Animation of the German ship Preussen (1902) the only five-masted merchant sailing ship ever built

Preussen was a marvel of a ship. One of the largest and most sophisticated sailing ships in history. A steel-hulled, five-masted, ship-rigged sailing ship built in 1902 and named after the German kingdom of Prussia.
Until the launch of Royal Clipper, a sail cruise liner in 2000, she was the only five-masted full-rigged ship ever built and carried six square sails on each mast.
Not only did she have a fascinating career at a time when the sun was setting on the great clipper ships, she also had a fascinating, and abrupt end in 1910, and ended up wrecked in the English Channel near Dover. Parts of her hull can still be seen today.
This animation is designed to go alongside an episode of the Mariner's Mirror Podcast in which Dr Sam Willis speaks with Frank Scott, a retired naval aviator and qualified square rig ship-master, who commanded various square riggers ranging from 80 to 800 gross tonnes. In his long sail training career he served in fourteen square riggers, under seven different national flags.
#history #maritime #maritimehistory #maritimeeducation #anchor #historyfacts #historygk

[@user-tw9tk9zw4r]

As a schoolboy in Schleswig Holsteinin in the 1950s I was lucky enough to have a trip on the sister ship Passat in the Baltic.Never to be forgotten this just brings back magic memories!

[@tedthoman6580]

Thank you so much for this excellent presentation..! Dad said that Grandpa quit the Potosi after several voyages, because the moaning of the wire rigging in a storm resonated so loudly throughout the steel masts and hull, that it became unbearable while working to windward, for days or weeks beating around the Horn . He returned to wooden ships,"dog-hole" coastal schooners, sailing from Seattle to California and also to the Sandwich Isles. When he quit sailing [ He never did "go to steam" ] he climbed, topped, and rigged "spar Trees" from Washington state, down through the Oregon Coast forests, to Marin County, California, in the early 1900's.

[@GallagherGeotecminning]

BRILLIANT

[@markiliff]

Brilliant! For 55 years I've wanted to know what the other masts were called

[@timogeerties3487]

The young lookout on on the Brighton apparently slept on his post, causing a delayed and misguided reaction. The Preussen, after the anchoring attempt broke all of it's 3 anchor cables in windy conditions, was to be towed to Dover for repairs as it was still waterproof despite not maneuverable (the bulkheads did an amazing job) but on it's way, a strong gust of wind pressed her on the aforementioned reef despite the tugboats' efforts to prevent it.

[@andyuk12345]

I posted this as a link on my Facebook group and to date 3 members have told me of other 5 masted sailing ships.... SV Carroll A Deerling. SV Potosi, SV Vigilant, SV Bords ......

[@unconventionalideas5683]

But they were typically gaff rigged and they were also smaller than Preussen.

[@jozg44]

A great video - I've always admired 'Preussen' and the other Flying P-Liners but it's hard to get a good idea of their deck layout and appearance from the photos, line drawings and grainy film footage of the time. The 3D model really brings it all into the clear. Although you clear it up in your voiceover, your title isn't entirely right - there were other five-masted sailing ships (and schooner-rigged ships with even more) but 'Preussen' was the only one to be square-rigged on all five masts. I've always been interested in the apparent contradiction between all the written history which says that 'Preussen' had steam-powered steering gear, and the equally consistent fact that she had a double wheel which sometimes needed six or eight men to handle. Either her steam gear was not very powerful, or it was only used when close inshore or when lots of maneuvers were anticipated.

[@timogeerties3487]

The german term for the Preussen being a ship quarter rigged on all her masts is 'Fünfmastvollschiff' (word for word 'five mast full ship')

[@jamesfrost7465]

Hoy Sir, Well done! I must subscribe. Thank you. I'm building a 16 foot model of the Thomas W. Lawson. Intresting names for her 7 masts.

[@Retarmyaviator]

The only one? Not so, the Carroll A. Deering was a five-masted merchant ship, launched in 1919.

[@unconventionalideas5683]

She was not full rigged, but gaff rigged.

[@simplifiedme723]

I wonder why wouldn't steering wheel be power assisted... Everything else was.

[@timogeerties3487]

The first cars didn't have servo steering either. That was invented later. And most times one (maybe two) men were enough to steer her with leisure

[@unconventionalideas5683]

She was. They pointed out the rudder was power assisted. But it was probably a crude system.

[@AlexanderWeurding]

why the dutch flag?