The Kalmar Nyckel Foundation announces its Lecture Series for 2011, “SOS: Saving Our Ships – Ships That Changed The World.”  This series features three maritime experts of international renown, each of whom has made and continues to make a significant contribution to the preservation of our maritime heritage.  These lectures complement the Kalmar Nyckel Foundation’s mission of preserving and promoting our cultural and maritime history for the education and enrichment of all.

The first lecture, “The Ship That Changed the World,” features internationally acclaimed documentary film director and producer, Malcolm Dixelius, who will present a behind-the-scenes view of his upcoming National Geographic (NATGEO TV) television special, “Expedition Ghost Ship.”  This special will be broadcast in 124 countries and prominently features Kalmar Nyckel, the Tall Ship of Delaware.  The Kalmar Nyckel was selected to provide a living representation of the wreck of the “Ghost Ship” before she sank in the Baltic Sea in the 1630s.  The “Ghost Ship” has been resting at the bottom of the Baltic ever since, about 400 feet down.  Incredibly well preserved and of a class of merchant vessels that transformed world trade, she is a remarkable find.  The sole survivor of a revolutionary class of merchant ships built by the Dutch in their “Golden Age of Empire,” the “Ghost Ship” is rightly described as “The Ship That Changed the World.”  Mr. Dixelius is Sweden’s best known documentary film maker and a producer for DiXit International and Deep Sea Productions, both located in Stockholm, Sweden. (For more information see www.deepsea.se and www.dixit.se.)  Mr. Dixelius is delighted to be able to premier excerpts from his NATGEO Special that is due to be aired in April, 2011.  This lecture will take place January 9, 2011 – Sunday afternoon from 4:00-6:30 pm – at the Chase Center on the Riverfront. 

The second lecture, entitled “Expedition Ghost Ship: Sailing & Sinking a 17^th-Century Merchant Vessel,” features Dr. Frederick Hocker, world-renowned maritime archaeologist and Director of Research at the famous VASA Museum in Stockholm, Sweden.  Dr. Hocker returns for a second engagement with the Kalmar Nyckel Foundation Lecture Series after his outstanding “Raising Vasa” presentation in May 2009.  This year, Dr. Hocker will focus on his latest research, one part of which includes his participation as an archaeologist for “Expedition Ghost Ship” team – which is the subject of Malcolm Dixelius’ NATGEO TV Special.  Dr. Hocker and the “Expedition Ghost Ship” team have employed new, high-tech methods that are changing the world of maritime archaeology.  Whether using the latest techniques in robotics to explore wrecks 400 feet below the surface of the Baltic or voyaging the old-fashioned way aboard the Kalmar Nyckel, Frederick Hocker travels the globe and leaves no sail unfurled in his quest for the latest research. (For more information, see VASA Museum web links at www.vasamuseet.se and www.maritima.se.)  Always funny, entertaining, and informative, Dr. Hocker’s lecture will take place March 24, 2011 – Thursday evening from 6:00-8:30 pm – at the Chase Center on the Riverfront.

Lecture three features Matthew Stackpole from Mystic Seaport, America’s largest and most prestigious maritime museum.  Mr. Stackpole will be speaking from personal and professional experience – in ways that only he can – about the Charles W. Morgan, America’s only surviving wooden whaling ship.  As the son of Mystic Seaport’s Curator during the 1950s & ‘60s, Matthew Stackpole literally grew up on the grounds of the Museum.  As today’s Director of the Charles W. Morgan Restoration Project for Mystic Seaport, Mr. Stackpole brings a lifetime of experience and a depth of knowledge about the Morgan, a treasured icon and National Historic Landmark, to help us understand the historical and cultural reach of America’s whaling industry.  Thanks to the leadership of Mr. Stackpole and others, the Morgan remains a living educational resource, a unique “porthole” into a world underappreciated for its role in shaping America’s commercial and cultural past – a past that includes the founding of Delaware at Swanendael in 1631.  (For more information see www.mysticseaport.org).  This lecture, entitled “And She Remains Alone: The Past, Present, and Future of the Charles W. Morgan,” will take place on April 20, 201 – Wednesday evening, 6:00-8:30 pm – at the Chase Center on the Riverfront.