PREV ARTICLE
NEXT ARTICLE
FULL ISSUE
PREV FULL ISSUE
1642 DUTCH CROWN AMONG ICEBREAKER'S COINS
The "Stepping of the Mast" is an ancient maritime ceremony where coins are laid into place below the mast for good luck. A new icebreaker under construction in Australia has been outfitted with a set of four such good luck coins.
-Editor
The first building block of Australia's new icebreaker was welded into place at a keel laying ceremony at Damen Shipyard Galati in Romania late last month. The concept design was done by Knud E. Hansen, and Managing Director, Finn Wollesen attended the ceremony, along with Rasmus Nygaard from Friends of Nella Dan. They came bearing a Danish coin, depicting the Danish Crown Prince Frederik, and his wife – Princess Mary, who originates from Australia. The choice of another coin was also symbolic; it was a Dutch silver coin dated 1642, the year that Dutch explorer Abel Tasman become the first European to reach Tasmania. Tasmania is not only where the offices of the Australian Antarctic Division are located, but the island's capital, Hobart, will be the vessel's home port. The heavy icebreaker was designed for the Australian Government to resupply their Antarctic bases and for research and scientific work.
To read the complete article, see:
The Numismatic Bibliomania Society is a non-profit organization promoting numismatic literature. See our web site at coinbooks.org. To submit items for publication in The E-Sylum, write to the Editor at this address: whomren@gmail.com To subscribe go to: https://my.binhost.com/lists/listinfo/esylum All Rights Reserved. NBS Home Page Contact the NBS webmaster 
|