James Craig (ship)
The Clan Macleod - James Craig since 1905 - is a barque (three-masted sailing ship) built in England in 1874 and used in cargo shipping until 1911, most recently from Australia. In the following years the ship fell into disrepair until it was restored from 1972 to 2001. Since then, the barque has mainly been used for day trips from Sydney . Today she is the oldest sailing sailing ship in Australia.
Ship history
The Clan Macleod was built in steel by the Bartram, Haswell & Co. shipyard in Sunderland, England for the shipowner Thomas Dunlop from Glasgow, Scotland . After her launch on February 18, 1874, her maiden voyage took her to Peru. It was used for freight trips for 26 years and circled Cape Horn, feared because of its difficult weather conditions (see also Cape Hornier ) 23 times . In 1883 Dunlop sold it to Sir Roderick Cameron, also from Glasgow, who used it with a crew of 12 between New York and New Zealand. On August 15, 1899, she was bought by Auckland- based New Zealander J. J. Craig, who renamed her James Craig on December 14, 1905 . Under the new owner it was used for trips between Australia and New Zealand. Since the steamboats on the routes for which the James Craig was used over the years have been more profitable than sailing ships Bark on 19 June 1911 launched . The ship's masts were removed and it was used as the Hulk in New Guinea to store coconut meat.
After the First World War there was a shortage of freighters, which is why the James Craig was bought by Henry Jones & Company in 1918. She was towed from New Guinea to Sydney (arrival August 30, 1918), overhauled and refitted. She went again as a cargo ship, but because of her age and condition she ran into difficulties several times at sea. When it became more difficult to make profitable use of cargo sailing ships, the ship was sold to the Catamaran Coal Mining Company in November 1925 and used again as the Hulk, this time to store coal in Recherche Bay in Tasmania . In the early 1930s the mine was closed and the ship abandoned in 1932. After the James Craig was torn from her anchor in a storm, she ran aground; In order not to let her become a risk for shipping, a hole - about three meters in size - was blown in the hull and the ship lay in the shallow water.
In 1972, members of the Sydney Heritage Fleet salvaged the hull and towed it to Hobart . After preliminary repairs, the hull was towed on to Sydney in 1981 and extensively restored there. In 1997 the hull was launched again, after another four years the James Craig was again under all sail for the first time in February 2001. Since then, the ship with its home port in Sydney has mainly been used for day and weekend trips with tourists. In 2003 the ship received the World Ships Trust Medal , which has also been awarded to the Vasa , the Cutty Sark and the Constitution , as an award for its authentic restoration.
Ship data
| hull | 12.7 mm steel |
| deck | Pine tree |
| Length over all (Lüa) | 54.8 m (179.8 feet ) |
| width | 9.50 m (31.3 feet) |
| Draft | 5.30 m |
| Main mast height above deck | 33.07 m |
| Height of the main mast above the waterline | 35.7 m |
| sail | 21st |
| crew | initially 17 (including the captain, three apprentices) and the captain's wife; 1883-1900: 12 |
literature
- Otmar Schäuffelen: The last great sailing ships . Verlag Delius Klasing, Bielefeld 1994, ISBN 3-7688-0860-2 , p. 22 .
Web links
- Side of the Sydney Heritage Fleet (English)
This article in its original version dated April 1, 2007 is based on the official James Craig website on the Australian Heritage Fleet website and its subpage Jeff Toghill (1978). The James Craig Story (with sequels; all pages in English).
Footnotes
- ^ Research Bay in the English language Wikipedia