Story

Kalmar Nyckel, the tall ship of Delaware, is a re-creation of a 17th-century Dutch Pinnace which served as an armed merchant ship, a Swedish naval vessel and as the colonial ship that founded New Sweden in present day Wilmington, Delaware. She delivers education programs based on a variety of curricular to students from fourth grade through high school during the school year as part of the Kalmar Nyckel Foundation’s educational mission. In the summer, she sails the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic regions, providing public sails, festival tours, summer camp programming and private charters. A collaboration with the Vasa Museum in Sweden uses the ship as a research platform to better understand how 17th-century ships were sailed. With the exception of her officers, the crew of the Kalmar Nyckel are volunteers who come from all over the world to participate in her crew training programs and sail the ship.