Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1481871
14 EYEWITNESS maltatoday | SUNDAY • 16 OCTOBER 2022 THE world's largest ocean-going wooden sailing ship - a replica of an 18th-century Swedish East India Company ship that sank outside Gothenburg in 1745 - sailed into Grand Harbour on Friday. Götheborg of Sweden is on its first-ever voyage to Malta as part of the ship's Asian Expedi- tion 2022/2023. Before mooring, the ship sa- luted Valletta with a gun salute which was answered from Val- letta's Saluting Battery. The Götheborg is on its way to Asia, and Malta is the 12th stopover on the Asia Expedi- tion 2022/2023. The ship will be in Valletta until Tuesday. It is moored at Valletta Waterfront and is open to visitors during the stopover. The ship is on a two-year- long expedition, the Asia Expe- dition 2022/2023. Following in the historic foot- steps of the original ship from the 18th century, the purpose of the expedition is for people to be able to sail along and ex- perience sailing an 18th-centu- ry ship, for people to visit the ship in ports, and to promote trade relations in Europe and Asia. On each sailing, about 50 members of the public can sail along as deckhands. The pro- fessional crew consists of about 20 professional sailors, which means that there are between 70–80 people on board for each sailing leg. The ship will sail in Europe in 2022, stay in Barcelona dur- ing the winter, and continue to Asia in March 2023. In Septem- ber 2023, the ship will reach the expedition's end destina- tion Shanghai. The Götheborg left Gothen- burg on 8 June 2022 and has since visited Helsingborg, Hel- sinki, Stockholm, Copenhagen, Oslo, London, Bremerhaven, Lisbon, Málaga, Nice and Mo- naco. The next stop after Val- letta is Barcelona, the last stop on this year's expedition. Sail ahoy!