caliph

[ It is a steel four-masted barque of 1892, one of the last British sailing ships ever built. She had a remarkably long career, ending her days as a towing barge in British Columbia and going to scrap in 1971.

This was a great pity as Somali was a beautiful vessel and probably one of the nicest of the big iron or steel hulled barques built, another that was lost about the same time through medling by San Francisco Maritime Museum was Champigny which was rescued from the Falklands but they didnt have the money to take her home after necessary repairs in South America so she was scrapped, better to leave her in the Falklands.

Would it surprise you to hear I have a large piece of Herzogin Cecilie hanging on my workshop wall? its a piece of her rusted deck bulwark plating rescued after 63 years on the bottom of Starhole Bay in Devon, also have a nice piece of her teak that was salvaged in 1936 after she was declared a loss, a small piece of the plating that I removed was cleaned and sandblasted and is on my keyring so goes everywhere with me, if that bit of metal could talk what a tale it would tell, 34 years at sea and over 30 trips around Cape Horn,

regards, Terry