Built as a five-masted steel barque under yard No 267 by Russell & Co., Port Glasgow, Scotland for the German owner Rickmers Reismühlen, Rhederei- und Schiffbau AG., Bremerhaven.
18 December 1891 launched under the name MARIA RICKMERS.
Tonnage 3.822 grt, 3.344 net., 5.900 dwt., dim. 135 x 14.63 x 7.72m., length bpp 112.22m., draught 7.2m.
One auxiliary steam engine, 750 hp., speed under steam about 8 knots.
She carried a figure-head of Maria Rickmers after she was named.
Sail area: 5.300m².
Crew 38.
Building cost 926.000 German Mark.
She was the second five-mast barque in the world, the first was the FRANCE (I), and at that time the MARIA RICKMERS was the largest sailing ship of the world.
Early March 1892 under command of Capt. J. Gennerich she sailed from Bremerhaven in ballast bound for Barry, Wales and then via Cardiff for orders to Singapore with a cargo 4.445 ton of coal.
Her best daily distance was 303 miles during that voyage.
After a passage of 80 days she arrived at Singapore, during discharging there Capt. Gennerich got a fever, and died a few days later in a hospital there.
The Captain therefore had received a cable from his owners where they reprimanded him over his slow passage.
The first mate H. Wiethoff took over command and after discharging he sailed her in ballast to Saigon, where she took a cargo of 56.727 bags of rice for Bremen.
14 July 1892 she sailed from Saigon, passed 24 July Anjer Point, Indonesia, and that is the last time anything has been seen or heard of the MARIA RICKMERS.
She had the shortest career of all seven five-mast barques which have been build, only 7 months.
(The stamp has a few design faults, her hull colour was green not blue as on the stamp, and she was not ship rigged as seen on the stamp.)
Singapore 1972 75c sg 186, scott 165.
Source: The last of the Windjammers by Lubbock. http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_Rickmers_(Schiff)