Until the 2000 launch of Royal Clipper, a sail cruise liner, she was the only five-masted full-rigged ship ever built.

The ship was commissioned on 31 July 1902 and left the harbour of Bremerhaven the same day on her maiden voyage to Iquique under the command of Capt.

The basic idea of building such a ship is said to come from famous Laeisz captain Robert Hilgendorf, commander of the five-masted steel barque Potosi.

Story has it that Kaiser Wilhelm II, while visiting Potosi on 18 June 1899, asked Carl H. Laeisz when the five-masted full-rigged ship will finally "come".

[1] The sturdily built ship could weather every storm and even tack in force 9 winds[citation needed].

[1] On 5 November 1910,[2][3] on her 14th outbound voyage, carrying a mixed cargo including a number of pianos for Chile, Preussen was at 23:35 rammed by the small British cross-channel steamer Brighton 8 nautical miles (15 km) south of Newhaven.

Preussen was seriously damaged and lost much of her forward rigging (bowsprit, fore topgallant mast), making it impossible to steer the ship to safety.

[citation needed] The names of the five masts were Fockmast, Grossmast, Mittelmast, Laeiszmast (after her owner), Kreuzmast.

Dry and well-ventilated accommodations for crew, mates, and captain, as well as the pantry and chart room, were built in this middle deck.

Four lifeboats with davits were securely fixed on a tubing rack above the main deck before the aftmost mast.

English seamen estimate her the fastest sailing ship after the clipper era, even faster than her fleet sister Potosí.

[citation needed] Preussen has appeared on postage stamps issued by the Falkland Islands, Germany, Grenada, Paraguay and Sierra Leone.