''Black Watch'' was a large

full-rigged ship A full-rigged ship or fully rigged ship is a sailing vessel's sail plan with three or more masts, all of them square-rigged. A full-rigged ship is said to have a ship rig or be ship-rigged. Such vessels also have each mast stepped in three se ...

built by Windsor shipbuilder Bennett Smith in

Windsor, Nova Scotia Windsor is a community located in Hants County, Nova Scotia, Canada. It is a service centre for the western part of the county and is situated on Highway 101. The community has a history dating back to its use by the Mi'kmaq Nation for sev ...

. It was the last ship built by Smith in Windsor.

Construction

Bennett Smith was the foremost owner, designer and master shipbuilder in Windsor. He ran a shipyard inherited from his father on Smith's Island, at the intersection of the Avon and

St. Croix Saint Croix; nl, Sint-Kruis; french: link=no, Sainte-Croix; Danish and no, Sankt Croix, Taino: ''Ay Ay'' ( ) is an island in the Caribbean Sea, and a county and constituent district of the United States Virgin Islands (USVI), an unincorpo ...

Rivers. With his brothers he built 27 ships in Windsor, the final one being the full-rigged, 1318-ton ''Black Watch''. The ship cost $50,000.00 to construct and was launched in May 1877 to great fanfare. Upon completion of ''Black Watch'', Smith closed his shipyard, reportedly over a wage dispute with his employees. Smith continued to invest in shipbuilding, mainly in

Saint John, New Brunswick Saint John is a seaport city of the Atlantic Ocean located on the Bay of Fundy in the province of New Brunswick, Canada. Saint John is the oldest incorporated city in Canada, established by royal charter on May 18, 1785, during the reign of Ki ...

, and was a principal in the Avon Marine and Shipowners Insurance Company.

Career and loss

''Black Watch'' sailed from Windsor on 6 June 1877 bound for

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

in ballast (heavy material placed in hold for stability). On board were a crew of 23 under the leadership of the veteran Captain Newcomb, who along with Smith held shares in the ownership of the vessel. Having taken on a cargo of oil, the ship sailed for

Bremerhaven, Germany Bremerhaven (, , Low German: ''Bremerhoben'') is a city at the seaport of the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen, a state of the Federal Republic of Germany. It forms a semi-enclave in the state of Lower Saxony and is located at the mouth of the Riv ...

, on 17 July 1877, arriving on 20 August. The ship left Germany in ballast (700 tons of stone and sand) on 10 September to cross the Atlantic and return to New York. Disaster struck as the ship attempted to navigate the waters between

Shetland Shetland, also called the Shetland Islands and formerly Zetland, is a subarctic archipelago in Scotland lying between Orkney, the Faroe Islands and Norway. It is the northernmost region of the United Kingdom. The islands lie about to the no ...

and

Orkney Orkney (; sco, Orkney; on, Orkneyjar; nrn, Orknøjar), also known as the Orkney Islands, is an archipelago in the Northern Isles of Scotland, situated off the north coast of the island of Great Britain. Orkney is 10 miles (16 km) north ...

in the north of Scotland. ''Black Watch'' was driven onto the rocks off the southwest point of Fair Isle while attempting to navigate the channel at night in misty weather. The crew, the ship's provisions as well as the sails and any salvageable hardware were all saved. As recorded in the wreck report, Newcomb was negligent in attempting passage of a channel unfamiliar to him. The court determined that if the Captain was unable to obtain clear and concise instructions for navigating through the Scottish islands as he claimed, he should not have undertaken such a difficult and perilous passage. The court's final determination was that the accident was an error in judgment, but Newcomb's certificate was neither suspended nor revoked.

References

External links

* Armour, Charles A. (1982).
Smith, Bennett
''Dictionary of Canadian Biography''. {{coord, 59.5050, -1.6501, region:GB, display=title Ships built in Nova Scotia Sailing ships of Canada Maritime history of Canada Tall ships of Canada Individual sailing vessels Victorian-era merchant ships of Canada Shipwrecks of Scotland History of Shetland Fair Isle 1877 in Scotland Maritime incidents in September 1877 1877 ships