Ship Visit: Gann

Yesterday I had the honour to visit MS Gann as she was in Tallinn. Formerly a Hurtigruten ship under the name Narvik, she is now used as a training vessel most of the time. Sometimes she does cruises as well and that's what brought her to Tallinn. A friend and fellow ship blogger Kalle Id arranged the visit and kindly invited me to join.

Our group; From the left: Olli Tuominen, Kalle Id, Timo Selkälä, me, Sami Koski, Jani Nousiainen.

I'll start with the public areas. The ship was built in 1982 and the interior fits the era while looking quite neat and stylish, like a cruise ship should.

Lounge

Same place

À la carte restaurant - Finnmarken

... with quite a clever solution for rough seas.

Buffet restaurant - Sandnes

Old smoking room, now a library.

As a matter of fact, Gann is quite a small ship and since cruising is not her first purpose, there isn't so much to do in terms of entertainment; If I were to cruise on her, I would probably spend most of the time in the library, although I would need to learn some Norwegian before I do so. 

What's a school ship without a classroom...

... or two?

By far the most interesting cruise ship store I have ever seen.

.. and probably will ever see.

... it had everything I'd be looking for though.

An old Hurtigruten ship - or, in fact, any ship sailing in Norwegian waters - ought to have a place especially designed for enjoying the view.

In addition to the public areas, we were also taken to the bridge, machine room and old car decks - all of that just happened to be a first for me. 

Bridge

That nice separate green button looks quite tempting - it's the horn.

Quite the view, huh?

GMDSS equipment - had a brief nostalgic moment there

The old cardeck, now the location of several rooms with various purposes.

Old ramps

Gym; for crew only, obviously.

Machine room control panel

It would be pretty neat to know what all of these do - I'm open for information on that.

I particularly like the colouring here. 

As the sign says, it was very noisy - a few rooms before that one I started regretting I didn't grab ear plugs when I noticed them. A few moments later we were given them anyway, and even with ear plugs it sounded quite loud. I don't want to know what's it like when the ship is at sea.

Builder's plate under the bridge

Builder's plate on the aft part which was added in 1989

Flag

Mandatory funnel picture

Perhaps this illustrates the fact that we were quite lucky to have her here - she's not exactly the type to stop in every city on the way.

As MS Narvik in her Hurtigruten livery

When she became Gann, the red part was simply painted blue. Scars from the past can still be seen.

We all received a badge; mine now decorates my favourite backpack as a nice memory from a very interesting ship.