The Ink and Paint Club

I just got back from a lunchtime tour of the D/S Hestmanden, a Norwegian freighter built in 1911. In honour of the 80th anniversary of VE day, she and a small flotilla are outwith Norwegian waters for the first time since 1946, visiting ports in Northern Britain.

It was fascinating to tour this vessel, especially the engine room - because she still has her original steam reciprocating engine, now 114 years old. It was converted from coal to oil in 1947, but everything otherwise (aside from some modern safety items) works as it did.

The cargo spaces have been converted to a museum covering the experience of Norwegian sailors in WW2 and since. It's fairly brutal, without being hyperbolic - something that I admire. The Norwegian merchant fleet was split during the war: vessels in port and unable to escape at the time of the German invasion were put to use by the Nazis, while those elsewhere in the world - the majority - ended up part of the Allied war effort, as freighters under attack in convoys. I'd never really considered before the experience of being a civilian seafarer in this scenario, being on the far side of the world when you learn that not only are you suddenly in a war, you also can't go home.
The museum doesn't stop with the end of the war, but continued following the survivors, who mostly arrived home in 1946 and 47, after Norway had finished celebrating peace, and so far as I understand they got pretty much ignored. It gets into PTSD and lack of understanding of such at the time, and the relationship between the wartime seafarers and the Norwegian state up to when they got an official apology in 2013.

It was a fascinating, if at times saddening, way to spend an hour. It reinforced what I'm feeling quite a bit at the moment: the world is sliding back towards facism, but I have papers to grade.After this week in Orkney the Hestmanden is sailing to Aberdeen, then Edinburgh, then Newcastle, before returning home. If you get the chance, go see her.