Qualla: Gotheborg (ship)

Gotheborg (ship): Introduction

Tue, 03 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Frankie Fouganthin, CC BY-SA 4.0. Thirty months at sea, holds brimming with Chinese tea, porcelain, and silk. Less than a nautical mile from home. Then, inexplicably, the Gotheborg struck a well-charted rock and sank within sight of the Gothenburg harbor on September 12, 1745. Every sailor survived, and much of the precious cargo was salvaged over the following years, but the mystery of how an experienced pilot could wreck his ship on a sunny day with fair winds haunted maritime historians for centuries. Nearly 240 years later, divers pulling blue-and-white porcelain shards from the seabed would spark one of the most ambitious wooden shipbuilding projects in modern history.

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Image: Frankie Fouganthin | CC BY-SA 4.0

Gotheborg (ship): The China Trade and a Fateful Voyage

Tue, 03 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Amjad Sheikh, CC BY-SA 3.0. The Swedish East India Company, established in 1731, was a latecomer to the lucrative Asian trade routes dominated by the Dutch and English. Operating from Gothenburg, the company exchanged Swedish timber, tar, iron, and copper for the treasures of Canton: tea, porcelain, silk, a...

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Image: Amjad Sheikh | CC BY-SA 3.0

Gotheborg (ship): Dead Water and a 250-Year Mystery

Tue, 03 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Public domain. Captain Eric Moreen and his crew testified that September 12, 1745 offered ideal sailing conditions: clear weather, favorable winds from the southwest. The ship had a veteran pilot, Caspar Matthisson, with seven and a half years of experience. Yet the Gotheborg suddenly veered to...

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Image: Public domain

Gotheborg (ship): Porcelain Rising from the Seabed

Tue, 03 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit W.carter, CC BY-SA 4.0. On December 9, 1984, five divers from the Marine Archeological Society of Gothenburg descended to the Hunnebadan wreck site. They surfaced with 38 pieces of porcelain, three nearly intact. Between 1986 and 1992, one of Sweden's most comprehensive marine archaeological surveys exc...

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Image: W.carter | CC BY-SA 4.0

Gotheborg (ship): Building History by Hand

Tue, 03 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Amjad Sheikh, CC BY-SA 3.0. On June 11, 1995, two silver coins, one from 1745 and one from 1995, were placed into the keel joints of the Gotheborg replica as 3,000 spectators watched. Over the following decade, craftsmen at the Terra Nova shipyard built the vessel using 18th-century techniques as much as po...

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Image: Amjad Sheikh | CC BY-SA 3.0

Gotheborg (ship): Retracing the Route to Canton

Tue, 03 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit CC BY-SA 2.0. In October 2005, the Gotheborg III set sail for China. The 18-month voyage took her around Africa's southern tip, with stops in Cadiz, Recife, Cape Town, Fremantle, Jakarta, and Shanghai. She returned on June 9, 2007, welcomed by Chinese President Hu Jintao, the King and Queen of...

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Image: CC BY-SA 2.0