Argus (ship, 1938)

**Argus**
	The Argus as Polynesia around 2003
Ship data
flag	Portugal (1938–1975) Panama (1975–1984) British Virgin Islands (1984–1993) Honduras (1993–1997) Equatorial Guinea (1997–2005) Grenada (2005–2009) Portugal (since 2009); ; ; ; ; ;
other ship names	Argus (1938-1975) ; Polynesia II (1975-1984) ; Oiseau de Polynesia (1984–1985) ; Polynesia (1985-2009) ; Argus (since 2009) ;
Ship type	Logger
Callsign	3CM2027
home port	Gafanha da Nazaré
Owner	Pascoal & Filhos SA, Gafanha da Nazaré / Aveiro
Shipyard	De Haan & Oerlemans , Heusden / Netherlands
Launch	May 20, 1938
Whereabouts	Semi-trailer in Gafanha da Nazaré
Ship dimensions and crew
length	75.60 m ( Lüa )
width	9.80 m
Draft	Max. 5.90 m
displacement	829 ts
measurement	696 GRT , 413 NRT
crew	72 as a fishing vessel, 25 trunk as a cruise ship
Machine system
machine	MAN diesel engine
Machine ; performance	475 hp
Top ; speed	8 kn (15 km / h)
propeller	1
Rigging and rigging
Rigging	Four-mast staysail schooner
Number of masts	4th
Number of sails	13
Sail area	1323 m²
Speed ; under sail	Max. 11 kn (20 km / h)
Others
Registration ; numbers	IMO number 5023564

The Argus is a four-mast staysail schooner built in 1938 and used as a Portuguese fishing vessel. From 1976 she sailed as Polynesia as a cruise ship in the Caribbean. Since 2009 she has been waiting in Portugal for processing. She is one of the last remaining ships of the Frota Branca of Portugal.

Construction and technical data

The Portuguese fishing company Parceria Geral de Pescarias (Bensaudé) ordered the ship from the Dutch shipyard De Haan & Oerlemans in Heusden as a supplement to the four-masted schooners Creoula and Santa Maria Manuela built in Lisbon in 1937 . The design by the designer Alexander Slater was based closely on these two Portuguese schooners, which is why the Argus is repeatedly viewed as a sister ship . Here, too, the construction provided for a steel hull so that the ship could be used when the ice drifted - a result of the overfishing of the Newfoundland Bank and the shift of the Portuguese fishing fleet to the Davis Strait between Baffin Island and Greenland .

In the Netherlands, the schooner was at De Haan & Oerlemans under the hull number 206 to set keel , the launch took place on 20 May 1938. The four-masted staysail schooner, the Argus up to 13 sails with an area of 1323 m² carry. She is 75.60 m long, 9.80 m wide and has a draft of 5.90 m . The ship is measured with 696 GRT or 413 NRT and has a displacement of 829 tons. A MAN diesel engine supports the sailor. It makes 475 hp and acts on a screw . The ship can reach speeds of up to 11 knots under sail and up to 8 knots under motor. As a fishing vessel, she had a crew of 72 men.

history

Portuguese fishing vessel

The fishing company Parceria Geral de Pescarias put the Argus into service in April 1939 - just in time to take part in the new fishing season at the Newfoundland Bank. At that time the ship was still painted dark - mostly the hulls were black or dark gray. The white painting, which led to the designation "White Fleet", did not appear until the Second World War to increase the visibility of the ships. When leaving in the spring, the ship was usually loaded with salt, which was initially used as ballast and later for salting the caught fish. For the first voyage, the Argus left Lisbon on May 27, 1939 and reached the Newfoundland Bank on June 8. As the catches were not as good as expected, the schooner sailed on June 22nd towards Greenland in the Davis Strait. The schooners only moved to this fishing area in the second half of the 1930s, when the stocks on the Newfoundland Bank were overfished. From there it went back to the Newfoundland Bank on August 28th, where it stayed until the start of the journey home on October 11th.

For the 72 men of the crew 53 dories were available, which were stacked on deck. In the following years, until autumn, they mainly fished cod , which was caught by the dories with longlines and salted on board the ship. The fishing trip usually lasted until around October, after the return the ships were in port, were serviced and re-equipped over the winter.

During the Second World War, the Argus was also used as a cargo ship outside of the fishing season and operated between mainland Portugal and the islands in the Atlantic. In 1951, the Australian writer Alan Villiers took part in a fishing trip and processed his impressions in his book The Quest of the Schooner Argus (English: A Thousand Colorful Sails ). After 30 years of service, which launched Argus in 1969 for their last trip was after returning launched and sold 1974th

Cruise ship under changing names and flags

The ship was bought by the Canadian company White Fleet Cruise Ships , which in 1975 sold the ship to Mike Burke and his sailing cruise line Windjammer Barefoot Cruises , based in Miami, Florida. Only in the following year could the ship be transferred to the USA. The new owner had it converted into a cruise and charter ship with 57 passenger cabins and an additional deck, which significantly changed the appearance of the schooner. In total, the sailor was now able to accommodate 126 passengers with a crew of 25 to 45 men.

The ship was named Polynesia and was briefly called Oiseau de Polynesia in 1984/85 before it was given the previous name back. From the purchase in 1975 to 2009, the ship remained in the possession of Windjammer Barefoot Cruises , which, however, registered it under different company names in Panama , the British Virgin Islands , Honduras , Equatorial Guinea and Grenada . From 1975 the Polynesia then sailed in one and two week cruises through the Caribbean and up to the coast of South America to Ecuador .

When the company ran into financial difficulties in 2007, the sailor was banned from sailing in Aruba and had to be hung up, with the crew initially staying on board and relying on support. The owner was increasingly neglecting the Polynesia , which was beginning to disintegrate. The attempts to sell the ship did not lead to the desired success, so that a court in Aruba foreclosed the sailor in 2009.

Return to Portugal

The ship was bought by the Portuguese company Pascoal & Filhos , which had previously owned a large fishing fleet and at the same time was restoring the former fishing schooner Santa Maria Manuela . Due to the poor condition of the new acquisition, the Polynesia was towed to Portugal and should also be restored. Since 2009 the ship, which has been given back the old name Argus , has been in the port of Gafanha da Nazaré / Aveiro and is waiting to be refurbished.

Other preserved vehicles of the "Frota Branca"

Creoula : training ship of the Portuguese Navy
Santa Maria Manuela : civil training and charter ship
Gazela : training ship and museum ship in Philadelphia
Gil Eannes : Museum ship in Viana do Castelo

literature

Otmar Schäuffelen, Herbert Böhm: The last great sailing ships , Delius Klasing Verlag, Bielefeld 2010, ISBN 978-3-7688-3191-8 .
Jean-Piere Andrieux: The White Fleet. A history of Portuguese handliners , Flanker Press, St. John's 2013, ISBN 978-1-77117-236-3 .
Peter C Smith: Cruise Ships The Small Scale Fleet: A Visiual Showcase , Pen & Sword Maritime, Barnsley / South Yorkshire 2014, ISBN 978-1-78159-281-6 ( limited preview in Google Book Search ).
Mark Parsons: Burkes Navy. Windjammer Barefoot Cruises , Parsons Publishing 2011, E-Book Kindle Edition.