10. THE NAVIGATION SCHOOL OF LOVIISA
The third navigation school in Finland was opened in Loviisa on 15th November in 1907. The school was a lower, 1-year seaman’s school for training skippers and steamboat captains for coastal traffic. The language of instruction was Swedish.
An age of 16 and employment on a merchant ship for at least 10 months was required for admission. In addition, one should be able to read and write, to understand Swedish, to be able to write down numbers and calculate simple mathematical formulas with whole numbers. To receive the graduation certificate the student must be 21 years old and have been employed for 24 months on a merchant ship.
In 1918 the regulations for maritime education were renewed: the navigation schools in Turku and Rauma were changed to higher navigation institutes and the navigation school in Loviisa became a 2-year navigation school in which chief mates and mates as well as coastal and Baltic Sea skippers were trained.
The reform was welcomed by shipping companies, but due to the lack of students, the school in Loviisa was closed on 1st of June in 1926.
10. DRAWINGS MADE BY CAPTAIN KONRAD DAVIDSSON AT NAVIGATION SCHOOL IN HELSINKI IN 1904
Konrad Davidsson was born in Loviisa in 1875. After attending the Elementary school, he went to the sea in 1895 with the Loviisa barque HELIOS after which he sailed on the barque MAINIO and for a longer period on the barque TJERIMAI.
He completed his officer’s degree in 1898 and his master’s degree in 1904 in Helsinki – both with the grade excellent. He was mathematically talented.
During the years 1907-1914 he was employed as teacher at the navigation school in Helsinki. After that he worked as a nautical and hull surveyor and as a ship surveyor in Loviisa. In 1924, Captain Davidsson was appointed harbour master in Loviisa. He held this position until 1945, and died in Loviisa in 1948.
Behind you is a model of a steamship bridge interior. It shows everything needed to navigate and steer a ship. Tools used onboard can be seen on the shelf in the right-side corner of the window.
The board in the glass display:
10. RUSSIAN ALASKA AND SEAFARERS FROM THE LOVIISA REGION
After the Finnish War between Russia and Sweden in 1808-1809, Finland became part of the grand dukedom of Russia. Due to this change Loviisa based ship owners sold their ships. Therefore, no ships registered to Loviisa were cleared through the Öresund customs in 1810. Unemployed sailors from Loviisa found new opportunities in St. Petersburg and Kronstadt.
The St. Petersburg merchant, Ivan Krehmer, had bought a few Swedish vessels to import coffee from Brazil. He employed Jean Unonius and Isaac Unonius from Loviisa as ships masters to his vessels, and they, in turn, employed seamen from their hometown in their crews.
Israel Sucksdorf, the elder, also from Loviisa, worked at first as a helmsman in Krehmer’s third ship. During 1811-1814 he sailed as the master of the frigate ÖSTERGÖTHLAND which was owned by the East-India Trading Company and had been ovehauled at the Siksala shipyard. Isaac Unonius had been the master of the same ship in 1808-1810.
Emperor Paul I of Russia had established the Russian American Trading Company in 1799. The company had a trading monopoly in an area which covered Aleuts and Alaska and reached the 55th latitude and later even the 51st latitude. Permanent settlement was established in Sitka, e.g. New Archangel. The attraction of this Pacific Ocean coastal area was the hunting of fur animals, mainly sea otters, and trade in fur. Eventually trading in whale oil, salt fish, coal and even ice became notable livelihoods in the area.
The Russian American Trading Company owned several sailing ships to maintain connections to the homeland and to manage trading operations in the Pacific Ocean region. The sailors in these ships came mainly from Finnish coastal regions. Many members of the Shipping Office in Loviisa also took employment in the Trading Company’s ships. To mention a few; Lars Krogius from Stockfors village in the municipality of Pyhtää, Adolf Fredrik Lindfors from Loviisa, Abraham Öhberg from Erlandsböhle village in municipality of Pernaja, Johan Theodor Hansson from the municipality of Liljendahl, Otto Wilhelm Finér from Gislom village in the municipality of Pernaja, Paul Adolf Gulin from Loviisa, Carl Fredrik Blomfelt from Petjärvi village in the municipality of Ruotsinpyhtää and Johannes Weisman in Sarvilahti village in the municipality of Pernaja.
Many Russian ships became familiar to the seamen in the region, for example ALEXANDER, CONSTANTINE, NIKOLAI, KAMTŠATKA, ŠELIKOV, SITKA, TSARITSA and TSESAREVITŠ.
The names of seamen from Loviisa can be found in the ships’ manifests of for example Honolulu, Shanghai and San Francisco. Salt fish were taken to Honolulu, and food stocks were replenished there, in Shanghai tea was loaded, etc. Therefore, it is no wonder that these experienced round-the-world sailors later became renown maritime school rectors, such as Lars Krogius in Helsinki navigation school and Abraham Öhberg in Mariehamn.
The objects in the display consist of handcrafts made by sailors and souveniers they have brought from abroad. The items on the display floor are parts of ships found while dredging the Loviisa bay.
When you walk towards the door you will see a large model of a full rigged ship. It has been used as a model in a navigation school.