From Miehikkälä to the seas

Translation from Finnish to English of the "Forestry owners" article in the 3/2023 edition, click link for related pictures (pages 8-9):

From Miehikkälä to the oceans of the world

Pages 8-9 (pictures Severi Pöhö, Reino Pietikäinen)

Text: Reino Pietikäinen 

At the beginning of the year, I got a call from Mr Martti Kolkka, who was one of my teachers in the forestry department of the Kotka wood economy school that was almost 40 years ago. He worked as a teacher for a long time at Evo forestry school and is now retired. Martti Kolkka is very enthusiastic about traditional building, especially in the use of timber for various buildings and structures. These also include sailing ships. The call from Mr. Kolkka concerned large larch trees that he was looking for essentially to be used for a sailing ships masts. During the conversation it turned out that not any larches would do as mast trees, the templates had to be about 24 meters long and well over 30 centimeters diameter at the top. I immediately thought of the larch in the forest lot owned by Mr. Raimo and Mrs. Margit Ahtiainen in Vironkoski (that is a district of Miehikkälä, Purho). I have tried with them several times to find a purpose for larch trees over 100 years old. Some have gone into sawn timber but the trunks are a bit too large for this purpose. It was agreed with the forest owners and Mr. Martti Kolkka that the suitability of larches as mast trees is surveyed. Mr Kolkka visited Vironkoski with representatives of the shipping company and after the visit it was positively decided that the schooner ANNY VON HAMBURG gets new masts from Mr & Mrs Ahtiainen's larch trees. 

Forest professionals at work 

The larch trees grew over the younger spruce that had grown up around them. Therefore, the felling of the long-branched larch trees had to be done as a "climbing cut", so that the spruces would remain more intact and also to prevent the larch trunks from being damaged. This "climbing cut" performed by forester and arborist Liisa Puustinen (Lissu Puu Co). She trimmed the trunks as he climbed up and cut the tops off. Felling of pruned mast wood trunks Lissu completed with logging entrepreneur Severi Pöhö (Seven Kaato ja Karsinta Co). Transporting the long masts through the forest to the highway was a demanding task. For this was contracted Mr. Eero Metsämuuronen, who towed the mast trees approx. 500 meters to a storage area with a tracked excavator. The length of the masts was 24 meters/pc, volume 4.6 m3/pc and weight approx. 4000 kg/pc.

ANNY VON HAMBURG

The masts are needed by ANNY VON HAMBURG into the masts of an steel-hulled schooner. The ship is at the dock in Mariehamn, where it is being renovated and at the same time new masts will also be installed. The ship was built in 1914 in Germany. The ship initially operated as a freighter named ANNY as a sailing ship. While the ship was in St. Petersburg, World War I began and ANNY was interned for use by the Czar's fleet Ladoga as a houseboat. In 1924, the ship was returned to Germany, when it got its first auxiliary engine and the name was HANNA. The ship operated in cargo traffic in the Baltic Sea and in the North Sea. The name changed to KURT BOTH and the sails and the masts were removed. In 1954, the ship was lengthened to 8 meters to increase the cargo space. In 1957 the ship was sold to Sweden and the name became RINGÖ. The ship continued to operate Finnish-owned in Porvoo since 1962. It transported sand from the island of Vessö to Helsinki. RINGÖ was sold back to Sweden in 1979. A fire broke out on board fire during the repair work and almost all the interior was destroyed. Then a ship historian identified the burned out ship as the old ANNY and brokered the old hull to a German ship owner. During the two-years overhaul the ship was shortened to her original length, steel plates were replaced, teak deck and five luxury cabins were installed and built including a salon to the tune of millions. The main engine, air conditioning and generators were renewed as well as an evaporator was installed to make water out of seawater possible. In 1982, ANNY started operating restored to original shape. The name was changed to ANNY VON HAMBURG in 1985, the journey continued under the English flag. Since then, the ship also sailed under the flag of Antigua & Barbuda, Portugal and Germany. The ship gradually fell into disrepair and the German owner put it up for sale. So the Finnish ownership group bought the ship and moved it to the shipyard in Åland. The goal is that ANNY VON HAMBURG participates in Tall Ships For the Race event next year, improved and overhauled.