One of Ostend's famous landmarks is the barkentine "Mercator", a former training ship of the Belgian merchant fleet.
It was designed by the Belgian antartic explorer Adrien de Gerlache and named after the famous Flemish cartographer Gheeraert Mercator, and built in Scotland in 1932.
The ship served as a schoolship until 1960 and is since 1961 a museum.
Apart from being a training ship it was also used for scientific expeditions, and it's most famous trip was in 1936, to Molokai, to bring back home the earthly remains of father Damian.
Nowadays it proudly dominates the marina of Ostend and is certainly worth a visit.
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