It’s Hanse ‘Week’ in Ipswich!

MV Hanseatic Spirit will be sailing into the Hanse port of Ipswich tomorrow.

Look out for MV Hanseatic Spirit, a Hapag Lloyd cruise ship, as she sails along the Orwell tomorrow morning (Saturday 3^rd October) and docks at Cliff Quay. She’s en route from Iceland and will be calling next at Greenwich before disembarkation in Hamburg, one of the Hanseatic League powerbases.

Ipswich Maritime Trust will be making a special presentation to the captain in the afternoon, of Pat Grimwade’s booklet Ipswich A Hanseatic Port, and Stephen Patterson’s drawing of The Port of Ipswich Today, which was selected after a competition organised by Ipswich Art Society to be included in the HANSEArtWorks 2026 exhibition in Stargard, Poland in June this year.

Guests on board ship will be taken on a walking tour of Ipswich (England’s oldest continually occupied port) or on a coach tour to Colchester (England’s oldest recorded town). Special attention will be drawn to Ipswich’s Hanseatic links.

And on Wednesday, we will be welcoming Phillip Eke, England’s Hanse Commissioner, as our speaker on Wednesday 7^th October at 7.30pm in the Methodist Church, Black Horse Lane.

Copies of Ipswich A Hanseatic Port will be available at £2.50 and there will be a display on Ipswich and its Hanseatic connections.