''Concordia'' was a steel-

hulled Husk (or hull) in botany is the outer shell or coating of a seed. In the United States, the term husk often refers to the leafy outer covering of an ear of maize (corn) as it grows on the plant. Literally, a husk or hull includes the protective ...

barquentine A barquentine or schooner barque (alternatively "barkentine" or "schooner bark") is a sailing vessel with three or more masts; with a square rigged foremast and fore-and-aft rigged main, mizzen and any other masts. Modern barquentine sailing ...

that was built in

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, , is a country in Central Europe. Poland is divided into Voivodeships of Poland, sixteen voivodeships and is the fifth most populous member state of the European Union (EU), with over 38 mill ...

in 1992 for the West Island College, Montreal, Canada. She served as a

sail training From its modern interpretations to its antecedents when maritime nations would send young naval officer candidates to sea (e.g., see Outward Bound), sail training provides an unconventional and effective way of building many useful skills on and ...

ship until she capsized and sank on 17 February 2010.

Description

''Concordia'' was built by Colod of

Szczecin Szczecin (, , german: Stettin ; sv, Stettin ; Latin: ''Sedinum'' or ''Stetinum'') is the capital and largest city of the West Pomeranian Voivodeship in northwestern Poland. Located near the Baltic Sea and the German border, it is a major s ...

, Poland in 1991, and completed in April 1992. She was long, with a beam of and a draft of . She was to the top of the highest

mast Mast, MAST or MASt may refer to: Engineering * Mast (sailing), a vertical spar on a sailing ship * Flagmast, a pole for flying a flag * Guyed mast, a structure supported by guy-wires * Mooring mast, a structure for docking an airship * Radio mast ...

. Her hull was made of steel, and she was rigged as a

. As well as

sail A sail is a tensile structure—which is made from fabric or other membrane materials—that uses wind power to propel sailing craft, including sailing ships, sailboats, windsurfers, ice boats, and even sail-powered land vehicles. Sails ma ...

s, she was propelled by a

MAN A man is an adult male human. Prior to adulthood, a male human is referred to as a boy (a male child or adolescent). Like most other male mammals, a man's genome usually inherits an X chromosome from the mother and a Y chrom ...

diesel engine The diesel engine, named after Rudolf Diesel, is an internal combustion engine in which ignition of the fuel is caused by the elevated temperature of the air in the cylinder due to mechanical compression; thus, the diesel engine is a so-ca ...

, which could propel her at .

History

''Concordia'' was designed by Ryszard Langer and owned by the West Island College Class Afloat program. Her port of registry was

Bridgetown Bridgetown (UN/LOCODE: BB BGI) is the capital and largest city of Barbados. Formerly The Town of Saint Michael, the Greater Bridgetown area is located within the parish of Saint Michael. Bridgetown is sometimes locally referred to as "The Cit ...

Barbados Barbados is an island country in the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies, in the Caribbean region of the Americas, and the most easterly of the Caribbean Islands. It occupies an area of and has a population of about 287,000 (2019 estimate ...

but she was based in

Lunenburg, Nova Scotia Lunenburg is a port town on the South Shore of Nova Scotia, Canada. Founded in 1753, the town was one of the first British attempts to settle Protestants in Nova Scotia. The economy was traditionally based on the offshore fishery and today Lu ...

. On 5 December 1996, an explosion on board during battery charging resulted in the death of a crew member, 18-year-old Derek Zavitz. Zavitz was thrown overboard and his remains were never found.

Sinking

On 17 February 2010, SV ''Concordia'' encountered what the vessel's captain called a microburst some southeast of

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the Rio de Janeiro (state), state of the same name, Brazil's List of Brazilian states by population, third-most populous state, and the List of largest citi ...

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

in rough seas and high winds. The vessel was knocked onto its side within 15 seconds and eventually sank 20 minutes afterward. In September 2011, the Transportation Safety Board of Canada report found, "The wind speeds experienced by the vessel at the time of the knockdown were most likely in the range of . While there was probably a vertical component to the wind, there is no evidence that a microburst occurred at the time of the knockdown." The report also found the vessel was operated in a way that did not allow it to, "...react to changing weather conditions appropriately and maintain the stability of the vessel." All aboard successfully abandoned ship. As the capsizing was so fast, no radio distress call was made but an

EPIRB An Emergency Position-Indicating Radio Beacon (EPIRB) is a type of emergency locator beacon for commercial and recreational boats, a portable, battery-powered radio transmitter used in emergencies to locate boaters in distress and in need of ...

was hydrostatically released and automatically activated when the vessel sank. The ''Concordia'' sank at 1423 hrs local time Wednesday. At 1425 Concordia's Bosun Geoffrey Byers swam to retrieve the EPIRB and brought it aboard the rafts. The Captain directed that someone hold the EPIRB upright at all times and keep it safe from damage. The

signal was received at 1505 hrs by the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite

GOES 12 GOES-12, known as GOES-M before becoming operational, is an American weather satellite, which is part of the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite system. It was launched on July 2 ...

. The position of the sinking, , was resolved at 1525 local time. The TSB report noted the EPIRB database only listed one telephone number for the ''Concordia'' and that number had not been in service since 2004. The following morning at 0806 hrs the Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre Brazil sent a fax to Joint Rescue Coordination Centre Halifax requesting information about the ''Concordia''. After attempting to contact ''Concordia'' a Brazilian Air Force aircraft was dispatched at 1700 hrs local time Thursday and sighted the

liferaft A lifeboat or liferaft is a small, rigid or inflatable boat carried for emergency evacuation in the event of a disaster aboard a ship. Lifeboat drills are required by law on larger commercial ships. Rafts ( liferafts) are also used. In the mi ...

s 3 hours later. The survivors spent nearly 30 hours in liferafts before the aircraft spotted them. Flares were fired from the rafts, and the aircraft blinked its landing lights in response and directed nearby merchant ships to the scene. The lights of the Mitsui O.S.K. Lines woodchip carriers and were sighted by the survivors at 1:30 am local time and the rescue was completed by 8 am local time. 41 hours after the sinking the crew were safely aboard the rescue ships. All 64 people (48 students, eight teachers and eight crew) who were on board were rescued from 3 large and 1 small liferafts.

References

External links

Transportation Safety Board of Canada Marine Reports – 2010 – M10F0003 Knockdown and Capsizing – Sail Training Yacht Concordia 300 miles SSE off Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Also available as PDF (4715 kB
"Class AfloatTM""Concordia Image Gallery"
* ttp://www.cbc.ca/video/#/Shows/Doc_Zone/1242299559/ID=1789155094 Abandon Ship: The Sinking of the SV ConcordiaA 45-minute CBC documentary on the sinking of the SV Concordia, first broadcast 10 February 2011 *https://archive.today/20130118200345/http://www.canald.com/emissions/docu-d/505646973-abandonnez-le-navire-le-naufrage-du-concordia/ Abandonnez le navire: Le naufrage du Concordia {{2010 shipwrecks 1992 ships Tall ships of the Bahamas Tall ships of Bermuda Individual sailing vessels Barquentines Shipwrecks in the Atlantic Ocean Maritime incidents in 2010 Maritime incidents in Brazil 2010 in Brazil Ships built in Szczecin Lost sailing vessels