A wooden sailing boat modeled on an antique will accompany the
replica of the Swedish merchant ship "Gotheborg" when it sails up
the Pearl River in south China.
The wooden boat, with a length of 48 meters, has been built with
ship building methods used for ships on which Zheng He, a Muslim
eunuch in the imperial Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), made seven voyages
to places including West Asia and East Africa between 1405 and
1433.
Built at a cost of 14 million yuan (about US$1.75 million), the
boat, known as "Goddess of the South China Sea", is currently
moored at Fangcun Pier in downtown Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong
Province, through which the Pearl River, the third longest waterway
in the country, flows, said Wang Xia, deputy general manager of
Guangbo Cruise Boat Co. Ltd, one of the three sponsors for the
wooden boat.
The bottom cabin of the boat has been turned into a museum where
cultural items featuring Guangzhou's history as a maritime trading
route.
The legendary 18th century Swedish merchant ship "Gotheborg"
made three voyages from Gothenburg to Guangzhou between 1743 and
1745, pioneering trade between Sweden and China.
On its last return trip to Sweden in 1745, tragedy struck when
it smashed into rocks about 900 meters from its destination after a
30-month voyage to China. It sunk with its entire cargo outside the
port of Gothenburg.
The wreckage of the ship was recovered in 1984 and excavation
was conducted from 1986 to 1992. The discovery led to the idea of
rebuilding a replica of the ship by using the same traditional
techniques and materials and sailing it to China again.
Its replica, Gotheborg III, has an overall length of 58.8 meters
and a width of 11 meters. It is carrying 80 crew members and some
of the silk, porcelain, tea leaves and spices that went down with
the original ship.
It departed from the Swedish city of Gothenburg in October last
year for China. It will reach Guangzhou next Tuesday and will stay
in the province for one month.
(Xinhua News Agency July 15, 2006)
