![]() |
|
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 :
|
|
|
|