Global-Mariner

                                                                                 "The Ships"

                                                          - featuring - SKA 4 -

                                             - a survey vessel manned by Royal Danish Navy personnel - 

                                             8 units built as survey launches 1958 - 1968, - 27 tons standard.

This section will be quite extensive, - a total of 8 pages - - -

The pictures on these pages are mostly added in the same order as it happened in Greenland for 53 years ago. (2021)

Here an index to the 8 pages:

Page 1.: Our shore base, -Making the boats ready, - On the slipway, - Launching, - Active service, - Grounding, - etc.

Page 2.: Active service, - Surveying, - Interior, - Engine Room, - Erecting a "Raydist" station, - etc. - - -

Page 3.: Surveying, - "Hydrodist"- and Raydist" stations, - Grounding, - Crew, - Exploring grave site, - etc. - - -

Page 4.: Navigating ice, - SKA boats, - Hiking in the mountains, - and more ice navigation, - etc. - - -

Page 5.: Crew, - Navigating ice, - Scenery, - More ice, - Island, - Admirals visit, - Morning, - etc. - - -

Page 6.: Greenland, - Crew, - Ice, - Greenland people, - SKA boats, - "Hydrodist" station, - Islands, - Surveying, - etc.

Page 7.: SKA aground, - Exploring Greenland, - SKA boats, - Surveying, - Mountain climbing, - Activities,- Towing, - etc.

Page 8.: SKA 4 high & Dry,- "Ingolf",- SKA 4 Engines, - SKA 4 on slipway, - "Ingolf", - Home and Epilogue SKB boats.

SKA 4 was made from wood,- and very heavy constructed -, so that she could survive a grounding head-on to submerged rocks, as well as sailing in heavy ice in the waters around Greenland, where she served from 1959 and up to 1978 - - - -

Launched: 1959 Displacement: 27 tons Length overall: 14,5 meters Main engine: A six cylinder Volvo MD96B diesel engine of 110 bhp. Crew: 6 men.

The SKA vessels were used for making surveys, - measuring the depths -, and collecting data for making new charts.

They searched for new navigational routes inside the islands and rocks on the west coast of Greenland - - - - -

With this purpose, I had the good fortune to serve as Engineer on SKA 4 during a summer tour to Greenland in 1968 - - - -

At this point it would be appropriate to explain what "SKA" means - - - It is short for "Sø Kort Arkivet" , - directly translated "The Sea Chart Archive" -, which was the government institution that in those days were in charge of making charts of the Danish waters, - including Greenland -, just like "The Admiralty" do in England - -

                                         - and we came to a VERY beautiful place -

Greenland is fantastic - - -

And serving on a vessel going there, - to remote areas -, for exploring and surveying "new" land is truly exiting.

In fact this experience was so good, that I consider my Greenland tour as being the first in a long line of other adventures I later experienced during trips and travels all over the World in the years that followed - -

"GOK" is short for "Grønlands Opmålings Kommando", - or "Greenland's Survey Command" -, a very impressive name for such a small and modest wooden shack - -

But inside in the nice, warm athmosphere, - it was VERY cosy - - -

But in spite of the modesty of this cabin, it was warm and cozy inside.

Here Web Master Karsten Petersen to the left, and Jan Walseth to the right, enjoying hot tea with Bacardi rum - - -

And there is music too!  Take note of the small tape recorder on the stool - - -  Who could ask for more?

But here is what it is all about, - the survey boats, that had been "mothballed" on dry land during the winter.

We now had quite a job getting all the systems going again, making them ready for the coming summers activities.

There were four of those little boats in Greenland, SKA 3, - SKA 4, - SKA 5 and SKA 6.

Two of them, - SKA 4 and SKA 6 -, were stationed in Godthåb,- present day's Nuuk -, while SKA 3 and SKA 5 were stationed in Frederikshåb.

After going through the manuals and check lists,- connecting pipe systems, overhauling valves, pulling cables, cleaning contacts, washing tanks, flushing systems, scraping and painting, cleaning filters, getting the heating system going, engines running, and testing, testing and more testing of thousands of other things, we could finally launch the boats, - the first one being SKA 6 - - -

The navy cutter Y 384 "Maagen" is standing by ready to tow SKA-6 to the port, where the final preparations will take place before the job of surveying the waters around Greenland could start - - -

SKA 4 comfortably "parked" on a submerged rock - - - - This happened quite often since the depths in Greenland vary quite dramatically. In one moment you can have a hundred meters depth, - or more -, and in the next moment you can hit a rock -

Now please continue to page 2 of this adventure - - -

Here we are in active service, - erecting a "Raydist" station, - surveying the waters around Greenland, - and some details of the interior of a SKA boat - - -

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At this point – before going to the next page -, it might be appropriate to explain what Danish sailors and Danish Navy ships and survey boats are doing in Greenland, - an island almost 3000 km away? Officially Denmark has no colonies!

But is Greenland not a colony of Denmark? I would say yes, but since Denmark officially have no colonies it is referred to as a part of the Kingdom – NOT a colony –

OK - NEXT PAGE NOW with beautiful pictures from a beautiful island - with beautiful people - GREENLAND - - -

Confused? No wonder – but there is a reason for everything – also how Greenland became a part of Denmark – so far away and in another part of the World.

This relationship between Denmark and Greenland actually started for 1000 years ago during the Viking-age - - -

Here the mightiest and most powerful of all Viking rulers – Knud den Store – in England referred to as Canute the Great – could look at the World and notice, that he actually controlled a BIG North Atlantic kingdom that stretched from Greenland and Iceland, - Faroe Islands – and the British islands, - Norway, - part of Sweden and a part of Gernamy - - King Knud – or in England King Canute – really was one of the mightiest rules in his days, - and although he was King of Denmark he was also King of England and actually spent more time in England than in Denmark - - -

But nothing lasts forever, - and today Denmark is one of the smallest countries around - - - Island is independent, - Norway is independent, - the Danish parts of Sweden was lost in war-actions, - so was the north German territories - - The Danish controlled colonies in Africa, India, the Far East and the Caribbean are long gone too.

Only Greenland and the Faroe Islands is still connected to the motherland and do not yet want independence - - Fully understandable – because Greenland receives about at least 4,3 billion DKR every year in order to keep it running, - and if they want independence they would of course loose that money - - -

Also there have been international disputes concerning the “ownership” of Greenland - - - Back in the thirties, someone in Norway got the idea, that Greenland was actually Norwegian – NOT Danish - - - Where that idea came from I do not know, but it spread like a wildfire, and of course the Danish government refused all talk about that!

Also a stupid idea because Norway itself once belonged to Denmark, but was lost in war action, after which the English gave Norway to Sweden - - - Actually a good deal for Denmark, because the Swedes wanted ALL of Denmark, but the Englishmen said NO – only Norway they could get -, and that was it! The English were afraid, that if Sweden got ALL of Denmark, - they would be to powerful, - and maybe later be a threat to England itself - - -

And Sweden agreed to that, because England had just beaten Napoleon, and would be a formidable foe for the Swedes to fight - - - Anyway – Norway could of course not just get Greenland, - and therefore they brought Denmark for the international court in order to let the court decide this ridiculous case - - - And of course Norway lost! Denmark had military presence in Greenland, - Norway had not, - and a lot of Danes live on Greenland, - doing business, trading, hunting, teaching, nursing, – but NO Norwegians lived there – and that settled the case - - -

And that’s why Denmark still maintain military presence in Greenland – and after this stupid court case the even expanded it with a patrol that by dog sledge goes absolutely everywhere on the island to complete wild and uninhabited areas, so that no one in the future could get the idea of claiming any territorial rights in Grenland - even in remote areas where NO people lives - - -

Because there are people there – Danish people – and they are all coming from the navy - - - and they take good care of Greenland - - - I know – I was one - - - - and I loved it!  :-)