A Polish flagged tallship which arrived into Dublin Port yesterday evening had also its own Sea Shanty choir on board, writes Jehan Ashmore.
The sail training ship, STS Kapitan Borchardt of the Polish Scouting Association once a year, brings the floating choir members of the Zawisza Czarny on a voyages to perform concerts in ports and to celebrate their home port of Gdynia.
The vessel built in 1918 is the oldest sailing ship currently flying the Polish Flag which last month took part in the Tall Ship Races with a call to the UK host port of Hartlepool, an English North Sea port.
Kapitan Borchardt has since also visited this week Belfast, Ardrossan on the Forth of Clyde and off the Scottish mainland, Port Ellen on Islay.
On arrival to Dublin Port, the tallship took a berth on Sir John Rogerson’s Quay where it will remains in the port for its second overnight in the capital.
The male choir of Zawisca Czarby is made up of crew members of the Kapitan Borchardt and ‘singing sailors’ and is believed to be the largest, regularly performing sea shanty choir in the world.
On such ports of call, the Zawisza Czarny choir welcomes the public to visit the quay and witness the amazing Sea Shanty Choir, as they perform from the tall ship’s deck and keep this maritime tradition and heritage alive.
Singers range between 18 and 70 and total 50 in a choir that is Poland’s only sea shanty choir and is recognized as one of the world’s finest in its category.
Tomorrow, in the early hours, marks another leg of the tallship’s crew choir, as it departs on a 7 night passage calling to Plymouth, Cornwall and ending in Cherbourg, France.
