Firstly, there are four examples of maritime paintings. The maritime landscape plays the main role, whereas the ship, or the ships, is just a part of the entire painting. You will often find a clear landfall, for example the castle Kronborg, Gibraltar, Dover or Vesuvius in this type of paintings.

The next section contains paintings of ships with a special connection to the Limfjord. For example this goes for the painting of the schooner “Henriette” which was built in Thurø in 1906. The ship was registered in Nykøbing Mors, and it carried cobble stones and granite from the west coast of Sweden. The stones were to be used for the paving of the West Jutland roads. The ship was painted by the local painter Ingbert Jeppesen in 1930.

The rest of the exhibition shows ship portraits, also called “captain’s paintings”. This type of pictures was often commissioned either by the captain or the shipping company. The customers who bought these ship portraits were very particular about all details in the appearance of the ship. A certain beautification was, however, allowed, for example by increasing the length and the height of the ship. The name of the ship should always appear and preferably also the name of the home harbour. If it was the captain who ordered the painting, his name should also appear on the painting.

The steamship “Nordfarer”

Morslands Historic Museum has issued a catalogue which is full of exiting stories about she ships which are portrayed in the exhibition. One example is the “Nordfarer” which was the flagship of M. C. Holm’s shipping company “Dampskibsselskabet Norden” when it was built in 1898. M.C. Holm who was born and grew up in Nykøbing M., was with his shipping company one of the first to send freighters overseas, that is to say across the Atlantic Ocean to America. Such a ship could be travelling for years without returning to Denmark and it could meet with many dangerous and dramatic incidents.

“Nordfarer” experienced a storm on a journey between Galveston in Texas and Hamburg. During the storm and its high waves, an emergency signal was seen from an American schooner. They succeeded in putting out lifeboats and save the 26 men-large crew of the disabled ship in a rescue operation which lasted nearly 24 hours. The ship was less fortunate on its journey from Rosario in South America to New York in 1924, when the captain of “Nordfarer” disappeared as a high sea poured in on the star-board side and splintered the bridge around midnight. The captain was never found.

Danmark as a seafaring nation

Losses, groundings, and collisions are part of the history about the ships and Denmark as a seafaring nation. Another part of the history is the everyday at sea. One single picture tells a sweet story about this; namely the steam ship “Dansborg” which was primarily in the South and Central America trade. The picture is a fine embroidery made by an unknown seaman while he was off-duty.