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The Potosi under full sail
History
Germany
Name	Potosi
Namesake	city of Potosí in Bolivia
Owner	F. Laeisz Shipping Company
Route	Hamburg-Chile
Ordered	1894
Builder	list error: <br /> list (help) Joh. C. Tecklenborg Ship Yard, Geestemünde Naval architect: Dr. Georg Wilhelm Claussen
Cost	M 695,000.00
Yard number	133
Laid down	November, 1894
Launched	June 8, 1895
Christened	June 8, 1895
Commissioned	July 26, 1895
Maiden voyage	July 26, 1895 to Iquique, Chile
Out of service	1914 - 1920 (WW I)
Renamed	Flora (1923)
Homeport	Hamburg, Germany; Bremen, Germany; Buenos Aires, Argentina; Valparaiso, Chile
Fate	sold to Chile in 1923, caught fire on September 15, 1925 and sunk by cannon fire on October 19, no loss of men
Status	wreck
Badge	none; figurehead (river god or mountain spirit)
General characteristics
Class and type	list error: <br /> list (help) five-masted steel barque nitrate carrier, bulk carrier
Tonnage	4,027 GRT / 3,854 NRT
Displacement	8,350 ts (at 6,400 ts load)
Length	list error: <br /> list (help) Template:Ft to m (overall) Template:Ft to m (hull) Template:Ft to m (btw. perpendiculars)
Beam	Template:Ft to m
Height	list error: <br /> list (help) Template:Ft to m (keel to masthead truck) Template:Ft to m (waterline to masthead truck)
Draft	Template:Ft to m
Depth	Template:Ft to m (depth moulded)
Depth of hold	Template:Ft to m
Decks	2 continuous steel, poop, midship, and forcastle decks
Deck clearance	8 ft (2.4 m)
Installed power	no auxiliary propulsion; donky engine for sail winches, loading gear, pumps
Propulsion	sail
Sail plan	43 sails: 24 square sails, 12 staysails, 4 foresails, 3 spankers - 56,510.53 sq ft / 5.250 m²
Speed	19 knots (35 km/h)
Boats & landing craft carried	4 lifeboats
Capacity	6,400 ts load
Complement	max. 44
Crew	captain, 1st, 2nd, & 3rd mates, steward, 35-39 able seamen and shipboys

The Potosí was five-masted steel barque built in 1895 for the famous F. Laeisz shipping company and named after the eponymous Bolivian town of Potosí. She was one of only six windjammers of this class with four masts having carried six sails on each mast and a fifth mast with fore-and-aft-sails (five-masted barque rigging) within the world merchant fleet. She was the second German five-masted steel barque and was assigned the call sign R K G B, later on in 1925 (as the Flora) the sign Q E P D. As with all P-liners her hull was black with a white waterline and a red underwater ship - the flag colours of Germany at that time.

She was the third windjammer in the world merchant fleet with that kind of rigging (only six were built) after the France I of the Antoine-Dominique Bordes line of Bordeaux and the first German (auxiliary) steel barque Maria Rickmers of the Rickmers line. The basic idea of building such a ship for the Laeisz fleet came from the famous Laeisz-captain Robert Hilgendorf, her first master. His considerations and ideas had a great influence to the ship's design, he was the supervising ship officer when the huge barque was under construction.

History

Launched in 1895 at the shipyard of J. C. Tecklenborg AG, Geestemünde, she was successfully used in the saltpeter trade with Chile, setting speed records in the process due to her excellent sailing characteristics. She made twenty seven "round voyages" (Hamburg-Chile and back home) under five captains until September 23, 1914 when she was interned at Valparaiso as she entered the harbour. Her first master, the legendary sea captain Robert Hilgendorf, sailed her up to 1901. Capt. Georg Schlüter (2 round voyages), Jochim Hans Hinrich Nissen (10), Johann Frömcke (3), and Robert Miethe (4) followed. In 1917 she was sold to the F. A. Vinnen ship company of Bremen while moored in Chile, but on October 2, 1920 she had to be given to France as a war reparation. The French government sold her to Argentina which transferred her to the Floating Docks Co. of Buenos Aires. There she laid up for three years when she was eventually purchased by the Chilean company González, Soffia & Cía. of Valparaíso, which renamed her the Flora. August Oetzmann, a former Laeisz captain, sail her to Hamburg with a cargo of nitrate in 110 days due to less able seamen. Many people of Hamburg came to welcome the old lady and wished Laeisz to purchase her from the Chilean owner but her former owners didn't. The Flora sailed back to Chile (May 25) via Cardiff (July 17) to take up a cargo of coal for Mejillones. Off the Patagonian coast en route to Cape Horn in the northwest of the Falkland Islands (at 50°17.5'S, 61° 42'W), the ship caught fire (spontaneous ignition, arson?) on September 15, 1925. Captain A. Oetzmann decided to set course to Comodoro Rivadavia reaching the harbour, merely a bay with a sandy beach, a long wooden pier, and several petrol tanks, on September 18, 1925. He anchored the ship five miles off the coast in the roads of Comodoro Rivadavia and alerted the harbour authorities to fight the fire in the ship. It took hours and days that something happend to rescue the ship, no proper equipment was available. The ordered fire engine that came three days after and was by far not sufficient enough to extinguish the fire. Next day a sudden big explosion ripped her steel decks apart, a huge flame higher than the tall ship's masts illuminated the scene giving a "Flying Dutchman appearance" to the Flora. The main mast fell over board pulling the rest of the rigging with it except for the foremast. A tug tried to tow her away from the tanks which could be done after several attempts. The Flora ran aground the sandy beach, brave seamen dropped the anchor and took everything usable from the ship. The fire kept burning while the ship's hull was lifted by the waves, hit the ground again and so on, again and again. The coal-filled hull burned for some days. One morning the ship has diappeared from the beach. The rudderless hull was found a few days later on floating 25 sea miles off the coast 80 sea miles in the north of Comodoro Rivadavia. The Argentinian cruiser Patria had to go out to sea and sunk the burning hull of the former famous ship by cannonfire on October 19, 1925. The wreck lies near the position 45°15′S 66°15′W / 45.250°S 66.250°W / -45.250; -66.250.

Naming the masts

Her five masts were named as follows:

• fore mast, main mast, middle mast, mizzen mast (also: after mast or "Laeisz" mast), spanker mast
• fore mast, main mast, mizzen mast, jigger mast, spanker mast (same naming with five-masted schooners and barquentines)

In German:

• Fockmast, Großmast, Mittelmast, Kreuzmast und Besanmast

Technical data

The Potosi was steel-built, with a waterline length of 110 m and a total hull length of 122.42 m. The hull was 15.15 m wide and the ship had a displacement of 8,350 tons, for an effective carrying capacity of 6,400 tons. The ship had only one bulkhead in the bow section - the collision bulkhead. Four of the five masts were fully rigged, with courses, upper and lower topsails, upper and lower topgallant sails, and royals. Counting staysails (12) including jibbs (4), she carried 43 sails (24 square sails in six storeys, 12 (normally 9) staysails between the five masts, four foresails (jibs) and three fore-and-aft spanker sails including two spanker sails on two gaffs and a spanker topsail with a total sail area of 56,510.53 sq ft . Sometimes a much less area of 4.700 sq metres is mentioned which is not correct. Big four-masted barques had sail areas of 4.400 sq metres. Not only the hull was steel, but also her masts (Template:Ft to m in diameter on deck level, lower and top mast were made in one piece) and most of all spars (yards except for the royal yards, spanker boom) were constructed of steel tubing, and many of the rigging was steel cable. The only wooden spars were the four royal yards, the four topgallant masts and the two gaffs of the spanker fore-and-aft sails. She was designed as a so-called "three-island-ship", i. e. a ship that has a midship island (Template:Ft to m), also called midship bridge or "Liverpool house" (the first ships equipped with that feature came from Liverpool yards), beside the forecastle (Template:Ft to m) and poop (Template:Ft to m) decks. There, inside the Liverpool house, dry and well-ventilated accommodations for crew, mates, and captain were installed, as well as the pantry and chart room. The main helm - a double rudder wheel of Template:Ft to m diameter - stood on top well save against huge waves. A second helm were near the stern. Under good conditions, the huge barque could reach a speed of 19 knots (35 km/h). Her best 24-hour-run were 376 nm in 1900 under Capt. Hilgendorf. The Potosi was manned by a crew of 40-44 and the fastest P-liner next to the five-masted full-rigged ship Preußen which was a little faster reaching speeds of more than 20 knots.

References

• Oliver E. Allen: Die Windjammer, Time-Life Books, Amsterdam 1980 (Original US edition: 1978)
• Template:De icon Björn Landström: Das Schiff, C. Bertelsmann Verlag, München 1961
• C. A. Finsterbusch: Last Voyage of the Mighty Potosi Under the German Flag. Sea Breezes Vol. XVIII (1934), pp 135-137, ill.
• Template:De icon Hans-Jörg Furrer: Die Vier- und Fünfmast-Rahsegler der Welt. Koehlers Verlagsges., Herford 1984, p 168, ISBN 3-7822-0341-0
• Template:De icon Hans Blöss: Glanz und Schicksal der "Potosi" und "Preussen", Hamburgs und der Welt größte Segler.  Schmidt u. Klaunig Verlag, Kiel 1960
• Template:De icon Hans Georg Prager: „F. Laeisz“ vom Frachtsegler bis zum Bulk Carrier.  Koehlers Verlagsgesellschaft mbH, Herford 1974, ISBN 3-7822-0096-9
• Template:De icon Peter Klingbeil: Die Flying P-Liner. Die Segelschiffe der Reederei F. Laeisz. Verlag "Die Hanse", Hamburg 1998 u. 2000, ISBN 3-434-52562-9
• Template:De icon Hermann Ostermann: Potosi - Stolz der deutschen Segelschiffsflotte. In: Das Logbuch 31. Jahrg., Brilon-Gudenhagen 1995. pp 184-189.
• Template:De icon Ernst Römer: Die zwei schnellsten Reisen der Potosi. In: Der Seewart, No. 6, Hamburg 1954

External links

• Template:De icon description, plans, history
• Template:De icon Beschreibung mit Fotos
• Potosi at www.bruzelius.info
• Template:De icon Steckbrief der Potosi
• CapHorniers on F. Laeisz (and A. D. Bordes & Fils), Chile, Fotos etc.
• photograph of the Potosi under sail
• photograph of the Potosi in Hamburg harbour

• Tall ships of Germany
• Maritime incidents in 1925
• Five-masted ships