The Preußen, 5-masted Cargo Sailing Ship, Built 1902

Yesterday I did a symposium on publishing and photography at the San Francsico Art Institute, arranged by my long-time friend and photography teacher Jack Fulton. I had a bit of time to kill and went into the maritime museum at Aquatic Park and again marveled at this model of  “…the only five-masted full-rigged ship ever built (in 1902).…

   The Preußen was steel-built with a waterline length of 124 m and a total hull length of 132 m. The hull was 16.4 m wide and the ship had a displacement of 11,150 long tons (11,330 t), for an effective carrying capacity of 8,000 long tons (8,100 t). The five masts were fully rigged, with courses, upper and lower topsails, upper and lower topgallant sails, and royals. Counting staysails, she carried 47 sails (30 square sails in six storeys, 12 staysails between the five masts, four foresails (jibs) and a small fore-and-aft spanker) with a total sail area of 6,806 square meters (73,260 sq ft)…

Above from Wikipedia

The Preußen was rammed by a ship in the English Channel and sank in 1910.

About Lloyd Kahn

Lloyd Kahn started building his own home in the early '60s and went on to publish books showing homeowners how they could build their own homes with their own hands. He got his start in publishing by working as the shelter editor of the Whole Earth Catalog with Stewart Brand in the late '60s. He has since authored six highly-graphic books on homemade building, all of which are interrelated. The books, "The Shelter Library Of Building Books," include Shelter, Shelter II (1978), Home Work (2004), Builders of the Pacific Coast (2008), Tiny Homes (2012), and Tiny Homes on the Move (2014). Lloyd operates from Northern California studio built of recycled lumber, set in the midst of a vegetable garden, and hooked into the world via five Mac computers. You can check out videos (one with over 450,000 views) on Lloyd by doing a search on YouTube:

3 Responses to The Preußen, 5-masted Cargo Sailing Ship, Built 1902

  1. beautiful…amazes me what a feat of design/engineering that something like this floats/floats well…. huge massive space uptop, skinny little bottom…looks to me like a gust of wind would topple it (i know these things are made like this, and dont topple)…

  2. Off topic, but wanted to tell you..

    Lloyd, wonder if you have realized how much value and heart warming smiles your work has brought to others, myself included…Just gave a couple of the miniature books to two kids. Four and Six year olds, and they plan to show them off at school. Grandma was also taken, and is tomorrow going to show them your website, and more images on google. I just scouted out some links (your site, and some google images), and sent the off to her, to make it easier… but what I wished to point out, that even I, who has your books and looked at them often…even I got big smiles anew at images I’d seen many times…..

  3. I have a model of this ship,it is 2.7mtrs long , .250mm wide and 1.200mtrs high with all masts and rigging she is great ship.I intend to get her on the water in the future.steam powered and under radio control. I think to get her sailing with all sails maybe a big ask.

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