Maud (ship)
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| History | |
|---|---|
 Norway
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| Name: | Maud |
| Namesake: | Queen Maud of Norway |
| Owner: | Roald Amundsen |
| Builder: | Built in Asker, Norway |
| Launched: | June 1916 or 17 June 1917 |
 Canada
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| Owner: | Hudson's Bay Company |
| Acquired: | 1925 |
| Renamed: | Baymaud |
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Norway
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| Owner: | Asker, Norway |
| Acquired: | 1990 |
| Renamed: | Maud |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Oak hulled sailing ship, built for Arctic exploration |
| Tonnage: | 292 register |
| Length: | 36.5 m (119.75 ft) |
| Beam: | 12.3 m (40.35 ft) |
| Depth of hold: | 4.85 m (16 ft) |
| Propulsion: | 240 hp (177 kW) semidiesel Bolinder engine |
Maud, named for Queen Maud of Norway, was a ship built for Roald Amundsen for his second expedition to the Arctic. Designed for his intended voyage through the Northeast Passage, the vessel was built in Asker, a suburb of the capital, Oslo.
Maud was launched in June 1916 or 17 June 1917 at Vollen and ceremonially christened by Amundsen crushing a chunk of ice against her bow:
It is not my intention to dishonor the glorious grape, but already now you shall get the taste of your real environment. For the ice you have been built, and in the ice you shall stay most of your life, and in the ice you shall solve your tasks. With the permission of our Queen, I christen you Maud
She lived up to her christening, as she remained in the ice until 2016. Whereas other vessels used in Amundsen's polar explorations, Gjøa and Fram, have been preserved at the Norwegian Maritime Museum, Maud had a more rugged fate. After sailing through the Northeast Passage, which did not go as planned and took six years between 1918 and 1924, she ended up in Nome, Alaska and in August 1925 was sold on behalf of Amundsen's creditors in Seattle, Washington.
The buyer was the Hudson's Bay Company, which renamed her Baymaud. She was to be used as a supply vessel for Company outposts in Canada's western Arctic. Prior to her final voyage Baymaud was given a refit in Vancouver, British Columbia. (The work was supervised by Tom Hallidie, who later went on to design the RCMP vessel St. Roch, based on Maud.) In the winter of 1926 she was frozen into the ice at Cambridge Bay, where she sank in 1930. The wreck now lies just offshore, across the inlet from the communities former Hudson's Bay Company store. Nearby is the site of the former Cambridge Bay LORAN Tower, built in 1947.
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Wikipedia