“Yrjö Kaukiainen: A Tribute on the Occasion of his Forthcoming Retirement as Professor of Maritime History at the University of Helsinki”

Summary

In 2005 Professor Yrjö Kaukiainen will reach retirement age and leave his present position as Professor of European History at the University of Helsinki. Although it is difficult to believe that Yrjö will turn sixty-five in April 2005 it is a fact beyond dispute. He does not seem to have become older in the two decades in which we have known each other and worked together. Perhaps it has something to do with his personality, because he is such a deliberate and prudent man. One of the jobs awaiting him once he no longer has any teaching obligations is to organize the next Congress of the Economic History Association in Helsinki in 2006. Yet after many years of university teaching - many of which were spent as Professor of Economic History - retirement means that he will have more time for research. This is important, for all we know that he is not planning to give up his scholarship to devote all his time to polishing the brass on his sailing boat, although he may spend more time actually at sea in Finnish or Baltic waters than before.

As a maritime historian there are no ladders left to climb in order to arrive at the lofty heights where the most eminent scholars reside, for he has reached the pinnacle of our discipline as an outstanding representative of maritime scholarship in Finland as well in the rest of the world. If we think of Finnish maritime history, Yrjö's name comes to mind immediately, despite the fact that there are other learned individuals in Finland working in this field. Thus, it can be said without any exaggeration that he is one of the most eminent living maritime historians. His research and writing is outstanding and highly appreciated in his country and around the globe. On the occasion of his sixtieth birthday in 2000 his Finnish colleagues honoured him with an impressive festschrift which unfortunately has only one article in Swedish that I could read.

Yrjö has been praised on many occasions for his scholarship, but it was the publication of two monographs in the early 1990s which won him international acclaim in maritime history.