Gilcruix

Official Number 93695

The Gilcruix was an iron  four-masted barque built by the Whitehaven Shipbuilding Company in June 1886 for Ismay, Imrie & Co. (the White Star Line) of Liverpool.

John Masefield, later to write the poem Sea Fever, and to become Poet Laureate, served on the Gilcruix as an apprentice in 1894. He was 16 years old and it was his first voyage. The vessel sailed from Cardiff to Iquique, but Masefield seems to have had a torrid time going around Cape Horn, and he was discharged to hospital at Valparaiso.

In 1895 the Gilcruix was bought by German owners (Knohr & Burchard of Hamburg) and renamed  Barmbek. After leaving the Columbia River on the 21st April 1914, her master may have been unaware of the outbreak of WW1 until she was siezed by the French cruiser Chateau Renault in the Atlantic on the 20th August. She was towed into Brest and subsequently was sold to Cie. Navale de l'Oceanie, being  renamed Pacifique. In March 1921 she suffered a collision with the US steamer Naamhok off St.Catherine's Point. Although towed to Le Havre, the damage was irreparable and the barque was towed to Caen for breaking (January 1923).
 

Sources :

1. "Shipbuilding in Whitehaven - A Checklist" by Harry Fancy, Whitehaven Museum (1984).
2. Maritime History Virtual Archives - Gilcruix
3. There are two photographs of the Gilcruix listed in the NMM photographic collection.
4. There are four photographs of the Gilcruix available in the online collection of the State Library of Victoria, listed under Barmbeck and Pacifique.
5. Record of American and Foreign Shipping, 1895 - names master as Dixon, owners as North Western Shipping Co.
6. Record of American and Foreign Shipping, 1900 - names master as Tadsen, owners Knohr & Burchard, registered Hamburg.