The Wylde Swan is a Dutch two-masted topsail schooner that was built in 1920 as a steam trawler and converted into a sailing ship in 2010 .
history
The ship was built in 1920 as a trawler at the Howaldtswerke in Kiel . It was designed in such a way that, as part of the German herring fleet, it could collect the caught fish at sea and then take it ashore as quickly as possible in order to obtain the best price for the goods. For this reason, the ship was constructed long and narrow.
The ship used by Hochseefischerei AG off the Shetland Islands was registered under the name Bromberg in Rüstringen . In 1921 it was sold to C. Andersen from Kiel and renamed Ursula . In 1938 it was saved from scrapping by Walter Michaelis from Riga and instead converted into a cargo ship. From then on, the ship carried cargoes under the name Hariet .
The German Navy confiscated the ship in 1941 and moved it to Gdynia . After the end of the war, the ship was delivered to Norway and operated as a freighter and sand transporter under various owners until the late 1990s. In 1999 the Dutchman Chris Woestenburg from Midlum bought the ship and transferred it to the Netherlands. After numerous changes of owner, Willem Sligting decided in 2001 that the ship would be suitable as a fast sailing ship due to its properties and bought the Wylde Swan to have her converted.
In June 2010, the ship was put back into service as a two-masted topsail schooner and registered as a sail training ship . Since then it has been the largest topsail schooner in the world.
