The Norwegian tall ship Statsraad Lehmkuhl will be back in the Atlantic Ocean by January on the last legs of a 12-month voyage to promote ocean sustainability.
The One Ocean Expedition 2025–2026 voyage began in Bergen, Norway on May 11 during One Ocean Week 2025 and is scheduled to return home to Bergen for One Ocean Week 2026.
During the course of the year, the Statsraad Lehmkuhl will sail the North Atlantic, the Arctic, the Caribbean and the Pacific, visiting 27 key ports across three continents, including St. John’s, N.L. and Vancouver, B.C., combining ocean science, education and international cooperation to raise awareness about the crucial role of the ocean for a sustainable future.
“The expedition includes several legs along the Pacific coast of the U.S. and Canada in the fall, before transiting the Panama Canal again on the way back to the Atlantic, visiting several European ports and ultimately returning to Bergen,” said Haakon Vatle, CEO of the Statsraad Lehmkuhl Foundation and Expedition Leader for the One Ocean Expedition.
Photo Courtesy of Statsraad Lehmkuhl Foundation / One Ocean Expedition.
Originally, the voyage included a historic plan to follow in Roald Amundsen’s footsteps through the legendary Northwest Passage. However, drifting ice from melting glaciers — a direct consequence of global warming — made the passage impossible, forcing the ship to change course.
While the Statsraad Lehmkuhl is primarily a sail training ship, during the One Ocean Expedition, she also functions as a research vessel and a floating university. Built in 1914, Statsraad Lehmkuhl is equipped with state-of-the-art research instruments that continuously collect data on the health of the ocean. Unlike traditional research vessels, she is primarily powered by wind, resulting in minimal environmental impact.
In addition to contributing to ocean research, Statsraad Lehmkuhl also serves as a floating university — a unique learning environment where students, researchers, decision makers and people from all walks of life live, learn and work side by side. Several legs of the voyage are chartered by research and higher education institutions, while others have been open to the public, with no sailing experience necessary.
On board, participants gain hands-on experience in traditional seamanship, ocean science and sustainability. During port visits, the ship serves as a venue for scientific conferences and workshops, diplomatic and high-level meetings, educational programs and public outreach events.
Vatle said the Statsraad Lehmkuhl has welcomed students from all over the world on different legs of the expedition, including participants in courses organized by the European Space Agency, NASA, the Arctic University of Norway and the Bjerknes Centre for Climate Research.
Photo Courtesy of Statsraad Lehmkuhl Foundation / One Ocean Expedition.
“Working and learning side by side, the voyage crew form a unique bond as they share the challenges of traditional seamanship — sleeping in hammocks and sailing the big ship together. This extraordinary experience creates an international network of future researchers, leaders and ocean ambassadors, while deepening appreciation for the ocean and understanding of how dependent we are on it — how it regulates climate, supports biodiversity and sustains life on Earth — because, in the end, there is only one ocean,” said Vatle.
“Statsraad Lehmkuhl always draws attention when she arrives in port because of her striking appearance and excellent condition. People are genuinely excited to see such a unique, fully restored sailing ship. In many ports, a full program is planned with conferences, receptions, open-ship events for the public and diplomatic meetings, so the vessel is busy from morning to evening. We usually stay three days in each port, but on the U.S. West Coast — Seattle, San Francisco and San Diego — we will stay four to six days to accommodate the many planned activities. Local and national media often show strong interest as well,” said Vatle.
“All data collected during the expedition are stored by the Institute of Marine Research in Norway and made openly available, just as we did after the 2021–2023 expedition. Researchers and students can also access many of the measurements in real time while on board. The previous expedition resulted in several PhDs, master’s theses and published scientific papers. For the 2025–2026 voyage, the scientific equipment has been significantly upgraded, including a rosette-CTD, additional sensors in the rigging and more underwater microphones, which we hope will lead to even more valuable contributions to ocean science,” Vatle added.
Statsraad Lehmkuhl sails as an ambassador for the United Nations (UN) Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (2021–2030), which seeks to stimulate ocean science and knowledge generation to reverse the decline of the state of the ocean system and catalyse new opportunities for sustainable development of this massive marine ecosystem. The Ocean Decade provides a convening framework for scientists and stakeholders from diverse sectors to develop the scientific knowledge and the partnerships needed to accelerate and harness advances in ocean science to achieve a better understanding of the ocean system, and deliver science-based solutions. The vision of the Ocean Decade is “the science we need for the ocean we want.”
Photo Courtesy of Statsraad Lehmkuhl Foundation / One Ocean Expedition.
