Lauren Morgens runs a tight tall ship.
But the captain of the Kalmar Nyckel for nearly 20 years isn’t a stickler for the sake of it. The three-masted vessel simply demands that much organization to run smoothly.
“The logistics are insane,” Capt. Morgens told The Suffolk Times on Monday after the official tall ship of Delaware returned to Greenport Harbor. “The best way to make that not be a crushing workload is to have it be highly organized. The more organized you are, the less work it is to be organized.”
The Kalmar Nyckel is a full-scale replica of the ship that carried the 1638 expedition that founded the colony of New Sweden — now Delaware. The vessel, which first sailed into Greenport in 2015, arrived at the Railroad Dock after participating in Sail Boston 2026, a maritime festival held as part of the celebration of America’s 250th anniversary.
Operating the ship requires long hours, physical work and tight coordination. But crew members say what keeps them aboard is something less tangible: a community that has inspired career changes, forged lasting friendships and, for one sailor, provided a place to call home.
The original Kalmar Nyckel — which means “Key of Kalmar,” a reference to the Swedish city and its castle — carried a crew of 55 men and 12 6-pounder cannons during her wartime career. In 1652, the ship was sunk while defending the Dutch herring fleet in the North Sea off the coast of Scotland.
Construction on today’s replica began in Wilmington, Del., more than three centuries later, in 1995. It was launched into the Christina River in September 1997, according to the Kalmar Nyckel Foundation’s website.
At the helm is Capt. Morgens, who grew up in Connecticut and discovered tall ships as a college student during an oceanography-focused semester with the Sea Education Association in Woods Hole, Mass.
“It feels very real,” she said. “I went home, and I told my parents — not quite 19 at the time — that I was going to be a sea captain. They were not unencouraging, although they did think I should finish school first, which I thought was a pretty fair reaction.”
Morgens began working aboard tall ships as an itinerant sailor, taking seasonal contracts that lasted four to six months and moving from boat to boat. It meant traveling constantly and basically living nowhere.
Her mail still went to her parents’ house, but they “sure did not feel like their kid was living at home.”
She eventually earned her license to work as a mate and began looking for positions online. That’s when she stumbled upon the Kalmar Nyckel.
“I looked at this boat and thought, ‘This is the coolest boat out there,’” she recalled.
Morgens worked her way up from mate to chief mate — the ship’s second-in-command — and eventually to captain.
Chief Mate Jim Fitzgerald of Delaware joined the crew as a volunteer 11 years ago, looking for something to do while he was unemployed. He fell so in love with it that, even after securing a full-time job, he quickly quit to pursue sailing.
Like Morgens, he worked aboard other ships before returning to the Kalmar Nyckel about eight years ago. As second-in-command, he fills in for the captain when needed and helps ensure everything runs — or sails — as it should.
“We work well with the people here,” he said. “We love each other, and I’ve been able to constantly grow here. I’m very lucky to work for my hometown boat.”
Pat Lawrence-Caldwell of Delaware is in her fourth season as a volunteer aboard the ship. She has volunteered for several organizations throughout her life, but one advantage of this opportunity, she joked, is that she doesn’t need a gym membership.
“For somebody my age — 65 — it keeps me physically fit, and it keeps me engaged mentally because I’m always learning new things,” she said.
As a volunteer, Lawrence-Caldwell helps wash the deck, clean the heads and get everything in position for tours long before passengers set foot on the planks.
Crew member Kat Caudle now lives in Delaware, but she was born in Bay Shore and grew up on Fire Island while her father was stationed at the Coast Guard station there.
Despite spending her life around boats and the water, she never considered joining the crew. Caudle’s mother made that choice for her 20 years ago, signing her up for a class about the ship and what working aboard it would entail. Caudle was told that if she didn’t like it after the first class, she wouldn’t have to come back.
She came back.
“It was the community. It was where my friends were,” she said. “That’s where, even in the lowest times, I could always count on the people on this boat to be there for me. It’s a really phenomenal community to get to know.”
Fellow crew member Elaine Autry, also from Delaware, joined the Kalmar Nyckel in 2005. She took a break to help raise her granddaughter before rejoining in 2012.
For a time, the ship was more than a source of community and adventure. It was her home.
Autry sold her house in 2019 and, while searching for another place to live, asked whether she could move aboard. She could, she was told, as long as she worked six days a week.
That wasn’t a problem.
“I loved it so much, I just stayed,” she said of her year and a half aboard. “They said to me a few months later, ‘How’s the apartment hunting coming?’ I said, ‘I’m not really hunting. I just want to stay here.’”
She eventually found a new place on land, but she’ll always remember that time on the Kalmar Nyckel with a smile.
“It’s always felt like home,” she said.
The Kalmar Nyckel sets sail from the Railroad Dock through Sunday from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Community members can also come aboard for free deck tours Saturday from 2 to 7 p.m.
Tickets cost $85 for adults and $50 for children 12 and younger. Reservations can be made online at kalmarnyckel.orgor by calling 302-429-7447.
Even after nearly two decades of sailing to other destinations, Morgens said Greenport always stands out.
“The reception is so enthusiastic. Our office is always bombarded with people calling,” she said. “It’s really great that people appreciate ships like this here.”
