Amicitia (ship)

Amicitia

Ship data flag  Netherlands Ship type Clipper home port Harlingen Commissioning 1898

Ship dimensions and crew length 24.30 m ( Lüa ) width 4.80 m Draft Max. 0.95 m

Rigging and rigging Number of masts 2 Sail area 240 m²

Transport capacities Pax cabins 7th Berths for passengers 14th

The Amicitia is a small Dutch sailing clipper with a shallow draft (see flat bottom ship ).

The ship was built in 1898 and was used as a freighter for transporting beer to the southern Netherlands . It was later converted into a charter ship with seven double cabins, which can be rented for trips through the Dutch Wadden Sea and the IJsselmeer . The ship is therefore also part of the Brown Fleet , the tourist sector of the Netherlands, which includes traveling with historical ships.

accident

On August 21, 2016, around 1:50 p.m., the upper part of the mast broke off when entering the port of Harlingen and the falling gaff rigging including sails killed three passengers on deck. The fatally injured are a 48-year-old from Mölsheim (Rhineland-Palatinate), a 43-year-old from Neubrunn (Würzburg district) and a 19-year-old from Schiffweiler in Saarland. They were part of a family who rented the ship with a total of 12 people. The Dutch master (and owner) of the ship and his wife were also present on board. Apart from the victims mentioned, no one was injured.

At the time of the accident, there was a southwest wind of 5 to 6 Beaufort on the mudflats off Harlingen . It is assumed that the cause was that the mast was rotten from the inside, but this was not recognizable from the outside during the regular, legally prescribed inspections.

A similar incident, which only resulted in four slightly injured people, occurred a few months earlier, also off Harlingen, on the Poolster, which was twice as large (built in 1903).

Ship data

• Type of ship: two-masted clipper
• Length: 24.3 m
• Width: 4.80 m
• Draft: 0.95 m
• Sail area: 240 m²
• Number of masts: 2
• Harbor: Harlingen
• Sailing area: IJsselmeer / Wadden Sea

Ship name

Amicitia ( Latin for friendship ) is the original name of the ship.

Three other Dutch ships also bear the name Amicitia : two inland vessels for the transport of goods and a small passenger ferry.

Footnotes

1. ↑ History ( Memento from July 28, 2017 in the Internet Archive )
2. ↑ accident happened on yacht.de