Balclutha

A full-rigged iron [steel according to Lloyd's Register] ship built in 1886 by Charles Connell and Co., Glasgow, Scotland. Her dimensions are 91,5×11,7 m [256'5"×38'6"×22'7"], with a tonnage of 1689 GRT, 1614 NRT and 1534 tons under deck.

1886 December: Launched at the shipyard of C. Connell & Co., Glasgow, Scotland, for R. McMillan, Glasgow. Her first master was Captain J.F. Constable.
1889: Lloyd's Register: Captain J. Binnie.
1899: Sold and put on the Pudget Sound-Australia timber trade.
1901: Given US Registry by special act of the Congress.
1904 May 16: Stranded on Sitkin Island, one of the Geese Islands off Kodiak, Alaska, while on charter to the Alaska Packers' Association.
1904: Sold to the Alaska Packers' Association, San Francisco, for USD 500 and was renamed Star of Alaska.
1905: Returned to San Francisco after a lengthy salvage.
1929: Last canning voyage under sail.
1930: Laid up.
1933: Bought by Frank Kissinger who renamed her the Pacific Queen and who exhibited her on the West Coast "painted like a circus wagon with a silver hull, brilliant red masts and spars, and a gilt figurehead".
1939-1941: Exhibited at the Fisherman's Warf, San Francisco, CA.
1954: Sold to the San Francisco Maritime Museum for USD 25.000 and was given back her original name Balclutha.
1978: Transferred to the National Park Service.

The Balclutha is presently exhibited as a museum ship in San Fransisco.

Photograph taken at the Hyde Street Pier.

References:

Square-rigged ships, general references.
Balclutha.
Official National Park Service page.

Updated 1999-04-23 by Lars Bruzelius

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