I just saw this posted on Facebook by my Babord crewmate, Per: the trailer for the documentary “Ostindiefararen – Till Kina och hem igen” (English: “The East Indiaman – To China and back again”). This film, by Peder Jacobsson, Patrik Axén and Johan Löfstedt premiered on the 7th of November 2008.

According to Amreta in Indonesia who saw the film at the Maritime Museum in Jakarta, Swedish singer Maia Hirasawa’s song, “Gothenburg” is played in the closing:

Hope I get to see it sometime soon!

Well, he didn’t see my favourite ship which he helped welcome back in Singapore in Dec 2006. Instead he encountered some tea and video and SMSed/emailed me:

While at his relative’s place in Guangzhou, Alvin, Robina and his sister ventured around in search of coffee and tea. Alvin then spotted a special edition Götheborg pu-er tea bricks! Read his blog.

Earlier this evening, he emailed me a link that had me writing to my old shipmates: he sent me this link to some footage from the Chinese CCTV webpage.

The videos are from a series called New Frontiers that was broadcast in June 2007. The feature, “A voyage chasing the sun” is in English and is base don the footage taken by the Chinese CCTV staff who accompanied the Götheborg enroute to China.

The first episode I watched featured the stopover, New Year celebrations and the arrival and training of the and at Recife – a year before I set foot about her planks!

“The whole world will become peaceful.”

My hard working fellow crew mate Morning (Shang Wu Yu) from China remembers the grand old ship with a photo album. Click to see photos of her on the Götheborg:

Meanwhile, Amreta Sidik from Jakarta has (finallly!) uploaded a whole bunch of photos from the Singapore visit (4 albums) and Jakarta as well.

In celebration of the 300th Anniversary of the birth of Carolus Linnaeus, the Singapore Botanic Gardens and the Swedish Embassy present: “Linnaeus and His Garden”.

2007 marks the 300th birth anniversary of Carolus Linnaeus, the Father of Plant and Animal Classification. Prof Tomas Hallingback, from the Swedish Agricultural University, Uppsala, Sweden will present a seminar on the history, design, transformation, preservation an the scientific significance of the world famous garden built by Linnaeus in Uppsala, Sweden.

All are welcome!

Date: Thursday, 2 August 2007
Venue: Library Courtyard (Level 1 Botany Centre),
Singapore Botanic Gardens

See also Habitatnews.

Finally, some photos from the celebrations at Göteborg! China-SG Port watch volunteer crew Josephine Lidvall just posted an album of photos on her facebook account.

Volunteer crew on the Götheborg

Port Watch sings!

L-R: Peter Bäversjö, Dag Jonasson, Tobias Gren, Per Nilsson Strängberg,
Henrik Alling, Stina Sahlström.

The Sunday after the Götheborg returned to her home port (10 Jun 2007), Ivan Chew and his wife were at a Chinatown tea shop that they frequent. Ivan spotted a picture of the Götheborg on a box of tea and asked the shop assistant if he could take a picture. He says,

“I quickly added that “a friend was onboard this ship,” and she said “ok, take take”. The picture but alas not the tea!”

The label apparently states that it is a limited edition and each box has a serial number and a little certificate. He was a little vague but did add that the tea hop, D’Art Station, had two premises in Chinatown at 63 Temple Street, Singapore 058608 and 65 Pagoda Street, S(059224).

I know many of my Swedish crewmates who were in China had returned home with bags of tea from the Chinese, which had been offered in friendship. The sailors from three centuries ago had done pretty much the same thing in an effort to rake in a some profit from the demanding and long voyage from Göteborg to China and back.

Ng Hua Qin was at Suntec City (Singapore) on Wed 13 Jun 2007 when he spotted a model of the ship Götheborg. He had visited the Götheborg when she was in Vivocity (Harbour Front, Singapore) and I had taken him on a guided tour so he is one Singaporean who is quite familiar with the ship. He sent me the photo of the model he saw and I responded enthusiastically, “where did you see this?!”

Since the photos was rife with reflections, he promised to take a better photos for the blog. He returned to the shop two days ago and found himself to be the only local there (Koh Inc: 3, Temasek Blvd #02-036, Suntec City Mall Singapore 038983). The shop appears to be a haunt for tourists and possibly for ship model enthusiasts for half the shop was dedicated to models of old sailing ships and several were gold-plated.

On display outside the shop was Götheborg model, all bright and shiny. You can’t miss it for its a 24K-plated model constructed in Taiwan, how about that? Apparently this has been with the shop for 6 months and the retail price is $599. Right now, however, the salesman said it’s on 20% discount now, making it $479.

I rarely venture out to town but it’d be nice to this ship model up close!

Thanks Hua Qin!

I was unable to visit Sweden to welcome back the Götheborg to her home port of Göteborg but a search of the blogosphere revealed a Singaporean presence! Carineswan has been there since mid-May for work, what are the odds? Of course she saw our grand ship, how could she miss it?

Not only was Carine there to see her, she saw our flag hoisted on the ship along with the other ports of call from her Sweden – China return voyage. I’m glad she was there and blogged about it!

carineswan said, in “The Gotheborg Ship Returns” (After Thoughts, 10 Jun 2007):

“It was a big event in Götheborg. It was largely publicized on posters along the streets. I didn’t know it’s such an important event until I heard that China President Hu Jintao and Swedish King and Queen are attending the event.

A whole lot of people just stand around the canal and waited for the ship to return and dock. At the place where it docked, there’s celebrations going on with musical and dance performance.

See the Singapore flag? Apparently, it has stopped over at Singapore a few months ago, and hold some exhibition at Vivo city.”

*Seaotter waves madly at Carine in Göteborg!*

We swapped comments, and she obligingly sent me these photos; thanks Carine!

Saturday 9th of June 2007 – The Swedish Ship Götheborg returned to her home port of Göteborg, after over 20 months on her first expedition to China and back. See this slide show with sounds of the return by Dick Gillbert.

I was unable to visit Göteborg to welcome the ship home and Katarina Svensson of the Embassy of Sweden here in Singapore said,

“…did you check out the homecoming of Götheborg? It was fantastic with close to 300 000 Swedes welcoming the ship home. And the guest of honour being the president of China, well, what can I say?!

My boss Capt Jarvid attended the welcome ceremony in Göteborg and he said it was truly a grand experience. I got goose bumps when he recaptured the event with the thousands of small sailing boats welcoming Götheborg. And rumour has it that she will be visiting Shanghai for the World Expo 2010, maybe a good time to revisit your old “home”?”

The Local reports:

“Thousands of onlookers gathered to welcome the three-masted wooden ship – an exact replica of the Swedish East India Company’s 18th century vessel of the same name – to Gothenburg’s Frihamn on Saturday afternoon.

Dozens of small boats escorted the ship into harbour and with a 21-gun salute Götheborg was brought into the quay by two tugboats.”

Video from vartgbg.

“King Carl XVI Gustaf and Chinese president Hu Jingtao watched the vessel arrive, along with some 90 guests of honour including the local bishop, top figures from business and Nobel Prizewinner Arvid Carlsson.

Peter Kaaling, who captained Götheborg into port, stood on deck and looked out over the flotilla of boats, from canoes to Chinese TV boats, surrounding the East Indiaman.

“I feel humbled. It’s fantastic that so many people have turned up to welcome us,” said Kaaling.”

See also the Xinhua report.

The 21-gun salute to mark her return takes the crowd by surprise!
Video by lumingliu

In December 2006, before I left for Hong Kong to join the Götheborg for the Hong Kong – Singapore leg, the Swedish embassy staff treated Teo and myself to a lunch (the navy pair, Zhong Bo and Poh Huat were already in Hong Kong) .

During that conversation, the Swedish ambassador to Singapore, Pår Ahlberger, mentioned that celebrations were being held in Sweden over the course of the year, in honour of Carous Linnaeus 300th birthday. He is regarded as the father of modern taxonomy, and as a biologist and museum worker (Raffles Museum of Biodiversity Research, National University of Singapore), I could well appreciate that bit of news!

Well after the memories of the voyage were being submerged by the frantic pace of life in busy Singapore, I recalled that conversation and two weeks before the 23rd of May, Linnaeus’ actual birthday, I decided the Raffles Museum should mark that special day in some way.

So I put together a symposium on the eve of Linnaeus’ 300th birthday (22 May 2007)which included another event (see my blog for that long story), and urged Pår to join us as well, despite the very short notice. After all, he was the person who put the idea into my head! And both he and Anna Maj Hultgård came to my great delight!

Pår wasn’t ceremonial decoration, he added a distinctive Swedish flavour to the event with an impromptu and heartfelt message speech about Linnaeus and the influence of Swedish’ geography and outlook on that gentleman, and the environment that nurtured his interest that persists today. His enthusiasm was a great way to start the proceedings and lay the ground for Raffles Museum director, Prof Peter Ng who later delivered a fiery keynote about the legacy of Linnaeus and the environmental challenges we face today.

I chipped in too later that morning, as I had scheduled myself to round things off with a bang! Busy with preparations, I finally agonised over my 15 minute presentation only the previous night, finally choosing to speak about my adventures with otters which allowed me to weave in a few funny stories amidst the background of a detective story that systeematics unravlled – it was from my work in the 90’s and turned out well. I left the audience laughing and hopefully better aware of the significance of systematics to conservation work even today.

I was pretty pleased that the symposium to mark Linnaeus’ tercentenary, conjured up in just two weeks, was a happy occasion that saw smiles all around! My lovely friends had rallied to help, and we had pulled it off!

Links to more pictures and reports were posted at the Raffles Museum News blog. Photos in this blog were taken by Lin Yangchen and Hwang Wei Siong.