Named after the municipality of the same name in the province of Colchagua the VI. Region of Chile , the Placilla was the first four-masted barque built for F. Laeisz. She and her sister ship Pisagua (ship) were built in 1892 on the slipways of the famous Joh. C. Tecklenborg shipyard in Geestemünde ( Bremerhaven ). They had a complete steel hull (riveted plates) and steel masts, the mizzen mast as a pole mast with a gaff. Later four-masted barques and also the Potosi drove two gaffs. The rig was of modern standard - split Mars and Bramsail (double Mars and Bramrahen), above royal rakes. The lower masts and mars stems were made of one piece (sheet steel), the royal rake and slat sticks were made of wood. The hull was traditionally black with a white water pass and red underwater hull, poop deck and high deck set off in white on the sides. Both new four-masted barques were able to prove their superiority on the saltpeter voyage around Cape Horn and, as a new type of ship at Laeisz, became a model for the appearance and structure of all future Laeisz sailors. They were designed as three-island ships , a novelty at this time that was not included in every ship plan even later. It came from Liverpool , which is why the term “Liverpool House” is used for these midship houses, which extend from side to side and are firmly incorporated into the ship's superstructure. Compared to the previous smooth -deckers with a raised back and poop, this so-called high deck was added in the middle of the ship, which had many functions: It served as a command bridge, with a house of cards and a steering wheel and wheelhouse, plus all the living and working rooms for the captain, officers and cook and crew housed in it. Big advantage of this construction: Central main rudder on the high deck, all crew rooms on the midship island. The sailors no longer had to live in wet bunks under the forecastle or in the often flooded deckhouse. The crew was now quartered in large, water-protected and well-ventilated accommodations, often separated into starboard and port watch, for 12-18 men each. The second rudder on the poop deck only served as an emergency rudder . On the midships island, the officer on watch and, above all, the helmsmen were safe from the dangerous rising seas, which had washed many a man from the helm or let him pull the helm - usually with fatal results for both ship and man. In order to get from the high deck to the forecastle or poop without getting your feet wet, catwalks were soon added which, mostly on the starboard side near the ship's masts, connected the three islands with one another. This was a considerable relief, especially in bad weather, and offered additional security.
history
In the spring of 1892 captain went Robert Hilgendorf , not only the most popular among the Laeisz captains, but of all the sailing ship captains of his time, with the Placilla on maiden voyage and presented with 58 days (8.3 weeks) for the route Lizard- Valparaíso a Best Performance on. It was later undercut by the fast Laeisz sailors, but at the time it was a record run that attracted worldwide attention. Hilgendorf made two more round trips to the saltpeter coast, then he took over the shipping company sister Pitlochry , and until 1901 Captain Otto Schmidt came on board the Placilla as the new captain . With her he made seven round trips to the saltpeter coast and back to Europe. After nine years of service, the Placilla was sold to the "1896er" ( Rhederei Akt. Gesellschaft von 1896 ) for reasons unknown and renamed Optima in 1903 - "O names" were a distinguishing feature of the shipping company. Under the new flag she was mainly to be seen in Central and North American ports on the Pacific coast (Santa Rosalía, Mexico; San Francisco , Tacoma , WA ). On January 5, 1905, the barque left Hamburg under Captain Butz with a load of coke for Santa Rosalía , Mexico . When entering the English Channel , the ship was caught in a North Sea storm that pushed her too far west of the course close to the Norfolk coast. In heavy fog, the Bark stranded on January 18, 1905 the notorious Haisbro- sandbanks (Haisborough Sands) northeast of Great Yarmouth (position coordinates: 52 ° 48 '45.9 " N , 1 ° 48' 20.7" O ). The lifeboat Elizabeth Simpson left Gorleston-on-Sea on January 19 on the cable of the deep- sea tug Meteor following a distress signal from the Cross Sands lightship . Attempts were made to tow the barque free with other ships that had come along. After 60 hours of unsuccessful work, the Optima had to be abandoned. All 32 men of the crew were finally rescued from the collapsing ship on January 21st, and a ship disaster could be avoided.
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Jochen Brennecke: Windjammer. The great report on the development, travels and fate of the "Queens of the Seven Seas" . Koehlers Verlagsgesellschaft, Herford, 3rd edition 1984; ISBN 3-7822-0009-8
James Combes: The Wreck of the Optima. Rough Work with the Tugs and Lifeboats in the North Sea . Sea Breezes Vol. XVIII (1934), pp. 294-296
Hans Jörg Furrer: The four- and five-mast square sailors in the world . Koehlers Verlagsgesellschaft, Herford 1984; P. 166; ISBN 3-7822-0341-0
Peter Klingbeil: Flying P-Liner - The sailing ships of the shipping company F. Laeisz . Verlag "Die Hanse" GmbH, Hamburg 2000; P. 137; ISBN 3-434-52562-9
