''Solway Lass'' is a two- masted

schooner A schooner () is a type of sailing vessel defined by its rig: fore-and-aft rigged on all of two or more masts and, in the case of a two-masted schooner, the foremast generally being shorter than the mainmast. A common variant, the topsail schoon ...

. She was built in the Netherlands in 1902 and is currently operated out of

Airlie Beach Airlie Beach is a coastal locality in the Whitsunday Region of Queensland, Australia. In the , Airlie Beach had a population of 1,208 people. Geography Airlie Beach is one of many departure points for the Great Barrier Reef. Cruise ships visi ...

, Australia as a holiday sailor in the

Whitsunday Islands The Whitsunday Islands are 74 continental islands of various sizes off the central coast of Queensland, Australia, north of Brisbane. The northernmost of the islands are off the coast by the town of Bowen, while the southernmost islands are ...

History

The ship, originally named ''Stina'', was built out of German steel with timber decking as a sail powered cargo vessel. In 1905, she was sold and renamed ''Adolf'', working in and around the

Baltic Baltic may refer to: Peoples and languages * Baltic languages, a subfamily of Indo-European languages, including Lithuanian, Latvian and extinct Old Prussian *Balts (or Baltic peoples), ethnic groups speaking the Baltic languages and/or originati ...

and

North North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating Direction (geometry), direction or geography. Etymology T ...

seas. In 1915, she was seized as a prize of war by the

British Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...

and used as a

Q-Ship Q-ships, also known as Q-boats, decoy vessels, special service ships, or mystery ships, were heavily armed merchant ships with concealed weaponry, designed to lure submarines into making surface attacks. This gave Q-ships the chance to open f ...

during

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. After the war, she worked as a coal, produce and stone carrying vessel between

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 ...

and Scotland. She was sold to a Scottish firm in 1924 in the

Solway Firth The Solway Firth ( gd, Tràchd Romhra) is a firth that forms part of the border between England and Scotland, between Cumbria (including the Solway Plain) and Dumfries and Galloway. It stretches from St Bees Head, just south of Whitehaven in ...

, where she was renamed ''Solway Lass''. When

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

broke out, Nazi Germany's ''

Kriegsmarine The (, ) was the navy of Germany from 1935 to 1945. It superseded the Imperial German Navy of the German Empire (1871–1918) and the inter-war (1919–1935) of the Weimar Republic. The was one of three official branches, along with the a ...

'' seized ''Solway Lass'' and used her as a supply ship. She hit a

mine Mine, mines, miners or mining may refer to: Extraction or digging * Miner, a person engaged in mining or digging *Mining, extraction of mineral resources from the ground through a mine Grammar *Mine, a first-person English possessive pronoun ...

and was badly damaged during the war; but she was repaired by the Germans to serve as a sail-powered icebreaker. After WWII, ''Solway Lass'' served in the South Pacific as a cargo vessel. A Sydney businessman purchased her in Fiji in 1983 and rebuilt her. She took part in the 1st Fleet re-enactment of the Tall Ships in

Sydney Harbour Port Jackson, consisting of the waters of Sydney Harbour, Middle Harbour, North Harbour and the Lane Cove and Parramatta Rivers, is the ria or natural harbour of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. The harbour is an inlet of the Tasman Sea (p ...

in 1988. ''Solway Lass'' was purchased in 1999 by Australian Tall Ship Cruises and sailed from Sydney to the Whitsunday Islands arriving in the Whitsundays in February 1999. After an extensive refurbishment ''Solway Lass'' went to sea as a live-aboard charter yacht providing three night cruises around the Whitsundays Islands. In April 2002, the owners and crew of Australian Tall Ship Cruises celebrated with a 100th birthday for ''Solway Lass'' in the Whitsundays.

External links

* Individual sailing vessels Tall ships of Australia Schooners of Australia 1902 ships Ships built in the Netherlands {{ship-stub