James Craig (barque)

Last updated

James Craig.jpg
James Craig in Geelong in 2006
History
Name
  • Clan Macleod (1874-1905),
  • James Craig (1905-)
Owner
  • Mr. T. Dunlop, Glasgow, Scotland (1874-1883)
  • Sir Roderick Cameron, Glasgow, Scotland (1883-1899)
  • Mr. J. J. Craig, Auckland, New Zealand (1899-1911)
  • British New Guinea Development Company (1911-1918)
  • Henry Jones & Company(1918-1925)
  • Catamaran Coal Mining Company (1925-1932 )
  • Lady Hopetoun and Port Jackson Marine Steam Museum (Sydney Maritime Museum) (1972-1998)
  • Sydney Heritage Fleet (1998–2002)
  • Australian Heritage Fleet (2002-2004)
  • Sydney Heritage Fleet (2004-current)
BuilderBartram, Haswell & Co, Sunderland, England
Cost£11,375
Yard number75
Launched18 February 1874
Maiden voyageEngland to Peru
In serviceApril,1874
RenamedJames Craig, 1905
Reclassified
  • Storage hulk 1911-1918
  • Coal lighter 1925-1932
ReinstatedFebruary 2001
Homeport
  • Civil Ensign of the United Kingdom.svg Glasgow, United Kingdom (1874-1900),
  • Civil Ensign of New Zealand.svg Auckland, New Zealand (1900-1911),
  • Civil Ensign of Australia.svg Hobart, Tasmania (1918-1925, 1972-1981)
  • Civil Ensign of Australia.svg Sydney, Australia (since 1981)
Identification
Status Museum ship since 1972
General characteristics
TypeIron-hulled barque
Tonnage671 gross tons
Length
  • Hull:179.8 ft (54.8 m)
  • LOA:229.6 ft (70.0 m)
Beam31.3 ft (9.5 m)
Height108.2 ft (33.0 m) at mainmast
Draught12.3 ft (3.7 m)
Depth of hold18 ft (5.5 m)
Sail planBarque rig, 21 sails
Speed14 knots (26 km/h; 16 mph)
Capacity1,100 tons
Complement16

James Craig is a three-masted, 19th century iron-hulled barque restored and sailed by the Sydney Heritage Fleet, Sydney, Australia. She is one of only four pre-20th century barques in the world that still go regularly to sea.

Contents

History

Built in 1874 in Sunderland, England, by Bartram, Haswell, & Co., she was originally named Clan Macleod. Characterized by her biographer Jeff Toghill as a typical "workhorse barque," she was intended to be operated as economically as possible while carrying general cargo worldwide - coal, salt, grain and cotton goods. [1] In her world travels she rounded Cape Horn twenty-three times in the twenty-six years to 1900. In 1900 she was acquired by Mr J J Craig, renamed James Craig in 1905 and began to operate between ports in New Zealand and Australia. She made thirty-five voyages on the trans-Tasman run, to 1911. [2]

As Clan Macleod Clan Macleod (now James Craig ) - StateLibQld 70 93141.jpg
As Clan Macleod

Like many other sailing ships of her modest size, she fell victim to the advance of steamships in the first decade of the twentieth century and in 1911 she was converted to a storage hulk in Port Moresby. However, with the world-wide shortage of shipping caused by the First World War, she was re-rigged and refitted for trade in the Pacific in 1918. The reprieve for sailing ships was short-lived. With the exception of the grain trade, sailing ships were soon unable to compete with cargo-carrying steamships. [3] In 1925 she was laid up again, then used as a hulk, until eventually being abandoned at Recherche Bay in Tasmania.To avoid her drifting and becoming a navigational hazard, a large hole was blown in her stern. [4]

Restoration

Part of the inspiration for preserving James Craig has been credited to Karl Kortum, then director of the San Francisco Maritime Museum who had also been involved in encouraging Australians to preserve the similar sized barque Polly Woodside in Melbourne in 1962. [5] [6] Restoration of James Craig began in 1972, when volunteers from the Lady Hopetoun and Port Jackson Marine Steam Museum (now the Sydney Heritage Fleet) refloated her and towed her to Hobart for initial repairs. Brought back to Sydney under tow in 1981, her hull was placed on a submersible pontoon to allow work on the hull restoration to proceed. Over the next twenty-five years, the vessel was restored. Most of the hull was replaced, being repaired by both paid craftspeople and volunteers. The ship was relaunched in 1997, and restoration work was completed in 2001.

Current situation

James Craig with sails set off Sydney Heads in July 2019 James Craig (Barque) with sails set in 2019.jpg
James Craig with sails set off Sydney Heads in July 2019

James Craig is currently berthed at Wharf 7 of Darling Harbour, near the Australian National Maritime Museum. She is open to the public, and takes passengers out sailing on Sydney Harbour and beyond. She is crewed by volunteers from the Sydney Heritage Fleet. Maintenance is by paid staff, contractors and volunteers. The cost of maintaining her is over $1 million a year and the ship relies on generating income from visitors alongside, charters, events, and regular daysails with up to 80 passengers.

The ship has now made historic return voyages to Hobart (2005, 2009, 2011, 2013, 2017, 2019 and 2023) and to Port Philip (Melbourne and Williamstown) in 2006, 2008 and 2020. The voyages to Hobart coincide with the Wooden Boat Festival, one of the largest in the world. [7] [8] [9]

In October 2013 James Craig participated in the International Fleet Review 2013 in Sydney, Australia.

Historical value

James Craig is of exceptional historical value [10] [11] in that she is one of only four 19th century barques in the world that still go regularly to sea. In 2003 the World Ship Trust awarded the James Craig a Maritime Heritage Award for authentic restoration. [12] She is a working link to a time when such ships carried the bulk of global commerce in their holds. Thousands of similar ships plied the oceans in the 19th and early 20th centuries linking the old world, the new world, Asia and Oceania. She is sailed in the traditional 19th Century manner, mostly by volunteers. Her running rigging consists of 140 lines secured to belaying pins and spider bands. She achieved 11.3 knots on a return voyage from Melbourne on 9 February 2006. [13]

Engineering heritage award

James Craig received an Engineering Heritage National Marker from Engineers Australia as part of its Engineering Heritage Recognition Program. [10]

Related Research Articles

<i>Star of India</i> (ship) A museum ship harbored in San Diego, USA

Star of India is an iron-hulled sailing ship, built in 1863 in Ramsey, Isle of Man as the full-rigged ship Euterpe. After a career sailing from Great Britain to India and New Zealand, she was renamed, re-rigged as a barque, and became a salmon hauler on the Alaska to California route. Retired in 1926, she was restored as a seaworthy museum ship in 1962–3 and home-ported at the Maritime Museum of San Diego in San Diego, California. She is the oldest ship still sailing regularly and also the oldest iron-hulled merchant ship still afloat. The ship is both a California Historical Landmark and United States National Historic Landmark.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Barque</span> Type of sailing vessel

A barque, barc, or bark is a type of sailing vessel with three or more masts consisting of a fore mast, mainmast and additional masts rigged square and only the aftmost mast rigged fore and aft. Sometimes, the mizzen is only partly fore-and-aft rigged, bearing a square-rigged sail above.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hulk (ship type)</span> Ship that is afloat, but not seagoing

A hulk is a ship that is afloat, but incapable of going to sea. Hulk may be used to describe a ship that has been launched but not completed, an abandoned wreck or shell, or to refer to a ship whose propulsion system is no longer maintained or has been removed altogether. The word hulk also may be used as a verb: a ship is "hulked" to convert it to a hulk. The verb was also applied to crews of Royal Navy ships in dock, who were sent to the receiving ship for accommodation, or "hulked". Hulks have a variety of uses such as housing, prisons, salvage pontoons, gambling sites, naval training, or cargo storage.

<i>Falls of Clyde</i> (ship) 1878 sail-driven oil tanker

Falls of Clyde is the last surviving iron-hulled, four-masted full-rigged ship, and the only remaining sail-driven oil tanker. Designated a U.S. National Historic Landmark in 1989, she is now a museum ship in Honolulu, but her condition has deteriorated. She is currently not open to the public. In September 2008, ownership was transferred to a new nonprofit organization, the Friends of Falls of Clyde. Efforts to raise $1.5 million to get the ship into drydock did not succeed. In November 2021 HDOT accepted a bid from Save Falls of Clyde – International (FOCI) to transport the ship to Scotland for restoration.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sydney Heritage Fleet</span> Maritime museum in New South Wales, Australia

Sydney Heritage Fleet, is the trading name of Sydney Maritime Museum Ltd., a public company in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Iron-hulled sailing ship</span>

Iron-hulled sailing ships represented the final evolution of sailing ships at the end of the age of sail. They were built to carry bulk cargo for long distances in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. They were the largest of merchant sailing ships, with three to five masts and square sails, as well as other sail plans. They carried lumber, guano, grain or ore between continents. Later examples had steel hulls. They are sometimes referred to as "windjammers" or "tall ships". Several survive, variously operating as school ships, museum ships, restaurant ships, and cruise ships.

<i>Polly Woodside</i> A museum ship in Melbourne, Australia

Polly Woodside is a Belfast-built, three-masted, iron-hulled barque, preserved in Melbourne, Victoria (Australia), and forming the central feature of the South Wharf precinct. The ship was originally built in Belfast by William J. Woodside and was launched in 1885. Polly Woodside is typical of thousands of smaller iron barques built in the last days of sail, intended for deep water trade around the world and designed to be operated as economically as possible.

<i>Pommern</i> (ship) Iron-hulled sailing ship

Pommern, formerly Mneme (1903–1908), is an iron-hulled sailing ship. It is a four-masted barque that was built in 1903 at the J. Reid & Co shipyard in Glasgow, Scotland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alan Villiers</span> Australian author, adventurer, photographer & mariner (1903–1982)

Alan John Villiers, DSC was a writer, adventurer, photographer and mariner.

<i>Elissa</i> (ship) Museum ship in Galveston, Galveston County, Texas

The tall ship Elissa is a three-masted barque. She is based in Galveston, Texas, and is one of the oldest ships sailing today. Launched in 1877, she is now a museum ship at the Texas Seaport Museum. She was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1990. The Texas Legislature designated Elissa the official tall ship of Texas in 2005.

<i>Glenlee</i> (ship) 1896 steel-hulled three-masted barque

Glenlee is a steel-hulled three-masted barque, built as a cargo ship at Port Glasgow under that name in 1896 for Glasgow owners. With later owners she was named Islamount and Clarastella. From 1922 she was the sail training ship Galatea in the Spanish Navy. Since 1993, carrying her original name, Glenlee has been a museum ship at the Riverside Museum on Pointhouse Quay, Glasgow, known as The Tall Ship at Glasgow Harbour.

<i>Edwin Fox</i> Sailing ship

Edwin Fox is one of the world's oldest surviving merchant sailing ships. The Edwin Fox is also the only surviving ship that transported convicts to Australia. She is unique in that she is the "only intact hull of a wooden deep water sailing ship built to British specifications surviving in the world outside the Falkland Islands". Edwin Fox carried settlers to both Australia and New Zealand and carried troops in the Crimean War. The ship is dry-docked at The Edwin Fox Maritime Centre at Picton in New Zealand.

<i>Alma Doepel</i>

The Alma Doepel is a three-masted topsail schooner and is one of the oldest such ships surviving.

SS <i>John Oxley</i> Pilot boat, built 1927

SS John Oxley is a steamship that previously was a pilot boat and lighthouse and buoy tender. The ship was built in Scotland in 1927 for the Queensland Government. The vessel was requisitioned by the Royal Australian Navy during World War II. Returned to her duties after the war, John Oxley remained active until 1968 when her deteriorating condition made her unusable. In 1970, the ship was donated by the Queensland Government to the Lady Hopetoun and Port Jackson Marine Steam Museum for preservation, but due to other projects, work was sidelined until 2004. The ship has undergone restoration for the past 20 years at Rozelle Bay on a floating dock. In April 2022 she was towed to dry dock at Garden Island, re-floated successfully and returned to Rozelle Bay for further restoration work afloat.

Hamburg was a three masted barque built in 1886 at Hantsport, Nova Scotia. She was the largest three masted barque ever built in Canada.

HMS <i>Endeavour</i> replica

HMS Endeavour replica is a replica of HMS Endeavour, the bark commanded by Lieutenant James Cook when he charted New Zealand and the eastern coast of Australia.

MV <i>Lady Denman</i> Historic site in New South Wales, Australia

Lady Denman is a former Sydney Harbour ferry built in 1912 for the Balmain New Ferry Company. She was later run by Sydney Ferries Limited and its government successors. She is now preserved at the Jervis Bay Maritime Museum near her original build site in Huskisson, New South Wales, Australia.

CLS4 Carpentaria

Commonwealth Lightship 4 (CLS4) Carpentaria is a lightship that was in service from 1917 to 1985 with the Commonwealth Lighthouse Service, built at the Cockatoo Island Dockyard and commissioned in 1917. The vessel is named after the Gulf of Carpentaria, where it spent most of its service life together with its sister ship CLS2.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">New Zealand Company ships</span>

The New Zealand Company was a 19th-century English company that played a key role in the colonisation of New Zealand. The company was formed to carry out the principles of systematic colonisation devised by Edward Gibbon Wakefield, who envisaged the creation of a new-model English society in the southern hemisphere. Under Wakefield's model, the colony would attract capitalists who would then have a ready supply of labour—migrant labourers who could not initially afford to be property owners, but who would have the expectation of one day buying land with their savings.

<i>Donald McKay</i> (clipper) Ship built by Donald McKay in 1855

Donald McKay was an extreme clipper designed by Donald McKay, his last. Built for James Baines & Co., she sailed on the Black Ball Line of Liverpool from 1855 to 1868, carrying passengers and mail between England and Australia.

References

  1. Toghill, Jeff (1978). The James Craig; Her history, recovery and restoration. Terrey Hills, N.S.W, Australia: A.H. & A.W. Reed P/L. p. 2. ISBN   0-589 50059 7.
  2. Toghill (1978) p7
  3. Kåhre, Georg (1978). The Last Tall Ships. Rushcutters Bay, N.S.W, Australia: Bay Books P/L. p. 101-103. ISBN   0-85835 281 8.
  4. Toghill (1978) p10
  5. Toghill (1978) p11
  6. Darroch, V (1979). The Polly Woodside. Melbourne, Australia: National Trust of Australia (Victoria). p. 14. ISBN   0-909710-22-8.
  7. Mounster, Bruce (11 February 2013). "Festival to sail with record". The Mercury. Archived from the original on 5 April 2013. [Wooden Boat Festival director] Paul Cullen said apart from a once-in-four-year festival in Brest, France, Hobart could lay claim to the world's largest wooden boat festival.
  8. Rae, Maria (7 February 2009). "Boat festival launched". The Mercury. Archived from the original on 5 April 2013.
  9. Claridge, Alice (8 February 2013). "Anchors aweigh for fun at sea". The Mercury. Archived from the original on 23 August 2013.
  10. 1 2 "James Craig, Barque, Sydney 1873-". Engineering Heritage Register. Institute of Engineers Australia. 2015. Retrieved 1 October 2023.
  11. Brouwer, Norman (1993). International Register of Historic Ships, Second Edition. Oswestry, Shropshire, England: Anthony Nelson Ltd. p. 31. ISBN   0-904614-46-8.
  12. "Tall Ship: James Craig 1874". Our Fleet. Australian National Maritime Museum. 2023. Retrieved 1 October 2023.
  13. Parbery, James. "James Craig's voyage to Melbourne 14 January - 13 February 2006". Sydney Heritage Fleet. Archived from the original on 26 April 2013.

Bibliography

Online sources