorgio Maggiore, Venice. In 1972 the Italian carabinieri reconverted her to the original barque rig. When this proved too expensive, she became the property of the shipyard.
Finally, in January 1979, she came back to her home port, as the Belem, flying the French flag. Fully restored to her original condition, she began a new career as a sail training ship.
Current specifications of the Belem
406 tons and 51 m of length.
- Riveted steel keel (for older parts).
- Iron sheet : 11 mm.
- Ballast in hull : 4500 pig irons of 50 kg each.
- Hull length without bowsprit : 51 m.
- Bowsprit length : 7 m.
- Extreme length: 58 m.
- Waterline length : 48 m.
- Midship width: 8,80 m.
- Draught : 3,60 m.
- B.R.T. : 534 tons.
- Displacement : 750 tons.
- Steel masts in 2 parts (lower mast, topmast).
- Main mast height above waterline level : 34 m.
- Lower yards in steel, top gallant and royal yards in wood.
- About 220 points of running-rigging.
- About 250 simple-blocks, double-blocks and triple-blocks.
- 4500 m of running-rigging in polyamid rope.
- Number of sails : 22.
- Sail area : 1000,5 m² (all above, without storm sail).
- Driven by 2 diesel motors: Fiat-Iveco, 300 HP each (installed at the beginning of the '70 by the Cantieri Navali e Officine Meccaniche of Venice), 1500 rpm at full throttle.
- Reducer-inverters : Masson 1/6.
- 2 propeller shafts, 2 four-blade propellers.
- 3 generators.
- Diesel storage : 40 tons.
- Cruising range : 24 days at 7 knots, about 4 000 nautical miles (7400 km).
- Fresh water storage : 20 tons.
- Production of about 3 tons/day par diolyzer.
- Electric windlass.
- 3 hydraulic capstans (two small on the bridge, one of each side, used to hoist upper yards, but never used during traineeships, one large on the poop, in front of the mizzen mast, used to heave tight hawsers during mooring operations).
- Maximum speed with engine on flat calm sea: 8 to 9 knots.
- Maximum speed with sails: 11 to 12 knots.
- 75° abeam wind capability.
- Duration to set all sails by good weather conditions : 30 to 40 mn.
- Duration to heave tight all sails by good weather conditions: 50 to 60 mn.
- Duration of a complete tacking : 15 to 20 mn depending on wind conditions.
- 16 men: - 1 captain, - 1 chief officer, - 2 lieutenants, - 1 chief engineer, - 2 cooks, - 1 boatswain, - 1 carpenter, - 7 yardmen (two from the French National Service until 2000).
- Personal management by la Société Nantaise de Navigation.
- Maximum number of trainees: 48 (two watches of 24, divided in third of 16).
External links
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