King of Prussia (ship)
The merchant ship King of Prussia was a so-called East Indiaman founded in 1750 and founded in 1751 by King Friedrich II. Prussia confirmed the Prussian Asiatic Company .
history
The ship, which originally sailed under the English flag, was bought by the company in 1751 together with a second ship, the castle of Emden , and stationed in Emden , which has been declared a free port , the headquarters of the company. In 1752 the first voyage to Canton , the only port in China accessible to Europeans at the time, began . As the port of Emden under constant silting but suffered, it took 24 days for the ship to anchor in front of Emden arrived and with the help of barges had been loaded and made ready for sea. The proceeds from the goods on the first trip, such as tea, raw silk, and porcelain, made hardly any profit on the return in 1753 , but covered the costs of the trip. When Emden was conquered by French troops in the Seven Years' War in 1757 , the King of Prussia escaped to Delfzijl in the Netherlands with the director of the company, Johann Gottfried Teegel and part of the company's assets . The ship was later sent to India to bring the rescued cargo of Prince Henry of the Bengali Company, stranded in the mouth of the Ganges in 1756, to Europe. The King of Prussia returned to Europe with this cargo in 1762. Because of the French occupation of Emden and the lack of profits, the trading company was liquidated by a resolution of the majority of the shareholders by 1765 and the company's remaining ships were sold.
Ship data
- Year of construction: before 1750
- Type: Three-masted sailing ship (so-called East Indiaman)
- Length: approx. 50 m
- Width: approx. 12 m
- Draft: approx. 6 m
- Armament: 36 cannons
- Crew: approx. 120 men and approx. 15 marines