Statsraad Lehmkuhl

Race participant

The Statsraad Lehmkuhl is a three-masted steel barque built in 1914 in Bremerhaven, Germany, as a training ship for the German merchant navy.

She was originally called the “Grossherzog Friedrich August”. For the most part of World War I, the Statsraad Lehmkuhl served as a stationary training ship in Germany, before being transferred to England as part of the war reparations in 1920. In 1921, she was purchased from England at the instigation of the Director of the Bergen-based maritime company “Det Bergenske Dampskibsselskab” and former minister Kristofer Lehmkuhl and from 1923 she was used as a training ship sailing under Norwegian colours. The ship was renamed the Statsraad Lehmkuhl (Minister Lehmkuhl) as a mark of gratitude to Kristofer Lehmkuhl for his commitment to training ships and his role in the government of 1905.

The Statsraad Lehmkuhl served as a training ship for the Bergen School Ship Foundation until 1967, with the exception of the years between 1940 and 1945, when she was confiscated by the Germans during the Second World War.

A Bergen shipbuilder bought the vessel in 1967 to continue using her for sail training, which he did at his own expense between 1968 and 1972. After the oil crisis in 1973, she was laid up in reserve in Bergen Harbour. In 1978, she was given to Stiftelsen Seilskipet Statsraad Lehmkuhl – The Foundation for the Tall Ship Statsraad Lehmkuhl, which now owns and operates the ship.