One Ocean Expedition 2025-2026 

A 12-month global voyage with the Norwegian tall ship Statsraad Lehmkuhl - a floating ambassador for the UN Ocean Decade. Combining sail training, ocean science, education and diplomacy to inspire action for a sustainable ocean. 

2025 - 2026

One Ocean Expedition 

After departing Bermuda on September 1, Statsraad Lehmkuhl is now sailing toward Los Angeles, USA. The ship will pass through the Panama Canal on September 14 and arrive Los Angles on October 5.

Over the course of a year, the expedition will visit ports across three continents. Several legs are open to the public - no sailing experience needed! Welcome on board!

Sailing route

At sea en route to Los Angeles, USA

Follow our journey

The history of the Panama Canal is full of disease, death, corruption, politics, and brilliant engineering.

The Panama Canal – a 500-year-old idea

The change of route from the Northwest Passage to the Panama Canal gave chief officer Laurits Kallan Lauritsen a rare chance to carry out extraordinary maintenance.

Statsraad Lehmkuhl has never looked better

Statsraad Lehmkuhl is sailing in one of the most legendary and mysterious sea areas in the world. This is the story behind the myth.

Inside the Bermuda Triangle

Latest news

Latest videos

Following the success of the One Ocean Expedition 2021–2023, Statsraad Lehmkuhl is once again setting sail on a 12-month circumnavigation to promote ocean sustainability. The voyage will include 27 ports of call across three continents, combining ocean science, education and international cooperation to raise awareness about the crucial role of the ocean for a sustainable future.

On The One Ocean Expedition, Statsraad Lehmkuhl is filled with students, researchers and voyage crew who all work together to sail the big ship and gather experience and knowledge about the ocean.

Life on board

Tromsø, Norway

Bergen, Norway - Lerwick, UK

Reykjavik, Iceland

Nice, France 

Ponta Delgada, the Azores (Portugal)

Nuuk, Greenland

St. John's, Canada

Bermuda

Los Angeles, USA

Bermuda - Panama Canal 

Vancouver, Canada

Seattle, USA

San Fransisco, USA

San Diego, USA

La Paz, Mexico

Herradura, Costa Rica

Cartagena, Columbia

Herradura, Costa Rica - Panama Canal

Norfolk, USA

Cádiz, Spain

Brest, France 

Dublin, Ireland

Bergen, Norway

Until the Panama Canal was completed in 1914, ships had to sail south of South America to get between the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. The route was both long and dangerous, and it could take weeks to get around Cape Horn, the small cliff that marks the divide between the Atlantic and Pacific. 

– They simply sailed too hard, and were blown ashore, or sank in severe storms. The ships had been out at sea for a very long time, and some ran out of provisions and disease broke out on board, 

Captain Marcus Seidl said when Statsraad Lehmkuhl rounded the cape in 2022

Panama is only between 50 and 80 kilometers wide at its narrowest point, so it is no surprise that the idea of a canal emerged as early as the 1500s. 

That story we will return to later - but first, the hard facts.

The Panama Canal is not a trench dug from ocean to ocean, but a system of canals, lakes and locks. 

From the city of Colón on the Atlantic side, ships are raised into Gatun Lake, 27 meters above sea level. The lake is artificial, created by damming the Gatun River. Ships then sail 24 kilometers across the lake and into the Culebra Cut, a 12 km canal carved through a mountain ridge. From there, vessels are lowered into another artificial lake, Miraflores Lake, 16 meters above sea level, before new locks bring them down to the Pacific and Panama City.

The full transit normally takes between 11 and 12 hours, and in 2024, 11,240 ships sailed through the canal.

The journey from ocean to ocean is a total of 82 kilometers and accommodates ships up to 366 meters long, 49 meters wide, and with a maximum draft of 15.2 meters. Vessels cannot be higher than 57.91 meters, an important limitation for a sailing ship. Statsraad Lehmkuhl’s 48-meter-high main mast passes comfortably under the bridges.

The history of the Panama Canal begins in 1513, when Spaniard Vasco Núñez de Balboa crossed Panama. In his report, he was the first to mention the possibility of building a shipping canal here. 

Over the next 300 years the idea was raised several times, but never realized.

In 1848, gold was discovered in California. The need for faster transport between the Pacific and Atlantic exploded, and between 1850 and 1855 a group of American businessmen led by William Henry Aspinwall built a railway between Colón and Panama City. 

It was a hazardous project: between 6,000 and 12,000 workers died in the jungle. The cost was six times higher than budgeted, but the railway was completed - and made its owners immensely wealthy.

Ferdinand de Lesseps, the man behind the Suez Canal which opened in 1869, was contacted in 1875 by a group who wanted him to repeat the success and build a canal through Panama. De Lesseps proposed a sea-level canal, like Suez – but less than half the length.

More than 40,000 workers were employed, most from the West Indies. As with the railway, the number of injured, sick, and dead was huge. Rain, floods, landslides, poisonous snakes, insects, yellow fever, and malaria claimed up to 200 lives a month at the worst. In 1889 the money ran out, and the work stopped.

It turned out that members of the French government had taken bribes to stay quiet about the financial problems - the largest corruption scandal of the 19th century. Close to half a billion francs were lost.

In 1903, Panama declared independence from Colombia. The United States supported Panama both politically and militarily, and landed an agreement that gave them the rights to the canal. In 1904 the U.S. took over the French company’s equipment and buildings, and started planning.

John Frank Stevens was given technical responsibility. He redesigned the project into the system of locks and artificial lakes that we see today. Stevens improved conditions for the workers and replaced outdated French equipment with modern machinery. 

On October 10, 1913, water was released into the Culebra Cut, and on August 3, 1914, the SS Cristobal became the first ship to pass through the canal.

The locks consume water when raising and lowering ships, and drought has at times reduced their capacity. The system of rivers and lakes has therefore been expanded several times, and additional, larger locks have also been built.

The income from the canal is vital for Panama. Ownership of the canal therefore became a political issue after World War II, eventually leading the United States to hand it over to the Panama Canal Authority in 1999. 

Ownership has once again become a political issue after Donald Trump assumed the presidency in the United States in 2025.

If the warming in the Arctic had not filled the Northwest Passage with icebergs from crumbling Greenland glaciers, Statsraad Lehmkuhl would now have been full of students and teachers from the Arctic University of Tromsø, en route to Whittier, Alaska.

Instead, the ship was forced to turn south.

 The university crew disembarked in Newfoundland, and Statsraad Lehmkuhl is now manned only by her permanent crew.

Normally, the permanent crew stand alongside the voyage crew, managing, training, and teaching. Now they must handle all sail operations themselves.

– It's quite rare that you see us set sails, everybody, captain and the chief mate and the cook and the engineers. Everybody is putting their weight into the ropes and making things run, and that's actually really, really nice, says Laurits Kallan Lauritsen.

As chief officer, Laurits coordinates the maintenance work together with the boatswain and the carpenter.

– We have a rough schedule for what to do on a weekly, a monthly and a daily basis. And meet to discuss what's possible and what's not possible, in terms of spare parts and equipment, but also people and time. And then we do a specific day to day plan.

For Laurits, having an “empty ship” is a unique chance to complete tasks that are normally difficult to carry out. Floors and tables in the banjer – the voyage crew’s living quarters, are being scraped down and varnished. Paintwork is being refreshed, and areas where painting is usually impossible because of fumes can finally be attended to. Even toilets and showers are getting some attention.

Laurits himself was spotted lying on top of a closet.

– I just helped the quartermaster fix the public announcement system, the speakers. Yeah. We all help out, he explained.

The warm weather, with temperatures above 20 degrees, provides perfect conditions for this type of work, and the permanent crew is skilled in carrying it out.

– They are very, very experienced, and they are doing a fantastic job, Laurits says. And also, I have to give a huge, huge thanks to the six volunteer deck crew. They are the reason why the engine is spinning, so to speak. They are here as part of their training to become able seamen, to gather sea time and experience. And while they do that, they take part in the watch systems and of course also the maintenance.

Of course, the work is not without risk. Tasks are carried out high up in the rigging, and chemicals are used for both cleaning and coating.

– Sure, it's dangerous, but no, it's not dangerous because we take care of our people. All crew have courses and are trained in what we do. Safety and health is, of course, our main priority.

Before Statsraad Lehmkuhl set out on the One Ocean Expedition in April, the ship spent nine months in dry dock for extensive renewal. Now, after even more loving care at sea, the result is stunning.

– It's hard for me to say for sure, but definitely not in the past decade, says Laurits.

Still, the crew continues to carry out maintenance and make small improvements.

– It's deep in our DNA as sailors that we sort of grab the opportunities that are at hand. And, you know, the weather always changes and the conditions always change. So we have to adapt, Laurits says.

On the first of September, Captain Jens Joachim Hiorth opened his daily report with a cryptic remark: – We’ve left Bermuda and are heading south through the triangle.

Draw a line from Bermuda to Florida, continue southeast to Puerto Rico, and then north again to Bermuda. The lines form a triangle – the infamous Bermuda Triangle. And it is in this stretch of ocean that Statsraad Lehmkuhl now sails.

For decades, tales of unexplained vanishings have given this area its dark reputation. Planes, ships, and entire crews have disappeared without leaving a trace. 

In December 1945, five U.S. Navy torpedo bombers, known as Flight 19, set out on a training mission and never came back. Just three years later, in January 1948, the passenger aircraft Star Tiger of British South American Airways vanished en route from Bermuda to the Azores. A few months later, a fishing boat with three men aboard went missing in the same waters. 

And in December that same year, a DC-3 from Airborne Transport disappeared between Puerto Rico and Miami. In January 1949, the passenger plane Star Ariel, also of British South American Airways, vanished on its way from Bermuda to Jamaica. No wreckage was ever found.

But it was the disappearance of the steamship Sandra in 1950 that truly fueled the Bermuda Triangle legend. With a crew of eleven, Sandra left Savannah, USA, bound for Venezuela. When the vessel failed to arrive, the U.S. Coast Guard launched an intensive search. 

Not a single trace of the ship was discovered.

Two years later, the magazine Fate brought the story to a wider audience. Specializing in paranormal tales, the publication gathered Sandra’s fate with the earlier mysteries and gave the area its enduring name: the Bermuda Triangle. 

From there, the myth took off, growing through articles, books, TV programs and movies into one of the most famous maritime legends of all time.

And now, Statsraad Lehmkuhl herself is sailing through this legendary triangle, bound for the Panama Canal.

Yet Captain Jens Joachim Hiorth has little reason to worry. The original story told in Fate was not entirely accurate. Journalist George Sand wrote that Sandra vanished in June, in calm and pleasant weather. In reality, she left port on April 5 and sailed directly into a violent storm.

As the Miami Herald reported on April 8, 1950:

"A storm growing from the low pressure areas which caused thunderstorms and strong winds in Florida during the past three days approached hurricane force and buffeted Atlantic shipping lanes Friday ... Winds reached a speed of 73 miles an hour off the Virginia Capes, two miles an hour under hurricane strength..."

The Bermuda Triangle is in fact a region prone to tropical cyclones, and research has shown that no more ships have vanished here than anywhere else in the Atlantic.

Sandra was probably lost to the storm, and certainly not to supernatural forces. In 2020 the wreck of Sandra was found by divers searching for the lost planes of Flight 19.