bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

hooksAmpRedirectArticle

articleSchemaContent

liveArticle

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

paywallTypes

createdDate

publishedDate

sponsorType

urlAlias

moreOnThisArticles

commentCount

authorLocations

authors

corrections

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

articleSpeeches

socialHeadline

headline

images

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

sponsor

pdfFiles

seriesReverseOrder

series

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

readingTime

customTimezone

liveContents

SCMP Reporter

SHE was the pride of Sweden's 18th-century trading fleet with China until meeting a fateful end on September 12, 1745.

 At the end of her last 30-month voyage from Canton, returning laden with chinaware, tea, spices and silk, the East Indiaman Gotheborg foundered in a storm - just a kilometre from the entrance to Gothenburg harbour.

  But the historic three-master was not lost forever.

  Following the recovery of wreckage in Sweden's biggest marine archaeological excavation, a replica is being rebuilt according to its original design and specifications.

  Plans are now afoot to sail the replica back to mainland China.

  'To sail the full-rigged 18th- century ship is certainly going to be an adventure,' a spokesman at Svenska Ostindiska Companiet, the foundation behind the project, said.

  'She will be the largest wooden sailing ship in the world and the goal is to sail the historic trade route to Canton.'   With re-construction nearly complete, crews are preparing for the 18-month voyage.

   'Nobody has any experience sailing this kind of ship, so the crew needs a lot of preparation,' Joakim Severinsson, who is in charge of the construction, said.

   The 80-strong crew of the Gotheborg III, as she is now called, will have some technological advantages compared with the vessel that sank.

   Three crews will share the adventure and the ship will be equipped with auxiliary engines, a concession demanded by her insurers, and navigation will be aided by satellite technology.

   Almost every other aspect of the historic ship is authentic.

   Many long-lost crafts have been revived in the reconstruction. Blacksmiths had to learn how to hand-forge original nails and deck machinery. Carpenters went back to basics to carve the oak hull, spruce masts and pine plankings, which will be sealed with pitch and tar. The sails and rigging are being sewn from hemp.

  'The aim is to operate the deck machinery manually and the boat's ballast will seek to achieve the historically-correct waterline,' Mr Severinsson said.

  Even the shipyard in Gothenburg has been re-named Terra Nova, after the old shipyard in Stockholm where the original Gotheborg was built in 1738.

  The project has aroused enormous public interest in both Sweden and China. The total cost is estimated at around $100 million, but sponsors and donors are lining up.

   A fund-raising spokesman said: 'Chinese delegations view it as an important symbol of 260 years of peaceful trade links with Sweden.' 



Historic cargo ship reconstructed for long voyage to mainland China