The Viking (better known by the ship type as a prefix, Barken Viking) is a four-masted steel barque, built in 1906 by Burmeister & Wain in Copenhagen, Denmark. She is reported to be the biggest sailing ship ever built in Scandinavia. Viking was originally built as a sail training ship for the rapidly growing Danish merchant fleet. At that time, seaworthiness and cargo capacity were given top priority. One day in July 1909, while carrying a full cargo of wheat from Australia, Captain Niels Clausen recorded a speed record in the ship’s log: 15.5 knots (28.7 km/h; 17.8 mph). read more…
Gothenburg is the second-largest city in Sweden (after Stockholm) and the fifth-largest in the Nordic countries. Situated on the west coast of Sweden, the city proper has a population of 515,129, with 510,491 in the urban area and total of 928,629 inhabitants in the metropolitan area. read more…