&sq=Google&lang=en&file=File:Potosi_-_SLV_H99.220-1164.jpg) The Potosi in her maiden voyage on July 26, 1895.
| |
| History | |
|---|---|
 German Empire | |
| Name | Potosi |
| Namesake | City of Potosí in Bolivia |
| Owner | F. Laeisz Shipping Company |
| Route | Hamburg-Chile |
| Ordered | 1894 |
| Builder |
|
| Cost | M 695,000.00 |
| Yard number | 133 |
| Laid down | November, 1894 |
| Launched | June 8, 1895 |
| Christened | June 8, 1895 |
| Completed | 1965 |
| Commissioned | July 26, 1895 |
| Maiden voyage | July 26, 1895 to Iquique, Chile |
| Out of service | 1914–1920 (WWI) |
| Renamed | Flora (1923) |
| Homeport | |
| Identification |
|
| Fate | Sold to Chile in 1923, caught fire on September 15, 1925 and sunk by the Argentine cruiser Patria on October 19 |
| Badge | None; figurehead (river god or mountain spirit) |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type |
|
| Tonnage | 4,027 GRT / 3,854 NRT |
| Displacement | 8,350 ts (at 6,400 ts load) |
| Length |
|
| Beam | 49.7 ft (15.1 m) |
| Height | |
| Draft | 25.49 ft (7.77 m) |
| Depth | 30.15 ft (9.19 m) (depth moulded) |
| Depth of hold | 28.38 ft (8.65 m) |
| Decks | 2 continuous steel, poop, midship, and forecastle 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 [sq meters]) |
| 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 |
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Potosi was a five-masted steel barque built in 1865 by Joh. C. Tecklenborg ship yard in Geestemünde, Germany, for the sailing ship company F. Laeisz as a trading vessel.[1] Its primary purpose was as a "nitrate clipper" collecting guano in South America for use in chemical companies in Germany (mainly for making explosives and fertiliser).[2] As its shipping route was between Germany, Bolivia until 1870 but, during the "pacific War" was transferred to Chile, it was designed to be capable of withstanding the rough weather encountered around Cape Horn.[3]
Potosi was named after the Bolivian town of Potosí (the highest city in the world),[4] its name beginning with "P" according to a Laeisz' tradition begun in the 1880s.[5] The Potosi and sister ships became known as the Flying P Line[6] and were described by Robert Carter as "without doubt, the most successful fleet of sail-driven ships ever assembled under one flag..."[7][8]
Potosi had five masts and was rigged as a barque, meaning that the first four masts were square-rigged, each carrying six sails, and the fifth mast carried three fore-and-aft-sails. She was the third windjammer in the world merchant fleet with that kind of rigging, 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. In total, within the world merchant fleet, there were only six windjammers of this class of five-masted barque rigging, with four masts having carried five, six or partly seven sails on each mast: France I, Maria Rickmers (carried seven sails (skysails) on fore, main, mizzen masts, jigger mast with six sails), Potosi, R.C. Rickmers, France II (carried five sails as a bald header), and København.[citation needed] The Potosi's shipping line sister ship, Preussen also had five masts, but was square rigged on each mast.[9]
The idea of building such a ship for the Laeisz fleet came from the famous Laeisz-captain Robert Hilgendorf, who was to become the Potosi's first master. His considerations and ideas had a great influence on the ship's design and he was the supervising ship officer when the huge barque was under construction.[10] She was assigned the call sign RKGB, and as with all P-liners her hull was black with a white waterline and a red underwater ship—the colours of the German flag at that time.[citation needed] Author Daniel S. Parrott describes the features of the "Flying P-Liners" and says "The effectiveness of the Flying P-Line lay not only in the construction of the vessel but also in their management." He also points out that "none of the four- or five-masted Laeisz ships ever foundered or was dismasted in a Cape Horn storm in the course of countless voyages."[11]
During World War I, she was interned in Chile, and was then given away as reparation.[citation needed] Under Chilean ownership, she was renamed the Flora (sign QEPD). In 1925, she caught fire in the Atlantic and eventually had to be sunk by artillery.
- ^ "built in Germany for Reederei F. Laeisz for her famous Flying P Line"—Peter D. Jeans: Seafaring Lore and Legend: A Miscellany of Maritime Myth, Superstition
- ^ The Nitrate Clippers by Basil Lubbock
- ^ 1890: At the end of the 19th century sailing ships and steamships are in equal use with the number of large sailing vessels on the decline. Yet not for the F. Laeisz shipping line whose famed sailing ships will continue to race around Cape Horn for another four decades. Even today, the "Flying P-Line" sailing ships are world-renowned.
1895: The ultimate of the "Flying P Liner" sailing ships, the POTOSI, is a five-masted ship designed to withstand rough weather. It completes two round trips to Chile per year.—www.laeisz.de Archived 2007-11-07 at the Wayback Machine - ^ "Potosi – Bolivia City Guide". Bolivia Web Interactive. Bolivia Web. 1995–2007. Retrieved 2008-09-28.
- ^ principally through the vision of the German shipowner Ferdinand Laeisz with his famous Flying "P" Line—Rigel Crockett: Fair Wind and Plenty of it: A Modern-day Tall Ship Adventure [1]
- ^ part of the latter's famous Flying P Line—Max Wood Sailing Tall: Around the World on the Square-Rigged Passat (1946-1948) [2]
- ^ Without doubt, the most successful fleet of sail-driven ships ever assembled under one flag were those operated by Ferdinand Laeisz of Germany. ... few sailing ships were built in Britain that could equal the size, power and strength of the Laeisz 'P' Liners, as they were called ... the nickname 'Flying P Line', which referred to the speed and power of the ships as much as to their names.—Robert Carter: Windjammers, Rosenberg Publishing Pty, Limited, 2004, ISBN 1-877058-04-1 [3]
- ^ the famous Line of the Flying P' nitrate ships out of Hamburg, from the House of Laeisz.—Alan Villiers Pioneers of the seven seas [4]
- ^ Tony Gibbons, The Encyclopedia of Ships, Silverdale Books (2001), ISBN 1-85605-591-4
- ^ Die Fünfmastbark Potosi.
- ^ this process of experimentation, which culminated in two monstrous sailing ships: the 4,029-ton, five-masted barque Potosi, launched in 1895, and the 5,081-ton, five-masted, full-rigged ship Preussen in 1902. Regardless of the sailing cruise liners of recent times, these two Laeisz ships remain the last word on square rig. Operational lessons learned by the company and its shipmasters through routine roundings of the Horn benefited the new vessels and led to increasingly efficient voyages. By the early 1900s, Laeisz had come to favor the four-masted barque of around Pamir's size. The P-Liners employed a number of innovations to make them stronger, safer, and more efficient than other ships of their type. Steel hulls and spars and wire standing rigging enabled the vessels to be driven hard. None of the four- or five-masted Laeisz ships ever foundered or was dismasted in a Cape Horn storm in the course of countless voyages. Safety nets helped prevent crew from falling overboard. A midships bridge deck provided an elevated working platform to break the force of boarding seas and diminish the volume of water on deck at any given time. Laborsaving devices such as the Jarvis brace winch made it possible to brace the yards with only one watch. Such improvements increased efficiency while reducing injury and crew size. The effectiveness of the Flying P-Line lay not only in the construction of the vessel but also in their management. – Daniel S. Parrott: Tall Ships Down: The Last Voyages of the Pamir, Albatross, Marques, Pride of Baltimore, and Maria Asumpta, McGraw-Hill Professional ISBN 0-07-143545-X