København (ship)

Content sourced from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

København (Copenhagen) was a Danish-owned, British-built five-masted sailing ship used as a sail-training vessel. Built by Ramage & Ferguson in Leith, Scotland, it was completed in 1921 for the Danish East Asiatic Company and was the largest sailing ship in the world at that time. It combined wind power with an auxiliary diesel engine and carried a crew of about 26 plus up to 45 cadets.

From 1921 to 1928, København made nine commercial voyages around the world, mainly teaching cadets and sometimes carrying cargo to help cover costs. On its final voyage, Captain Hans Andersen led 75 people from Nørresundby to Buenos Aires to load cargo and then sail to Melbourne; there was no cargo on the last leg home. The ship left Buenos Aires on 14 December 1928.

København was last heard from on 21 December 1928, about 900 miles from Tristan da Cunha. After months of searching, no trace of the ship or its crew was ever found, and it was declared missing in January 1930. Over the years there were reports of a phantom five-masted ship and some debris claimed to be from København, but nothing was ever confirmed. The most accepted theory is that it hit an iceberg or capsized in heavy winds in the Roaring Forties. The fate of the ship and its crew remains a mystery.