Gilcruix

Official Number
93695

The Gilcruix was an iron four-masted barque built by the Whitehaven Shipbuilding Company in August 1886 for Ismay, Imrie & Co. (the White Star Line) of Liverpool. She made her maiden voyage from Liverpool to Melbourne, departing on the 30th October 1887 under the command of Captain Conby. She was damaged by gales in the Irish Sea and had to put into Queenstown for repairs, departing from that port only on the 12th November. She arrived at Melbourne on the 7th February 1887, her cargo of 3,800 tons largely consisting of "railway iron". She carried 43 passengers, one of whom, a girl, had been born during the voyage. A crewman named Claxton had been lost overboard off Cape Otway. The newspaper report of her arrival made it clear she was barque-rigged.

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 (Knøhr & Burchard, of Hamburg) and renamed Barmbek. She was captured as a prize by a french warship in the early days of the First World War, bound from the Pacific coat of the USA for Hamburg, and probably unaware of the declaration of war. 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).

Name
Year Built
Gross Tons
Length (feet)
Breadth (feet)
Depth (feet)
Masts
Figurehead
Stern
Lloyd's Classn.
Gilcruix
1886
 2304
 289.3
42.0 
24.3 
4
 
 
 

Sources :

  1. "Shipbuilding in Whitehaven - A Checklist" by Harry Fancy, Whitehaven Museum (1984).
  2. Lloyd's Register of Shipping 1887-8: Gilcruix, iron 4-masted ship, 2304 grt, 2239 nrt, built by the Whitehaven S.B.Co. in August 1886, official number 93695, signal letters KHSR, owned by the North Western Shipping Co.Ltd., registered at Liverpool, master Captain H.B.Conby.
  3. Arrival at Melbourne and report of maiden voyage in the Argus newspaper, 8th February 1887 (from National Library of Australia website).
  4. There are two photographs of the Gilcruix listed in the NMM photographic collection
  5. There are four photographs of the Gilcruix available in the online collection at Picture Australia listed variously under the names Gilcruix, Barmbek and Pacifique.
  6. Closure of British registry in 1895, National Archives, BT 110/35/17.
  7. Lloyd's Register of Shipping 1899-1900: Barmbek (ex-Gilcruix), iron 4-masted barque, 2304 grt, 2239 nrt, built by the Whitehaven S.B.Co. in August 1886, owned by Knøhr & Burchard, registered at Hamburg.
  8. Maritime History Virtual Archives - Gilcruix - states that the Barmbek was siezed by the French cruiser Chateau Renault in the Atlantic on the 20th August 1914, bound from the Columbia River for Hamburg.
  9. New York Times, 10th September 1914, awards the capture of the Barmbek to the French auxiliary cruiser Flandre, and states that she was bound from San Francisco to Hamburg, and was captured in the English Channel.