Sisu Production Journal: Finland, part 4: Ostrobothnia (Turku)

Don and I are not quite in Ostrobothnia proper, being too far south in Turku, but we're close to this area, where Tom Sukanen is from. Our trip north to Rauma will be heading into the Ostrobothnian district, where the people are known to be large, proud, tidy, and hardworking, where the men have thick necks and massive builds, the women are strong, and no one says anything twice.

We took a train from Helsinki to Turku, where our primary focus was the Forum Marinum, or Maritime Museum; since Tom was a ship builder in the late 19th century in this area, quite possibly in Turku itself (the largest shipbuilding center in Finland at that time), I wanted to know what kinds of ships were being built, as well as what the overall atmosphere was and how things looked at the time.

After dinner the day we arrived in Turku, we saw a classical guitar concert in the chapel of the Turku cathedral (consecrated in 1300); here is a sketch of that. I really liked the motif inside the cathedral chapel, these climbing vines that twisted up to the peaked ceiling (perhaps it might find its way into one of the designs in the animations in my film):

it wasn't bad but the Italian guitar player really screwed up the second piece he played, which was when I got my sketchbook out. "Do us all a favor, Fabio, and practice that one a little more before you present it." - Don Wood

We couldn't miss the Sibelius museum, a tribute to Finland's most famous composer, whose musical work for the Kalevala is legendary. They wouldn't let us take pictures so I did a couple of sketches of different caricatures of him. They say he had seven creases between his eyebrows, one for each of his seven symphonies. He was the political musical counterpart to the painter Gallen-Kallela; they worked together to use Art to inspire Finland to awaken and fight for her freedom, a movement which ultimately succeeded. The power of Art! It's awesome.

This has been a tremendously useful part of the trip for starting to create an image in my mind of the world Tom lived in and then left behind when he departed for America. I took about 50 shots, if not more, at the Forum Marinum; here is a small sample (sorry, no Photoshop on this computer, so some are dark and/or need cropping):

Cute little model of a ship that looks to be about the scale of Sukanen's ship, the Sontianen

one of an impressive series of funny old sketches of seamen by this one prolific sailor-artist from the 1890's

a model of a ship- in-progress: AWESOME!

Turku shipyard, circa 1890

The Forum Marinum has an impressive collection of antique boats that are moored in the river across from the museum, but they aren't open to the public until June. You never know what's possible until you investigate, so I asked the ticket lady if there was any chance at all of our getting on board the big sailing ship and taking a couple of shots for our movie. Within a minute she had called Pauli Kivisto, who as it turns out has a Master's degree in history, and whose thesis was on Finnish maritime history, so he was a wealth of information, plus he seemed to be interested in our project. We got on board the ship and then while Don was getting into his 1890's Finnish seaman's costume, I was wracking my brains for shots that would be quick and yet worth the trouble.

The day was bright and sunny, just as I had pictured these B-roll-type shots of young Tom on the ship, but the boat itself was rock solid still, being a massive ship moored in a quiet canal. I had Don do a little 'sea-legs' action while I 'breathed' the camera with his movements; we'll see when we get it on a big screen whether that worked, or whether my 'breathing' camera was actually 'heaving' in my excitement. Urgh! Afterwards Pauli gave me his email address and said that if I have any questions he'd be happy to answer them if he could. One thing he told me is that the way Tom made his keel, with the overlapping squares of metal, is an old Finnish custom for keeping out the shipworms... so that's cool!

Here's a picture of the ship we were on, the "Suomen Joutsen" ('The Swan of Finland'):

And here is Don on board with Pauli, the really helpful and knowledgeable guy who helped us out and later answered dozens of my stupid questions:

And here is a model of this massive sailing ship in the museum. Pauli told me that the sails weighed over 3 tons, the ropes and wires in the rigging reached a cumulative length of over 30 kilometers, and yet a scanty crew of 25 men operated this cargo ship which was built in 1902.

I did some sketches of ship models and a block and tackle, and as usual I was the only person at the museum for most of the day; Don left earlier and Pauli had to kick me out. I was still sketching while the various sound tracks of creaking rigging, crying gulls, and sea shanties were turned off throughout the museum.

a model of a mid-to-late 19th century steam and sail paddlewheeler

A model of a wooden sailing ship, the Eros, that Tom Sukanen could easily have worked on, as it was built in 1897 near Turku.

an old wooden block and tackle

The best way to end any day is to commune with nature. The seagulls here in Finland are remarkably tame. This one is snagging a bit of reindeer off the tip of my tongue.