Baptism and launch of the 'Witte Swaen', the replica of Willem Barentsz's ship On Saturday 27 October 2018, the replica of Willem Barentsz's ship was christened by Princess Margriet in the port of Harlingen and then launched. The princess named the ship "De Witte Swaen". The ship took eight years to build. In that time, 26,000 man-hours were spent and more than 65,000 kilos of oak wood was processed under the supervision of project manager and master builder Gerald de Weerdt. About thirty volunteers worked on this replica. The expedition ship is not ready yet. The masts and sails still have to be set up in the near future. The name of the ship with which Barentsz tried to find the northern passage to the Indies and with which he stranded on Nova Zembla had been lost in time. After a lot of research, a name was found of which it is almost certain that the ship was once called. http://www.debarentsz.nl/
