Seafaring life

This article was originally published by the Finnish seamen's mission in Finnish, below is a translation of it:

A Sailors life is full of surprises!

21st March 2023

Jan Rautawaara and Juha Pokka in front of "Anny"

When Jan Rautawaara was a little boy looking at ships in the Porvoo archipelago, he could not imagine that one of those ships would one day be his, and not that the ship he skippered in the summer of 1997 would still end up with him and his business partner Juha Pokka.

Text by Jan Rautawaara. Photos by Jan Rautawaara and Juha Pokka

Jeanny transiting Kiel canal.

Jeanny is the smallest Finnish merchant ship operating in the Baltic Sea, which operates exclusively on the German coast, transporting grain products. The ship's charterer is the German company Ahlmann-Zerssen.

When I first visited the sailors' church in Hamburg more than thirty years ago, you could meet sailors other than the crew of your own ship there. But these days, not many ships fly the blue crossed flag in the port, and you must really try looking to find in the church's guest book if any familiar sailing friend has signed his name there.

It doesn't seem like Finnish shipping is trying to attract ship owners to fly their own country's flag on their ships, it's much cheaper and easier under a nice flag of convenience. The few remaining Finnish merchant ships hardly visit Hamburg anymore.

Jeanny unloads grain in Rostock.

Our own one-ship small shipping company Gretacargo Oy is an exception to this. We bought the 67 meter Jeanny cargo ship built in 1970 in Holland in May of last year (2022). Previously, we had operated exclusively off the coast of Finland with the old, now hundred-year-plus-old ship Greta, which I sold when the newer and larger ship replaced her.

So far, Jeanny has been to Finland only once, last May (2022) for registration. Since last summer, Jeanny has exclusively transported various grain cargoes in German coastal trade, sometimes visiting Danish ports. There are only a few similar small tonnage ships in the waters of Northern Europe, and none of them exclusively transport grain products on the German coast. We are in a monopoly position, so there is plenty of work. This year, we calculate that we will transport about a hundred loads, so there are more or less no days off.

Jeanny's charterer is the German company Ahlmann-Zerssen, which has many years of expertise in chartering coastal ships.

Sailing in Central Europe is on a completely different level compared to the quiet coast of Finland. The traffic lanes are congested, the strong ebb and flow of the Weser and Elbe rivers largely determine the ship's departure and arrival times. Mandatory radio reporting in different areas and continuous inspection visits by local authorities on board make the job very demanding, which is not every skippers cup of tea.

Jeanny's crew is painting the side of the ship. What would the labor authorities say about this?

Jeanny does not have a bow thruster like in larger ships, and when empty, she drifts with the wind like a cork in water, making the handling of her very challenging. Mooring the vessel at small jetties in a strong crosswind or a tight pocket parking between a couple of large bulkers requires precision and seamless cooperation from the skipper and the deck crew handling the mooring ropes.

Finnish sailors in Hamburg

We visit Hamburg quite often to both unload and load cargo. There are a total of seven different berths that we usually visit. In most of them, it is quite difficult to get to Seamen's mission by public transport. But fortunately, the mission can arrange car rides for sailors, which is an excellent advantage for us.

Despite the tight schedule, visits to Hamburg are always an awaited highlight for us. At the same time, we get to go to a proper Finnish sauna and buy domestic products to replenish our stock of provisions. Thus, as a "foreign going sailor" you start to appreciate everyday mundane delicacies, such as liverpie, pea soup, Reissumies (rye bread) and herring. In Germany, these essential foods for Finns are not available.

Jeanny is waiting to be floated.

At the end of January (2023), it was scheduled time for Jeanny's shipyard visit, and the next three weeks rolled by at the Jöhnk Werft's dock in Harburg. During that time, our five-person crew often went to refresh themselves at their respective seamen's mission, we Finns at ours and the Filipino crew at the International sailors' club in Hamburg. The last-mentioned gentlemen weren't really very enthusiastic about saunas!

Gone are the days when sailors sat in a cabin with a beer when they were in port: an employee with such a mentality has no business on a modern cargo ship today. Especially on a small ship, everyone must always be rested and ready for the next day's tasks. Despite everything, working hard on such a small ship is still really pleasant and with a good crew, also fun.

Owner's of Jeanny, Jan Rautawaara (3rd from left) and Juha Pokka (4th from left) and their crew

The many lives of Anny von Hamburg

While Jeanny was docking, we were able to start tinkering with another ship that we had just acquired for our private ownership. It is a proper sailing ship, schooner Anny von Hamburg, built in Germany in 1914, which had been laid up alongside in Finkenwerder for the past couple of years.

The owner of the ship had put her up for sale and its masts were already in such poor condition that they had been removed to storage. Now just the hull of the ship was floating by the pontoon dock between a couple of other dredgers and a barge in a rather decrepit state when we arrived on her deck.

This culturally historically important ship has an extensive background, in which Finland is also involved. Originally named "Anny", it operated as a cargo sailing ship and had no auxiliary engine at all. The ship's owner planned to put his new ship on South American trade, but her first trip headed to St. Petersburg.

While Anny was in St. Petersburg, the First World War broke out and the ship was interned for use by the Tsarist navy as a cadets' accommodation ship. The ship was now renamed "Briz". When the Bolsheviks murdered the Tsar and his family, "Briz" was used by the Soviet Navy. According to our information the ship was stationed in Lake Ladoga.

In 1924, however, the ship was handed back to Germany, where it got its first auxiliary engine and a new owner and the name "Hanna". The ship started trading along the coasts of the Baltic and North Sea in a tramp trade. Later it was sold and at the same time the new name "Kurt Both" was painted on her bow. Still being German, it carried e.g. cement for the Naval submarine base under construction in Heligoland.

After the war, Kurt Both's sails and masts were removed and in 1954 the ship was lengthened by 8 meters, increasing its cargo capacity by almost two hundred tons. The ship's appearance was now so different that it would no longer have been mistaken for an old sailing ship.

Ringö on Vålaxfjärden 1967. You wouldn't think this was an old sailing ship anymore.

In 1957, "Kurt Both" was sold to Sweden, where she became renamed "Ringö". Again in 1962, she was sold to Porvoo, where "Ringö" started sand transport from the island of Vessö to Helsinki with several other coastal ships of the same size.

Having grown up in the Porvoo archipelago, as a little boy I used to look at these same ships with binoculars without realizing that one of those ships would one day be mine.

In 1979, "Ringö" was sold back to Sweden, where the new enthusiastic owners prepared the ship for trade on the African continent. Unfortunately during the works, a fire broke out on the ship, which destroyed almost all of the interior except for the engine room. The days of the old sailing ship seemed to be numbered and it would only be good for scrap metal.

However, a German ship historian happened to see the burned out hulk of "Ringö" on the shore of the harbor while traveling in Sweden and recognized it as the old "Anny". Then it wasn't long before the said historian managed to broker the old hull to an enthusiastic German ship owner who was interested in building the ship into a luxury yacht. Again with the German flag flying in the stern she limped on her old engine back to Germany to start her million-dollar overhaul.

Anny arrives at Süderelbe river

The sailing ship will be restored and repaired

Anny's new life now began as a yacht, when in 1982 she was handed over to her new owner after a major refit at the Glückstadt shipyard. During the two-year repair, the hull had been shortened back to its original size, the damaged steel plates of the hull were renewed, a teak deck was installed, and five luxury class cabins and a salon were handcrafted from precious wood in the ship's former hold.

Anny also got a new main engine, generators, air conditioning and an evaporator – an important device during ocean sailing – with which seawater could be made into drinking water. The ship's appearance and masts with sails had now been restored exactly according to the original construction drawings. Anny's voyages now headed to the Mediterranean and the Caribbean with six crew members and ten passengers.

Anny von Hamburg sailing while the masts were still intact.

In 1985, the ship registered under the English red duster and the name "Anny" was changed to "Anny von Hamburg". In later years, the ship also flew the flag of Antigua & Barbuda and later Portugal and again Germany under the control of a couple of new owners.

I myself sailed as a ship's skipper in the summer of 1997. I would not have guessed at that time that I would one day be the owner of the same ship! But the life of a sailor can be full of surprises!

Anny's skipper Jan Rautawaara in 1997

In recent years, Anny von Hamburg had not sailed much anymore due to her deteriorated condition. When we heard that she was for sale, we decided to save the ship, which was once again facing an uncertain future. We have both always had a dream of our own sailing ship, and now we were able to make it come true.

The three-masted schooner returns to Finland

While Jeanny was at the dock, we had the opportunity to explore the technology of our new ship "Anny von Hamburg". A ship that has been lying idle for several years requires a thorough inspection of the machinery in order to be able to trust the operation of the ship's machinery.

When Jeanny returned to traffic after docking at the end of April, we also started the main engine of "Anny von Hamburg", and with a large blue cross on white bottom flag bought from Hamburg's seamans mission flying behind her, we motored her from Finkenwerder to a small tidal port on the Süderelbe called Wischhafen.

Juha Pokka examines the ship's equipment in Anny's engine room.

Since this small river is only accessible at high tide, we had to spend the night at the pier in Glückstadt, waiting there for the tide to rise. Wischhafen was reached the next day. Despite the high water, we got stuck by the bottom in mud due to the deep draft of "Anny von Hamburg", and a local small tug was contracted to tow us into port.

There are other historic ships in Wischhafen, and the local maritime museum was very pleased with our visit. In the coming weeks, the ship will be prepared for the next trip, which will take place at the beginning of May. In this case, we will motor her to the shipyard in Mariehamn for hull maintenance.

During this spring, "Anny von Hamburg's" new mast trees will be felled in Finland, and during the fall we will use them to build our ship's new masts and booms. At the end of the year, she will look like a sailing ship again, and in the 2024 The Tall Ships Races event our vessel will make a comeback among the sailing ship fraternity.

In connection with the sailing event, our goal is to make charter sailings to the archipelago on "Anny von Hamburg" from Helsinki and Tammisaari. In coming years, the bow of the ship will be pointed toward Norway's Svalbard, the Mediterranean and the Caribbean.

Also, of course, "Anny von Hamburg" will hopefully participate in the Hamburg port fest ("Hamburg geburtstag" - largest fest in the world!) in a couple of years time! Then, between sailing legs, we will of course visit the Seamans mission for sauna sessions. One must uphold seafaring traditions!

Anny leaves Glückstadt. 

"Anny von Hamburg" is a three-masted schooner from 1914. Juha Pokka and Jan Rautawaara have recently bought the ship and registered it back under the Finnish flag. The Finnish flag flying at the stern was bought from Hamburg's Seamen's mission. The ship will start charter traffic in the summer of 2024 in connection with The Tall Ships Races event.

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Gretacargo Oy is a small shipping company founded by Juha Poka and Jan Rautawaara in 2018, whose business is coastal water transport. Jukka-Pekka Kiuru, who manages Gretacargo's office operations, became Gretacargo's small business a year ago. The company's registered office is Raasepori and the postal address is in Helsinki. The company's name Gretacargo comes from its previous ship "Greta", which was sold to the Finnish Sea Lake S shipping company in connection with the purchase of "Jeanny". "Greta's" new name is "Leonie".