In February, 1983, the Tvind training ship Activ was lost in a storm off Dover – eight young members of the Teachers’ group died. Teachers’ Group sources say the eight had been called to a meeting with Mogens Amdi Petersen – using the ramshackle old boat was the only way to reach Denmark, but the young people did not dare disobey the call. Only one knew how to handle a boat.
As a result of this one senior member of the Teachers group, Carsten Ringsmose resigned and accused Tvind of recklessness.
” One of Tvind’s training ships, “Activ”, went down in the North Sea and all eight students on board died. The ship, a wreck which had been salvaged from the bottom of the sea, was owned by the Tvind-controlled shipping company, Thomas Brocklebank. When the ship left Dover, England [...] it was in no condition to handle the North Sea storm which waited. A court of inquiry established that “Activ”‘s engine was unable to cope in winds stronger than 12 knots or so. The 27-year-old ship master, the only student who had any boating experience, was informed that the wind at sea would be over 16 knots.
“After the accident, Carsten Ringsmose [a former member of the Teachers' group, head of the Travelling High School at Tvind - who resigned shortly afterwards] told Danish papers: “I knew the engine was not strong enough. Poul Jorgensen knew it as well […], but the ship master was not aware of it.” Mr Ringsmose said: “The Tvind schools are irresponsible and their leaders lie, distort and keep information secret.-”
A report from the court of inquiry revealed that the crew on board “Activ” had tried to get a Dutch pilot to escort them to Holland, since they were inexperienced sailors and unfamiliar with the North Sea. The pilot had refused, because he thought the journey would be too risky. He was alarmed to see damages in the ship’s wooden hull, water-filled cabins and basic equipment such as compass and radar inadequate or missing.
Despite the fact that the average age of the crew was 22, that the ship master had a fortnight of-sailing experience and the rest of the crew’s education consisted of a five hour test trip the day before they went to sea, Mr Jorgensen described them as a “highly experienced” crew. As if to prove Mr Ringsmose’s point about failing to take criticism, he denied any responsibility but blamed the Dutch rescue team for not getting there fast enough.
It was a double scandal, as the Tvind shipping company refused to cover the expenses of bringing the body-of Kristin Skagemo, a Norwegian girl on the ship, home. Tvind forwarded the bill to her family. “We were shocked. It was a second shock,” the parents told Norwegian television later. They were not uplifted by the Tvind students who attended the funeral either. They sang marching songs.”
[Source: Leiv Gunnar Lie]
“Adresseavisen [a Norwegian newspaper), undated, carries a warning not to trust Tvind by a couple whose daughter Kristin died when the Tvind training ship ‘Activ’ was wrecked on the Dutch coast in 1983. They complain that Kristin at one time wanted to get out of Tvind. Allegedly she was never left alone and when at home was contacted by telephone all the time. So in the end she went back.The parents issued a strong warning to Norwegian young people in an ‘Antenne 10’ broadcast. Allegations were made in the same programme in connection with Tvind’s fundraising for the Third World and projects the collected monies may have been used for instead.
"Extrablad [Danish newspaper] (1993) carries the headline ‘Tvind knew people were going to drown’. One of founder-leaders who left the organisation states that he warned against using the schooner ‘Activ’ and that he left because he did not want to be responsible for people drowning in ships of this kind.”
{Source: Fair News 1993]
“By the beginning of the eighties several serious accidents, including the death of many young students, had occurred. A terrible boat accident in 1983 became a scandal both in Norway and Denmark. In this accident, eight untrained youngsters were sent out in an old sailing ship. The ship was ordered out from the safe haven of Dover, to cross the Northern Sea in a hurricane. Not one of the 8 survived.
The deaths of these 8 Danish and Norwegian young boys and girls gave the Scandinavian peoples a shock, and are typical examples of Tvind’s total lack of care for the sect members lives. After the accident, the multimillionaire sect claimed that the students’ corpses should be brought home on the cost of their parents, as the sect did not any longer recognize any responsibility for them.
Tvind’s official spokesman, Poul Joergensen, often provokes opinion by being cool and arrogant when confronted with accidents that have happened to former Tvind-pupils. Like all members of the Tvind ‘teachers group’ he always tends to put the blame on the victims themselves.”
[Source: Anne Ellingsen]
Else Waale writes: “It was when in February 1983 I was told, that the ship “Activ” was lost and some of my friends drowned. They were all teachers and they were on their way home for a meeting. When we were called to those meetings, it was unthinkable not to come, no matter what. If there was a snowstorm, you had to come, there was no excuse for staying away. So they died for it.”
Press reports:
From Adresseavisen [a Norwegian newspaper]:
Couple from Norway who lost their daughter in 1983
“Don’t trust the Tvind movement”
Don’t trust the dictatorial Tvind movement. We lost our daughter much because of Tvind. The couple Soren and Ruth Skagemo from Northern Trondelag in Norway came with a strong appeal to Norwegian young people in yesterday’s programme ‘Antenne 10′.
In 1982 the couple Soren and Ruth Skagemo lost their daughter Kristin (23 years). The schoolship ‘Activ’ owned by the Tvind movement was wrecked on the shore of Netherland. All eight were killed.
Never let alone
“Kristin wanted for a period to get out of the movement, but she was never let alone. The telephone was ringing all the time. As the idealist she was, Kristin was at last persuaded to come back,” Soren Skagemo told Adresseavisen.
“She was not allowed to have a boyfriend. Everything that could make her think about other things than the ideas of the school was forbidden,” Skagemo said.
‘Antenne 10′
Norwegian broadcast. In the programme, it was also said that the money Tvind and UFF have collected don’t end up in the Third World, but for luxury houses, shipping companies and companies.
“That must be Norwegian Broadcasting Company’s own statement. But it is not surprising if it is true, it would fit well with the impression I have of the organisation.”
From Ekstra Bladet, Denmark, 1993
“Tvind knew people were going to drown”
“I warned people against sailing with a ship like the “Activ”,” Tvind leader for many years says.
The Tvind leadership, headed by Poul Jorgensen, knew in advance that the schooner “Activ” was a ship of death, a vessel that would sooner or later cost human lives.
Teacher Carsten Ringsmose, who was one of the founders of the Tvind Empire in 1970 and who, last year, as the chairman of the Travelling Folk High School, left Tvind in protest, told Ekstra Bladet:
“I left just because I would not at any rate share the responsibility that people should sail out and drown, with a ship like “Activ”.”
