🇳🇴 Sørlandet — The World's Oldest Active Full-Rigged Ship

Built in 1927 in Kristiansand, Norway, the Sørlandet is still sailing the world's oceans today, training young sailors in the ancient art of square-rigged sailing.

• 🇳🇴 Norwegian three-masted full-rigged ship — built 1927
• 🏆 World's oldest active full-rigged ship
• ⚓ Survived WWII as a German prison ship
• 🌊 Still sailing today — over 1 million nautical miles
• 🪵 100% handcrafted in solid acacia wood 
• 📐 Dimensions: 80L x 13W x 67H cm
• 🚢 Shipping to Europe

Specifications

Sørlandet — The World's Oldest Active Full-Rigged Ship

Among the great sail training ships still afloat today, none carries quite the same weight of history as Sørlandet. Built nearly a century ago on Norway's southern coast, she holds the remarkable title of the oldest full-rigged ship still in active operation anywhere in the world — a genuine living link to the golden age of sail, still training young sailors exactly as she was designed to do in 1927.

Born from a Wartime Endowment

Sørlandet's story begins not with her launch, but with a promise made years earlier. On Christmas Day, 1918, an endowment was created specifically to fund the construction of a training vessel that would become the Fullrigger Sørlandet. Construction finally began in 1925 at the Høivolds Mek shipyard in Kristiansand, on Norway's southern coast, funded by a generous £25,000 grant from shipowner O.A.T. Skjelbred.

She was completed and launched in May 1927, measuring roughly 210 feet in length, and was named Sørlandet after the very region of Norway where she was built — the "Southland." From the outset, her purpose was clear: to give young people the best possible practical and theoretical education for a life at sea, combining rigorous seamanship training with genuine ocean voyaging.

A Royal Welcome

Sørlandet's public debut came quickly and memorably. On her very first voyage to Oslo in 1927, she was visited by King Haakon VII of Norway and Crown Prince Olav, who spent hours aboard inspecting the ship and watching her young trainees demonstrate their skills high in the rigging. It marked the first of several royal visits over the decades, including celebrations during King Olav's 25th anniversary as monarch in 1982. Later that same year, she also represented Norway on the world stage, sailing to London with ninety young trainees aboard, and in 1933 she represented the Norwegian nation at the Century of Progress Exposition in Chicago.

War and Occupation

Like much of Norway, Sørlandet's peaceful training mission was interrupted by the Second World War. In April 1940, shortly after Germany's invasion of Norway began, she was seized by German forces and pressed into service as an accommodation vessel for submarine crews — a grim wartime chapter for a ship built to train the next generation of merchant sailors. She survived the occupation, and following the war's end, was restored and returned to sailing condition by 1948.

Decline, Neglect, and Revival

Sørlandet's history has not been one of uninterrupted glory. Remarkably, she sailed for decades without an engine at all, only receiving one in 1958 — making her one of the very last European tall ships to be motorized. By 1974, changing times had ended her role as a public training vessel, and she was sold into private ownership, registered in Arendal and left laid up at anchor in Kilsund for three years. During this period of neglect, the ship deteriorated significantly, and her future looked uncertain.

Her fortunes turned in 1977, when shipowner Skjelbred returned her to her home city of Kristiansand. In 1981, a dedicated non-profit foundation — Stiftelsen Fullriggeren Sørlandet — was established specifically to own and operate the vessel, a role it continues to fulfill today. Under this new stewardship, Sørlandet also became notable for a more progressive milestone: from 1980 to 1983, she was the only operating Norwegian sail training ship open to men and women of all ages and nationalities, a significant step for a tradition long dominated by young male naval cadets.

One of the "Great Trio of Norway"

Sørlandet is often mentioned alongside her two famous sisters, Statsraad Lehmkuhl and Christian Radich, together forming what's affectionately known as the "Great Trio of Norway" — the country's three iconic tall ships. Among them, Sørlandet holds seniority as the oldest.

Still Sailing the World

Far from being confined to museum duty, Sørlandet remains a genuinely active sailing vessel. She has crossed the Atlantic multiple times, taken part in tall ship races, and even completed extended educational voyages — including a two-year, round-the-world circumnavigation beginning in 2015 in partnership with the A+ World Academy, visiting more than forty cities across twenty-two countries.

Today, nearly a century after her launch, Sørlandet continues to serve her founding purpose: giving young people from around the world an authentic, hands-on experience of life under sail — proof that a wooden ship, built with care and maintained with devotion, can remain not just afloat, but genuinely alive.