The sailing steamer was built by the Scottish shipyard Ramage & Ferguson in Leith and delivered in 1897. The ship, rigged as a schooner , was additionally propelled by a triple expansion engine and thus reached a speed of 14 knots .
In August 1911, Harkness, his family and a few friends were on their way to the fishing grounds in Lake Nipigo . For the passage through the northern bays of the Upper Lake, which are characterized by shoals and small islands, Harkness waived a pilot because of the fees and ordered the master to continue the voyage without local advice. The ship collided with the McGarvey shoal, an almost vertical rock that rises from a depth of 280 ft (85.3 m ) to 3 ft (0.9 m ) below the water surface . Nobody was injured in the accident . Pictures show the wrecked yacht lying halfway on the rock. Harkness took a dinghy ashore and hired the James Whelan , the strongest tug in the area, to pull the Gunilda off the shoals. The tug captain brought a barge with him and suggested using a second barge in order to be able to stabilize the yacht on both sides when it was released. Harkness rejected the proposal for reasons of cost and the recovery was therefore tackled without a second barge. The tug pulled the Gunilda off the rock. Upon release, heeled it to starboard and the masts beat on the water surface. Within minutes the ship was full of water and sank. The family, friends and crew were brought to safety by the tug.
wreck
Wreck position
The wreck of the Gunilda lies on a level keel and with standing masts at a depth of around 80 m at the foot of the McGarvey shoal. A rescue was considered, but it was not possible with the diving equipment of the early 20th century. The wreck could only be reached from the 1990s with the breathing gas Trimix .
1980 anchored Calypso of Jacques-Yves Cousteau about the wreck. With a research submarine which was Gunilda studied and filmed. Afterward, Philippe Cousteau described it as the best preserved wreck he had ever seen.
