Indiaman Götheborg III , The Swedish Ship Götheborg

The Swedish East India Company was founded in 1731, with the intention, following English and Dutch precedents, of trading with China and other countries in the Far East. The company used 38 ships to make 132 voyages to China up to 1813.

One of those ships, Gothenborg, sank on a return voyage in 1745, only 900 m from the mouth of the harbour. Her crew and substantial parts of the cargo were saved, but between 1986 and 1993 archaeological investigations were carried out on the wreck, and in 1992 a body called the Friends of the East Indiaman, Gothenborg was formed to support the building of a replica, 40.9 m long, and displacing 1350 tons. She was constructed from 1993 at the Terra Nova, a new shipyard on the site of the old Eriksberg Shipyard, and sailed for China on 2 October 2005, returning after a 20-month voyage, and to the warmest of receptions, on 9 June 2007.

A permanent shop and exhibition relating to the project is located on the Eriksberg pier. A further link with Goteborg’s Chinese trade is provided by the city museum that is located in the East India Company’s offices and warehouses built between 1747 and 1762.