Timeline

Key figures

Origin and history

The Duchess Anne, originally called Grossherzogin Elisabeth, is a three-mast square built in 1901 at the Joh yard. C. Tecklenborg de Bremerhaven (Germany). Designed as a school-ship for the German merchant navy, it embodies innovation with its profiled steel hull, modern equipment (radio, echo sounder, steam heating) and functional facilities for 200 cadets. He made training trips to the Baltic Sea and South America until 1932, marked by incidents such as a fire in 1928 or a collision in 1931. During the two world wars, it was disarmed or used as a school at dockside, before being ceded to France in 1946 as war compensation.

Renamed Duchess Anne in tribute to Anne de Bretagne, the sailboat was towed to Lorient then Brest, where it served as barracks before being abandoned and threatened with demolition in the 1960s-70s. Saved in extremis by enthusiasts, it was bought by the city of Dunkirk in 1981. A titanic restoration, conducted by local volunteers and artisans, restored his original appearance between 1982 and 2001. Ranked a historic monument in 1982, it became a moored museum ship in Dunkirk Harbour, open to the public since 2001.

Today, the Duchess Anne is the only three-mast French permanent visitor, offering a unique testimony of life on board a school ship of the early 20th century. Its restored spaces (course rooms, cabins, kitchen, infirmary) and its 92 meters long make it a major attraction of the Dunkirk Port Museum. Although not navigable, it hosts exhibitions, cultural events and educational activities, while symbolizing the maritime heritage of Hauts-de-France. Its centenary in 2001 was celebrated with traditional rigging gatherings.

The sailboat inspired philatelic works (1976 stamp for an aborted museum project in Port-Louis) and film (The Soup Boat, 1946; Lola, 1961), although these films did not use the real ship. His German sisterships, such as the Schulschiff Deutschland (museum in Bremen) or Statsraad Lehmkuhl (Norwegian ship-school), bear witness to their common heritage. La Duchess Anne remains an ambassador of marine heritage, despite conservation challenges, such as her caretakership in 2012 or the work of 2024.

Architecturally, the three-mast is distinguished by its central trunk framed by a front gaillard and a long rear dunette, its masts of 48 meters, and its technical innovations (watertight enclosures, drinking water production). The restaurant has reconstructed its furniture (basket of the living room, officers' cabins) and its equipment (hammocks, kitchen, teak card room), while adapting certain materials (steel for high mast) to facilitate maintenance. Managed by the Port Museum since 2000, it attracts 37,000 annual visitors (2023), despite criticism of its development.

Its history reflects the upheavals of the 20th century: from sailing to motorization, transitions between German and French pavilions, and rescue by local actors. Friends of the Duchess Anne, an association founded in 1982, played a key role in its preservation, alongside engineers like Alain Bryche. The ship also embodies the challenges of preserving the floating heritage, between historical authenticity and technical constraints, such as its blocked rudder or dockside.

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