Skomvær was the name of a steel-hulled barque built in 1890 for J. C. & G. Knudsen in Porsgrunn, Telemark, Norway. The ship, which was designed by naval architect Randulf Hansen and constructed at Laxevaags Maskin- og Jernskibsbyggeri in Bergen, was the first sailing ship constructed with steel in Norway and for a time the largest Norwegian sailing vessel ever built. However, the ship struggled to compete in the 20th century with the advent of the steamship, and in 1924 she was decommissioned and sold for scrap.
Skomvær entered the public eye once again in 1960, when musician Erik Bye wrote the song "Skomværsvalsen" as a tribute to the ship and her crew. A fundraising effort by the artist led to the construction of the Norwegian Society for Sea Rescue boat Skomvær II that same year, and in 1986 the organization named another of its boats, Skomvær III, after the ship.
History
Christen Knudsen moved from his hometown of Saltrød, near Arendal, to Porsgrunn in 1855. There he became a very successful ship-owner, and built a shipyard on the former site of the Frednes farm at the mouth of the Porsgrunn River. In his older years, Christen Knudsen decided to gradually hand over control of his shipping company to his two sons, Jørgen Christian Knudsen and Gunnar Knudsen. These men would both go on to become successful politicians in addition to their shipping trade. Jørgen Christian Knudsen, who built the house on Øvre Frednes, was the mayor of Porsgrunn in 1893 as well as a long-running Conservative Party representative in Stortinget for Porsgrunn. He was a polarizing figure in both national and local politics—he argued in Stortinget to continue the union between Sweden and Norway and was the only vote in Porsgrunn City Council against the construction of a bridge across the Porsgrunn River, opting for a steam-powered ferry instead. Gunnar Knudsen was a Liberal Party politician who was Prime Minister of Norway from 1908 to 1910 and from 1913 to 1920, and was pivotal in the creation of the Norwegian Water Resources and Energy Directorate as well as SKK, the precursor to Skagerak Energi. The two men also both had close descendants that worked in politics—Jørgen Christian Knudsen's son, Christen Knudsen, was the Nasjonal Samling representative for Telemark during World War II, and his grandson, Harald Franklin Knudsen, was Vidkun Quisling's private secretary. Gunnar Knudsen's son, Knut Andreas Knudsen, was a deputy representative in Stortinget for Telemark.
The two brothers started the firm J. C. & G. Knudsen in 1872 to manage their father's assets. In 1879, their father's shipyard on Frednes was closed, but the men continued to have success trading with their existing fleet of merchant ships. When steel began to supplant cast iron as a sturdy shipbuilding material, the men asked Randulf Hansen, a naval architect from Bergen who had studied under the likes of Ananias Dekke and Jens Gran, to design a grand new steel sailing ship for their fleet.
Construction
Hansen, who was known for his use of clipper-style bows and soft lines, drew up a plan for the ship, to which Gunnar Knudsen made a few alterations to increase the carrying capacity by 50 register tons. The ship's hull was to be built with steel plates with a controlled carbon content, which was advanced technology at the time, and would have a barque sail-plan, with three masts carrying a total of 26 sails, including topsails, staysails, headsails and gaff-rigged sails. Construction took place at the shipyard Laxevaags Maskin- og Jernskibsbyggeri in Laksevåg, Bergen, and the ship was launched on 23 April 1890, costing 284,995 kroner in all. The speech for the handing over of the ship was given by the shipping magnate Christian Michelsen, who was chairman of the Bergen company at the time and went on to become Norway's first Prime Minister after the dissolution of the Norwegian-Swedish union. The ship was christened by Augusta Rafn, the young daughter of the ship's first captain, Hans Christian Rafn. The ship was named Skomvær, after the newly built Skomvær Lighthouse southwest of Røstlandet, and launched in September of that year with a crew of 23 men.