Amidst cheers from tens of thousands of spectators, the Gotheborg III departed on October 2, 2005, from the inner harbour pier of Gothenburg, Sweden.

Its destination: Guangzhou, China, the first stop of its "China adventure."

Gotheborg III, which is arriving in Guangzhou next Wednesday, is a replica of Gotheborg, a leading ocean-going ship of the Swedish East India Company in the 18th century.

Gotheborg, which set sail in March 1743, from Gothenburg, "appeared against the horizon outside the home harbour of Gothenburg" in September 1745, only to hit an underwater rock and sink, losing all its cargo of tea, silk, porcelain and spices brought back from Guangzhou (Canton), according to Jan-Erik Nilsson's statements on the websited, www.gotheborg.com.

The builders took pains to build Gotheborg III.

One piece of oak, inserted into the beam in the front of the gun deck, is completely different from any other wood used in the construction of the replica ship.

"Within all the woods used in the reconstruction, only this piece is original," said Bjorn Ahlander, 59, the bosun of Gotheborg III.

This piece was salvaged from the relic site where Gotheborg sank more than two centuries ago.

"When we tried to construct the ship, we tried to use the wood as old as this piece and assemble them in the similar manner as what they did more than 260 years ago," Ahlander said.

For instance, they cut down some 50 large trees that "just started to grow" when the original ship was sailing to China, Ahlander said.

Some volunteers put in 10 years of research and design work on a voluntary basis to figure out how to assemble these wood pieces into a workable ship.

They also dug up files showing them how ships were built in those days, Ahlander added.

"The drawing of this replica ship was based on a document dated back to 1731, and we translated its ancient text into readable modern Swedish," Ahlander said.

With the help of old documents, they drew the sketch map, trying their best to specify every detail of the ship parts, such as materials, dimensions and quality of work.

"We worked out the specifications so that other people will also know how to build this ancient ship in the future," Ahlander said.

In older times, people built ships by hand instead of with machines. To make the replica ship true to the authentic style, Ahlander and his colleagues learned a lot about the handcraft used in the process of reconstruction.

"We made 20 tons of ropes, over 1,000 of blocks, 2,000 square-metre canvass all by hand," Ahlander said. "We hand-drew most of the drawings."

Philip Rose Thaylor, who made the sails, said that they sewed all the sails by hand instead of using sewing machines to keep its character authentic.

They made every stitch almost exactly the same as those of the old ship, Thaylor said.

Even the ropes that run along the edge of the sails were made of hemp, the same material they used in older times.

When synthetic materials emerged in the latter part of 20th century, modern shipbuilders gradually gave up using natural materials because synthetic materials are cheaper and stronger.

However, the reconstruction team found it difficult to get natural materials, since old sailing traditions are almost gone. So they had to search for them outside of Sweden when they started to build the replica.

They ordered flax canvasses from England. The hemp they used to make the ropes was 10 times more expensive than the synthetic ropes.

"We were tempted to use an easier way to build the ship, but we persisted in making the ship in an authentic manner," said Peter Kaalings, captain of Gotheborg III.

"Everything is made by hand, which is very expensive in Sweden," Ahlander said. "But people believe it is worthwhile for such a big adventure to China now, no matter how crazy the idea is."

The ship's hull is completely made of oak. About 25 sails hang over its 47-metre tall main mast, and the fore and aft masts.

Editor: Wing