''Garthpool'' was a steel-hulled four- masted

barque A barque, barc, or bark is a type of sailing ship, sailing vessel with three or more mast (sailing), masts having the fore- and mainmasts Square rig, rigged square and only the mizzen (the aftmost mast) Fore-and-aft rig, rigged fore and aft. Som ...

rigged in "jubilee" or "baldheaded" fashion, i.e. without royal sails over the top-gallant sails, active in the early part of the 20th century. She was said to have been the last commercial square-rigged sailing ship under a British flag.

Construction

The vessel was built at the

Caledon Shipbuilding & Engineering Company The Caledon Shipbuilding & Engineering Company, Limited was a major Scottish shipbuilding company based in Dundee, Scotland that traded for more than a century and built more than 500 ships. History W.B. Thompson CBE (1837 - 1923) founded the ...

yard of W. B. Thompson in

Dundee Dundee (; sco, Dundee; gd, Dùn Dè or ) is Scotland's fourth-largest city and the 51st-most-populous built-up area in the United Kingdom. The mid-year population estimate for 2016 was , giving Dundee a population density of 2,478/km2 or ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

for Captain

Charles Barrie Charles Coupar Barrie, 1st Baron Abertay, (7 June 1875 – 6 December 1940), was a Scottish businessman and Liberal Party and later Liberal National politician in the United Kingdom. Background and education Charles Barrie was born in Glasgo ...

, and launched on 3 December 1891. It was built specifically for the

jute trade The jute trade is centered mainly around India's West Bengal and Assam, and Bangladesh. The major producing country of jute is India and biggest exporter being Bangladesh, due to their natural fertile soil. Production of jute by India and Bangl ...

, but only made a few voyages carrying

jute Jute is a long, soft, shiny bast fiber that can be spun into coarse, strong threads. It is produced from flowering plants in the genus ''Corchorus'', which is in the mallow family Malvaceae. The primary source of the fiber is ''Corchorus olit ...

before the business became unprofitable, and shifted to other cargoes.

Service

Its first owner was the Den Line of Dundee. On 31 August 1899 the ''Juteopolis'', together with her sister ship, , was sold to the Lawhill Sailing Ship Co. Ltd. (F. E. Bliss, manager), London. In June 1900 the barque was transferred to the

Anglo-American Oil Company Esso () is a trading name for ExxonMobil. Originally, the name was primarily used by its predecessor Standard Oil of New Jersey after the breakup of the original Standard Oil company in 1911. The company adopted the name "Esso" (the phonetic ...

. Between 1900 and 1911 ''Juteopolis'' operated in the Pacific under the

, carrying case oil. In 1911 both vessels were acquired (''Juteopolis'' for an estimated £6,500) by

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...

shipowner George Windram and Co. and used for general cargoes. In 1917, ownership switched to the Marine Navigation Company of Canada, owned by Sir William Garthwaite, and three years later the vessel was renamed ''Garthpool''. Its port of registry from 1924 was

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-most populous city in Canada and List of towns in Quebec, most populous city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian ...

– still technically under a British flag. The ship was mothballed for two years from 1921 after a slump in freight prices then resumed general cargo duties. Her final role was in the

grain trade The grain trade refers to the local and international trade in cereals and other food grains such as wheat, barley, maize, and rice. Grain is an important trade item because it is easily stored and transported with limited spoilage, unlike other ...

, plying between

Adelaide Adelaide ( ) is the capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater Adelaide (including the Adelaide Hills) or the Adelaide city centre. The dem ...

, Australia, and

Kingston-upon-Hull Kingston upon Hull, usually abbreviated to Hull, is a port city and unitary authority in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It lies upon the River Hull at its confluence with the Humber Estuary, inland from the North Sea and south-east o ...

, UK. The Royal Museums Greenwich notes: "She was not fast, her passages often exceeding 120 days." In mid 1929 ''Garthpool'' was photographed mid-Atlantic by William Frank Bramhill, a 16-year-old seaman making his first ocean-going trip, with ''Garthpool'' making its last complete journey. The vessel docked at Hull then weeks later set out in ballast. On 11 November, ''Garthpool'' ran aground and was wrecked at Boavista,

Cape Verde , national_anthem = () , official_languages = Portuguese , national_languages = Cape Verdean Creole , capital = Praia , coordinates = , largest_city = capital , demonym ...

. There were no casualties. One notable crew member was the folk singer

Stan Hugill Stanley James Hugill () (19 November 1906 – 13 May 1992) was a British folk music performer, artist and sea music historian, known as the "Last Working Shantyman" and described as the "20th century guardian of the tradition". Biography He wa ...

, who sailed on ''Garthpool''s final trip.

Legacy

''Garthpool'' was painted in oils by marine artist Derek Gardner in 1967. The work is in the care of the British National Maritime Museum.

References

{{reflist Barques Four-masted ships Tall ships of the United Kingdom Tall ships of Canada 1891 ships Ships built in Dundee Maritime incidents in 1929 Individual sailing vessels