A quote from Earl de Blonville, master of unintended irony: “Of course, we can never really own a great classic boat: we can only enjoy being the caretakers of maritime history. And in doing so, we become a part of that history, a privilege that ensures the vessel is kept alive with all its stories and significance for future generations.”

Earl de Blonville bought the badly damaged Carola in 2011 for one Euro and declared he would invest 3 million dollars to convert it to an acoustic research vessel. A decade later, the only change he had made was to rename the ship “Courage”. A strange way to honor “maritime history” of a 122 year old vessel.

In 2022 “Courage” was a sunken, rotting derelict and hazard to navigation, in arrears to the tune of thousands of Kroner and the municipality of Rudkobing, Denmark gave up on Earl and his bloviation and had Courage chewed up and spit into the landfill.

Multiple stories published in the Danish newspaper Fyns Amts Avis:

https://pdfhost.io/v/3lFIwp0bM_fyns_amts_courage_scrapped_July_3_2022_Earle_de_blonvile
https://pdfhost.io/v/vZkZIYP4M_Fyns_Amts_Main_article_Henrik

https://pdfhost.io/v/Rk2f8WHCX_Henrik_fyns_la_boheme_earl_sue_shipyard

https://pdfhost.io/v/2KySkvobe_Soren_Fyns_hartvig_rudkobing_shipbuilder

https://pdfhost.io/v/nkKYvx9jF_Soren_fyns_la_boheme_courage_war_rudkobing