Five-mast fullrigger PREUSSEN
One of the most famous J.C. Tecklenborg vessels, at least unforgotten in shipping circles, is the five-mast full rigger PREUSSEN, manufactured in steel, delivered in 1902 and surely representing the last leg of the windjammer era. The Hamburg shipping company F. Laeisz, whose sailing ships bearing the first capital letter P were known as “P-Liners”, had ordered the ship. At 5081 gross tons (GT: Gross Tons, not a weight, but a measure of capacity, 1 GT = 2.83m³), a length of 147 metres and a rigging of 5560 m² the PREUSSEN was one of the biggest windjammers of her time. The ship was launched in Geestemünde on May 7th 1902 and in late July the same year, delivery took place. The maiden voyage took the ship round Cape Horn to Chile, where German export products were unloaded. In turn, a cargo of 8000 tons of saltpeter made from guano, important for the emerging German chemical industry, was loaded. In all, 13 successful trips were accomplished, but the ship met her fate in November 1910, when she was damaged in a collision with a British channel ferry and then foundered on the Dover cliffs.