Iris’ History

Iris was originally commissioned to be built by The Nereus Shipping Company in 1916 under the name of Pallas.  As a herring drifter, she made many trips in the North Sea around the Shetland Islands, bringing thousands of herring to market.

when the herring fishing market was no longer profitable, Pallas was sold to Sweden where she was converted to a cargo ship and renamed Age. She spent more than 40 years sailing the Baltic Sea from Svendborg running cargo from coast to coast.

In 1975 she returned to the Netherlands and was restored to seaworthy charter sailing ship. In 2001, Ben and his wife Marielle took over the ship and changed her name to IRIS – the Goddess of goodness sent by the supreme God Zeus to bring good messages to people. After over 20 years of sailing her in the Baltic, Ben and Marielle have passed over the helm to Floris (who, in the wonder of a small world, used to own our ship Noorderlicht!)

Floris is now sailing Iris across the Baltic Sea, exploring the archipelago’s of Stockholm and the coasts and islands of Denmark.