.gif)
Glenlee (ship)
Encyclopedia
Glenlee is a three-masted baldheaded steel-hulled barque
Barque
A barque, barc, or bark is a type of sailing vessel with three or more masts.- History of the term :The word barque appears to have come from the Greek word baris, a term for an Egyptian boat. This entered Latin as barca, which gave rise to the Italian barca, Spanish barco, and the French barge and...
, launched fully rigged and seaworthy on December 3, 1896. She is now a museum ship
Museum ship
A museum ship, or sometimes memorial ship, is a ship that has been preserved and converted into a museum open to the public, for educational or memorial purposes...
at the Riverside Museum
Riverside Museum
The Riverside Museum is a new development for the Glasgow Museum of Transport, completed on 20 June 2011, at Pointhouse Quay in the Glasgow Harbour regeneration district of Glasgow, Scotland. The next day it opened to the public.-Concept and design:...
on Pointhouse Quay, Glasgow
Glasgow
Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...
, known as The Tall Ship at Glasgow Harbour.
Glenlee was built in 1896 at the Anderson Rodger & Company shipyard of Port Glasgow
Port Glasgow
Port Glasgow is the second largest town in the Inverclyde council area of Scotland. The population according to the 1991 census for Port Glasgow was 19426 persons and in the 2001 census was 16617 persons...
for the Glen-line of the Glasgow shipping company Archibald Sterling & Co. Ltd. and has a hull length of 245.5 ft (74.8 m), beam of 37.5 ft (11.4 m) and depth of 22.5 ft (6.9 m), the over-all
O/a
Length overall, often abbreviated as refers to the maximum length of a vessel from the two points on the hull measured perpendicular to the waterline....
length with the spike bowsprit is 282 ft (86 m).
She has 1,613 GRT and 1,490 NRT. Rigged only with double topallant sails over double top sails, she was not equipped with royal sails (baldheader rigging) to save costs concerning gear and seamen. As with many baldheaded sailing ships the square sails were a little wider than the sails of a standard rigging to gain sail area for a better propulsion.
Career
On December 13, 1896, just ten days after launch, her maiden voyage brought her in ballastBallast tank
A ballast tank is a compartment within a boat, ship or other floating structure that holds water.-History:The basic concept behind the ballast tank can be seen in many forms of aquatic life, such as the blowfish or argonaut octopus, and the concept has been invented and reinvented many times by...
to Liverpool
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...
and from there with a general cargo to Portland, Oregon
Portland, Oregon
Portland is a city located in the Pacific Northwest, near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2010 Census, it had a population of 583,776, making it the 29th most populous city in the United States...
. For 23 years she traded as a bulk cargo carrier under the Red Ensign
Civil ensign
The civil ensign is the national flag flown by civil ships to denote nationality...
to Cape Horn
Cape Horn
Cape Horn is the southernmost headland of the Tierra del Fuego archipelago of southern Chile, and is located on the small Hornos Island...
and Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, firstly under the ownership of Islamount ("Islamount Sailing Ship Co. (Robert Ferguson & Co.)" of Dundee
Dundee
Dundee is the fourth-largest city in Scotland and the 39th most populous settlement in the United Kingdom. It lies within the eastern central Lowlands on the north bank of the Firth of Tay, which feeds into the North Sea...
, 1898-1905, and subsequently with "Flint Castle Shipping Co." (Robert Thomas & Co.) of Liverpool, 1905-1918).
Glenlee was renamed the Clarastella in 1919 when she changed hands to the Italian "Società Di Navigazione Stella d'Italia" of Milan
Milan
Milan is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza ,...
("Italian shipping Company Star of Italy") who registered her in Genoa
Genoa
Genoa |Ligurian]] Zena ; Latin and, archaically, English Genua) is a city and an important seaport in northern Italy, the capital of the Province of Genoa and of the region of Liguria....
. The new owner had her repaired and equipped with two auxiliary diesel engines (1922).
In 1922 the ship came into the hands of the "Escuela Naval Militar de Oficiales" ("Officers' Military Navy School") as the Galatea to be used as a sail training ship. During this period the ship underwent a lot of changes to her hull
Hull (watercraft)
A hull is the watertight body of a ship or boat. Above the hull is the superstructure and/or deckhouse, where present. The line where the hull meets the water surface is called the waterline.The structure of the hull varies depending on the vessel type...
and superstructure
Superstructure
A superstructure is an upward extension of an existing structure above a baseline. This term is applied to various kinds of physical structures such as buildings, bridges, or ships...
. A flying bridge was installed on the poop deck, a flying jibboom was attached to the spike bowsprit, and many other changes such as the installation of accommodation facilities for 300 cadets were made.
Preservation
After more than 47 years of service as a sail and later on as a stationary training ship she was first laid up in A GrañaA Graña
A Graña is a village and naval station , shipyard and town located some 800 meters by sea from the Naval Station of Ferrol, in north-western Spain.It is an integral part of the Naval Military Complex of El Ferrol....
, El Ferrol, her Spanish port of registry. In 1981 the underwater hull was re-plated at the drydock in Ferrol. Later on the more than 85 years old Glenlee was completely de-rigged down to a hulk (all yards with standing and running rigging and even the masts removed) and was towed to Seville
Seville
Seville is the artistic, historic, cultural, and financial capital of southern Spain. It is the capital of the autonomous community of Andalusia and of the province of Seville. It is situated on the plain of the River Guadalquivir, with an average elevation of above sea level...
to be used as a floating museum, but left forgotten. Some sources even reported that the ship was sunk in the harbour by removing her bronze sea cock valve, but salvaged later on by the Spanish Navy.
In any case the ship was in such poor condition that it was eventually decided to scrap her. In 1990 a British naval architect (Dr. Sir John Brown, 1901-2000) discovered her and in 1993 she was rescued from being scrapped and subsequently bought by the Clyde Maritime Trust at auction for ₧5000,000 or £40,000. After making the hull seaworthy (all openings on deck were closed and the flying bridge spanning the poop deck during her service in Spain and the attached flying jibboom were removed) the ship was returned to Glasgow months later in tow from Seville.
After preliminary works in dry-dock such as the removal of the unnecessary propellers, the check and repair of all the plates below the waterline and new paint, a six year long process of restoration began including a new cut wooden figurehead, a complete set of new rigging including the re-assembling and re-stepping of her original masts and re-crossing of the old yards (1998), as well as many other replacements (original deckhouses) and repairs. Her old masts and many of the old yards, which still existed somewhere in Spain, were given back by the Spanish when they realized that the old ship would be really renewed to her original "Cape Horn status", painted grey again with "gun ports".
Except for the hull a new ship had to be rebuilt. All the changes made to the ship by the Spanish and previous owners had to be removed, such as all the cabins built for the trainees and a lot of scrap iron ballast in the frames of the holds. First of all she was given back her original name, Glenlee, by the Lord Provost of Glasgow on July 6, 1993 when the ship arrived in Glasgow for the first time since her launch in 1896 - 97 years ago - at her old and new port of registry - Glasgow Harbour. Glenlee is now recognised as part of the National Historic Fleet, Core Collection
National Historic Fleet, Core Collection
The National Historic Fleet, Core Collection is a list of museum ships located in the United Kingdom, under the National Historic Ships register.The vessels on the National Historic Fleet are distinguished by:...
.
As a museum ship and tourist attraction, the Glenlee offers educational programmes, events including exhibitions and is a venue for the West End Festival
West End Festival
The West End Festival is an annual festival in the West End of Glasgow, Scotland.-History:The West End Festival in Glasgow was started in 1996 by Michael Dale as a small local festival centred on Byres Road....
and volunteering opportunities. From June 2011, the ship will be open at Glasgow's new Riverside Museum
Riverside Museum
The Riverside Museum is a new development for the Glasgow Museum of Transport, completed on 20 June 2011, at Pointhouse Quay in the Glasgow Harbour regeneration district of Glasgow, Scotland. The next day it opened to the public.-Concept and design:...
.
Other preserved Clyde-built tall ships
Four other Clyde-built tall shipTall ship
A tall ship is a large, traditionally-rigged sailing vessel. Popular modern tall ship rigs include topsail schooners, brigantines, brigs and barques. "Tall Ship" can also be defined more specifically by an organization, such as for a race or festival....
s are still afloat:
- BalcluthaBalclutha (1886)Balclutha, also known as Star of Alaska, Pacific Queen, or Sailing Ship BALCLUTHA, is a steel-hulled full rigged ship that was built in 1886. She is the only square rigged ship left in the San Francisco Bay area and is representative of several different commercial ventures, including lumber,...
, a steel-hulled full rigged ship, built in 1886 (San Francisco) - MoshuluMoshuluMoshulu is a four-masted steel barque built by William Hamilton on the River Clyde in Scotland in 1904, and currently a floating restaurant docked in Penn's Landing, Philadelphia. -History:...
, a steel-hulled four-masted barque, built in 1904 (Philadelphia) - Falls of Clyde, an iron-hulled four-masted full-rigged ship and the last one of her kind, built in 1878 (Hawaii)
- PommernPommern (ship)The Pommern, formerly the Mneme , is a windjammer. She is a four-masted barque that was built in 1903 in Glasgow at the J. Reid & Co shipyard....
, a steel-hulled four-masted bald-headed barque, built in 1903 (Åland Islands)
See also
- El GalateaEscuela Naval MilitarThe Escuela Naval Militar de Oficiales at Marín, Pontevedra, in north-western Spain, is the Spanish institution in charge of training the Spanish Navy's officer class, as well as other naval personnel. It has been established here since 1943, when it was moved from its previous location at San...
(also known as Glenlee). From 1922 till 1969 she was the Training Tall ShipTall shipA tall ship is a large, traditionally-rigged sailing vessel. Popular modern tall ship rigs include topsail schooners, brigantines, brigs and barques. "Tall Ship" can also be defined more specifically by an organization, such as for a race or festival....
for the Spanish NavySpanish NavyThe Spanish Navy is the maritime branch of the Spanish Armed Forces, one of the oldest active naval forces in the world. The Armada is responsible for notable achievements in world history such as the discovery of Americas, the first world circumnavigation, and the discovery of a maritime path...
in El Ferrol (North-western SpainSpainSpain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
).
External links
- Another Glenlee website
- Glenlee at Clyde-Built Database
- the Glenlee at the Clyde Maritime Centre, Glasgow
- Glenlee in times as Islamount
- square-rigger site of the Glenlee, a well-documented site of its restoration history
- the Glenlee on www.bruzelius.info
- the Glenlee on sailing-ships.oktett.net
- The Tall Ship, Glenlee - Clyde Waterfront Heritage