Model ship - Belem

Belem ship model France Belem (ship)
Belem moored in Ostend, Belgium
History
France
Name
Belém (1896–1914)
Little Antilles (1914–1921)
Fantôme II (1921–1952)
Giorgio Cini (1952–1979)
Belem (1979–present)
Homonymous Belém, Brazil
Builder Chantiers Dubigeon, Nantes (Chantenay-sur-Loire)
Launched 10 June 1896
First voyage 31 July 1896 to Montevideo and Belém, Brazil
Home port Nantes
Identification
IMO number: 8622983
MMSI number: 227051000
Call sign: FUZW
Status Active
General characteristics
Tonnage 406 tons
534 tons gross register tonnage
Displacement 750 tons
Length 51 m (167 ft 4 in) LPP
48 m (157 ft 6 in) overall length
58 m (190 ft 3 in) (LPP + bowsprit)
Beam 8.8 m (28 ft 10 in)
Draft 3.6 m (11 ft 10 in)
Propulsion 2 diesel engines
Sail plan Rigged as a brigantine
Belem is a three-masted brigantine from France.

Belem line drawing
Its inaugural voyage as a merchant ship took place in 1896, carrying sugar from the West Indies, cacao and coffee from Brazil and French Guiana to Nantes, France.

History
Belem escaped the eruption of Mount Pelée at Saint-Pierre, Martinique, on 8 May 1902. Reaching Saint-Pierre before the eruption, Captain Julien Chauvelon found the harbor full of boats. With no berth to anchor the ship, Chauvelon, angry, decided to anchor a few miles farther out, off a beach, which provided shelter during the volcanic eruption.

In 1914 she was sold to Hugh Grosvenor, 2nd Duke of Westminster, who converted her into his luxurious private pleasure yacht, complete with two Bolinder Diesel auxiliary engines of 300 hp each.

In 1922 she became the property of Sir Ernest Guinness of the Guinness family, who renamed her Fantôme II and altered her sailing rig to square sails.[1][2] Guinness served as Retro Commodore of the Royal St. George Yacht Club, in Kingstown, Ireland, from 1921 to 1939. He was Vice Commodore from 1940 to 1948. He took Fantome II on a cruise in 1923 with his daughters Aileen, Maureen and Oonagh.[3] They sailed around the world via the Panama and Suez Canals, including a visit to Spitsbergen. While approaching Yokohama port on the Pacific Ocean, the brigantine managed to dodge another catastrophe: an earthquake that destroyed the port and parts of Yokohama city. Guinness died in 1949. Fantôme II was then moored in Cowes, Isle of Wight.

In 1951 she was sold to industrialist Vittorio Cini, who named her Giorgio Cini in honor of his son who had died in an airplane crash near Cannes on 31 August 1949. She was re-armed as a sailing vessel and used as a training ship until 1965, when she was deemed too old for further use and was moored at the Isola di San Giorgio Maggiore, in Venice.

In 1972 Italian carabinieri attempted to restore her to her original brigantine rig. When this proved too costly, she became the property of a shipyard. In 1976 the ship was re-rigged as a brigantine with a square rig.

Finally, in January 1979, she returned to her home port as Belem, under the French flag, after 65 years. Fully restored and returned to her original condition, she began a new career as a sailing training ship.

On 8 and 9 May 2024, she carried the Olympic flame for the upcoming Summer Olympics torch relay, sailing from Athens, Greece to Marseille.[4]

In August 2025 she is the flagship of Hanse Sail.[5]

Current specifications of Belem
Belem in Dublin, 14 July 2010
406 tons and 51 m in length
Riveted steel keel (for older sections)
Iron plate: 11 mm
Weight ballast in hull: 4,500 ingots of 50 kg each
Hull length without bowsprit: 51 m
Bowsprit length: 7 m
Extreme length: 58 m
Waterline length: 48 m
Midship beam: 8.80 m
Modelled depth: 4.60 m
Draft: 3.60 m
BRT: 534 tons
Displacement: 750 tons
Mast - rigging
Steel masts in 2 parts (low mast, upper rigging mast)
Mast height above waterline: 34 m
Lower spars in steel, upper spars in wood
Approximately 220 running rigging points
Approximately 250 single, tackle and triple blocks
4500 m of running rigging in polyamide rope
Sails
Number of sails: 22
Sail area: 1000.5 m2 (all measurements above in force, excluding storm sail)
Propulsion and equipment
Powered by 2 diesel engines: John Deere 6135AFM, 575 hp each (installed February 2013)
2 transmission masts, 2 four-blade propellers
3 generators
Fuel storage: 40 tons
Cruising range: 24 days at 7 knots, about 4,000 nautical miles (7,400 km)
Freshwater reserve: 20 tons
Produce about 3 tons of drinking water per day via dialysis
Electric winch
3 hydraulic capstans (two small on deck, one per side, used to hoist the upper yards but never used during training, one large aft, in front of the mainmast, used to hoist the mooring lines during mooring operations)
Performance
Maximum speed with engines on calm seas: 8–9 knots
Maximum sailing speed: 11–12 knots
Wind angle endurance of 75°
Time to unfurl all sails in favorable weather: 30–40 minutes
Time to hoist all sails in good weather: 50–60 minutes
Time for a full tack: 15–20 minutes depending on wind conditions
Crew
A completed kit model of Belem.
16 men: 1 captain, 1 first mate, 2 lieutenants, 1 chief engineer, 2 cooks, 1 boatswain, 1 carpenter, 7 sailors (two from the French National Service until 2000)
Managed by Société Nantaise de Navigation
Maximum number of trainees: 48 (two 24-person shifts, divided into 16-person thirds)
Origin: French noble family resident in the Loire, purchased in Italy in the late 1900s.