Potosi (barque)


Potosi was a five-masted steel barque built in 1895 by Joh. C. Tecklenborg ship yard in Geestemünde, Germany, for the sailing ship company F. Laeisz as a trading vessel. As its shipping route was between Germany and Chile, it was designed to be capable of withstanding the rough weather encountered around Cape Horn.
Potosi was named after the Bolivian town of Potosí, its name beginning with "P" according to a Laeisz' tradition begun in the 1880s. The Potosi and sister ships became known as the Flying P Line and were described by Robert Carter as "without doubt, the most successful fleet of sail-driven ships ever assembled under one flag..."
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 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, Potosi, R.C. Rickmers, France II. In 1925, she caught fire in the Atlantic and eventually had to be sunk by artillery.

History

The Potosi was launched in 1895 at the shipyard of J. C. Tecklenborg AG, Geestemünde and was used in the saltpetre trade between Chile and Germany, setting record speeds in the process, due to her excellent sailing characteristics. She made twenty seven "round voyages" under five captains between 1895 and 1914. Her first master, the legendary sea captain Robert Hilgendorf, sailed her up to 1901. Capt. Georg Schlüter, Jochim Hans Hinrich Nissen, Johann Frömcke, and Robert Miethe followed.
On September 23, 1914 the Potosi was interned at Valparaiso as she entered the harbour, since the war had begun. In 1917 while moored in Chile, she was sold to the F. A. Vinnen shipping company of Bremen, but on October 2, 1920 she was 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, and renamed the Flora. August Oetzmann, a former Laeisz captain, sailed her to Hamburg with a cargo of nitrate in 110 days. 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 via Cardiff to take up a cargo of coal for Mejillones. On September 15, 1925, en route to Cape Horn, the ship caught fire off the Patagonian coast northwest of the Falkland Islands. Captain A. Oetzmann decided to set course to Comodoro Rivadavia, reaching the harbour, which was 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. As no proper equipment was available, it took three days before help came. The ordered fire engine that came was not able to extinguish the fire. Next day a huge explosion ripped her steel decks apart. The main mast fell overboard pulling the rest of the rigging with it except for the foremast. A tug tried to tow her away from the petrol tanks, and succeeded after several attempts. The Flora ran aground on the sandy beach. The seamen dropped the anchor and took everything usable from the ship. The fire kept burning while the ship's hull was repeatedly lifted by the waves and slammed into the shore. The coal-filled hull burned for some days. One morning the ship had disappeared from the beach. The rudderless hull was found a few days later floating off the coast and to the north of Comodoro Rivadavia. The Argentine cruiser Patria sank the burning hull of the former famous ship by gunfire on October 19, 1925. The wreck lies near the position.

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. The ship had five masts, four of which were fully rigged, with courses, upper and lower topsails, upper and lower topgallant sails, and royals. Counting the staysails including jibs, she carried 43 sails staysails between the five masts, four foresails with a total sail area of . Not only the hull was steel, but also her masts and most of all spars were constructed of steel tubing, and much 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, also called midship bridge or "Liverpool house", beside the forecastle and poop decks. There, inside the Liverpool house, dry and well-ventilated accommodation for crew, mates, and captain were installed, as well as the pantry and chart room. The main helm—a double rudder wheel of diameter—stood on top, well protected against huge waves. A second helm was near the stern. Under good conditions, the huge barque could reach a speed of. Her best 24-hour-run were 376 nm in 1900 under Capt. Hilgendorf. The Potosi was manned by a crew of 40–44. She was the fastest P-liner apart from the five-masted fully rigged ship Preußen which could reach speeds of more than, but was less maneuverable.

Mast names

From bow to stern her five masts were named as follows:
In German:
Standard nomenclature for five-masted schooners and barquentines