Battleangel

The East Indiaman Götheborg just sailed out of Gothenburg harbour for the first leg in its remarkable reenactment of the voyage of the original vessel. The $30 million replica, 10 years in the making, in full scale and built using traditional techniques, departs for her two year long voyage to China and back.

SOIC - On the 12th of September 1745, the swedish East Indiaman Götheborg headed for her home port after almost two years of sailing the world´s oceans. The ship suffered heavily from storms, and the crew were exhausted but full of expectation. But alas, the triumphant homecoming would end in catastrophe. With a pilot on board and before the very eyes of encouraging Göteborgers in small boats and on the beaches, the vessel ran aground in the middle of the entrance to Göteborg harbour - and sunk with her entire cargo. Thanks to all nearby boats, all the crew survived. Repeated attempts with varying success were made to salvage the valuable cargo, which was worth as much as the national budget.

Speculations was fervent. An insurance fraud? Rudder problems? A drunken captain? Eventually the East Indiaman Götheborg was forgotten, until 240 years later when a diver rediscovered her and began a marine-archaeological excavation. The attention surrounding the find and the excavation whetted people´s appetites, and led to the slightly crazy idea of rebuilding the entire vessel - in full scale using traditional techniques - and sailing to China once again.
All ingenious ideas have a degree of madness. It is there fore good to know that adventure lives on, and madness still flourishes at the Terra Nova shipyard. Soon that very same madness will take the Swedish East India Company to China.

What can one say. I kind of wish I’d been boarding that ship. Now that would have been a worthwhile experience and an effective way to avoid the real world for two entire years. That is the charm of the entire venture, that it not only recreates the actual ship but brings back life, more or less, as it would have been for sailors in the 18th century. Then, just as today, it is a life that attracts a certain kind of people. Drifters, people just wanting to get away, but without anywhere to go or the means or motivation to go there. Going to sea was a way, for many, to escape the dreary everyday monotony. But this is a life that sadly no longer exists, except in reenactments and childish dreams.

Wikipedia for East Indiaman Götheborg.