Filming a forgotten journey
On mornings when the Kalmar Nyckel is preparing to depart from its summer home at the public pier at the Cape May-Lewes Ferry, the dock is alive with activity.
But on Aug. 24, there were no tourists waiting to get a first-hand look at a full-scale replica of a ship that sailed under the Swedish flag to America nearly 400 years ago. Instead, the passengers were a dozen crew members from the Philadelphia-based Nancy Glass Productions and another dozen ship personnel, representatives and volunteers from the ship.
“This is really exciting,” said Sam Heed, Kalmar Nyckel historian, of a documentary being produced about the ship’s maiden voyage. “This is a project that’s five years in the making.”
The original Kalmar Nyckel was built by the Dutch around 1625 and sold to Sweden in 1629 to protect the harbor of Swedish city Kalmar. It became a part of the Swedish navy in 1634 and in 1638, the Kalmar Nyckel departed on its first trans-Atlantic trip to what is now North America in 1638 after being purchased by the New Sweden Company in 1637.
Heed said the working title of the documentary is “Forgotten Journey” because, he said, people forget that coming to America didn’t end with the Pilgrims who founded the Plymouth Colony in 1620.
“Everybody experienced this journey,” said Heed, who has been with the ship’s foundation for nearly six years. “We were all boat people. It’s still true in many ways now, but back then it was literally true.”
Heed said the film crew was in Lewes for two days, filming on-deck action shots the first day and aerial shots on the second day.
“These are going to be our two biggest days of filming,” he said.
Ben Fetterman, Nancy Glass Productions director of business development, was on hand overseeing the filming in Lewes. He said he sees a lot of opportunity in telling the story of the Kalmar Nyckel.
The interest in tall ships grows every year, he said, pointing to the tall ship meeting on the Delaware River in Philadelphia earlier in June.
“It was a huge success,” he said.
Fetterman said the largest challenge of filming would also be the biggest gift – the ship itself. A vessel of this size presents logistical issues, he said, but there’s “no better or more realistic subject to capture.”
Filming of the documentary will continue through Oct. 2 at the ship’s home port at the Kalmar Nyckel Foundation shipyard next to The Rocks, between the Brandywine and Christina Rivers in Wilmington. The Kalmar Nyckel landed at The Rocks in Delaware on her maiden voyage.
Heed said the documentary will be used for educational purposes for Delaware students, but the ultimate goal is have it run on a cable channel like Discovery or National Geographic.
