Lord Shaftesbury

Official Number
93830

The Lord Shaftesbury was built by the Whitehaven Shipbuilding Company No. 2 in December 1888. She was a steel four-masted ship, owned originally by John Herron (the Lord Line).

The Lord Shaftesbury later entered American ownership and was renamed Golden Gate, and was eventually reduced to a barque rig. She has been claimed to be the first sailing vessel to pass through the Panama Canal, which was opened to commercial shipping from the 3rd August 1914.

Like the Star of India, the  Lord Shaftesbury  eventually entered the fleet of  the Alaska Packers Company. She was laid up at Oakland Creek, California in the 1930's and suffered fire damage there. Eventually the ship was sold to Japanese interests for scrap about 1938-9. In the process of scrapping (at Government Island, Alameda ?) her masts were dynamited from the hull at the dock.

Name
Year Built
Gross Tons
Length (feet)
Breadth (feet)
Depth (feet)
Masts
Figurehead
Stern
Lloyd's Classn.
Lord Shaftesbury
1888
 2272
293.3
42.8 
 24.0
4
 
 
A1 for 100 years, Special Survey 

Sources :

  1. Information from Derek Ellwood
  2. Refer to the website of the National Library of Australia for photographs and newspaper reports. For example, photo from the State Library of Victoria and photo from the State Library of South Australia.
  3. Lloyd's Register of Shipping 1889-90: Lord Shaftesbury, iron 4-masted ship, 2272 grt, 2241 nrt, built in December 1888 by the Whitehaven Shipbuilding Co., official number 93830, owned by J.Herron & Co., registered at Liverpool.
  4. Mercantile Navy List 1914: Golden Gate (ex-Lord Shaftesbury), ship, 2273 registered tons, built in 1884 at Whitehaven, official number 93830, signal letters KWNT, registered at Liverpool,  managing owner Augustus P.Rolph, of 5 East India Avenue, City, London.
  5. Information on scrapping from Gene Barron, Maine, USA, who owns the hanging lamp from her saloon and donated (poor) photographs of her masts being dynamited to the San Francisco Maritime Musuem.