FAMOUS SHIPS

The "MOUNT STEWART"

In 1923-24 Lloyd’s Register showed only 28 British-owned sailing ships of over 1,000 tons still listed -- one of these was the MOUNT STEWART. She was listed as still under her original house flag, owned by Donaldson, Rose & Co. This shows that the owners had a little bit of sentiment for these ships and treated some of them like pets, lavishing money on them even though they knew they would not receive a financial return. The MOUNT STEWART was one of the finest sailing ships of this type still afloat in 1925. She was specifically built for the Australian wool trade and designed to carry large cargoes but still able to have a fair rate of speed, being able to run 300 miles in the 24 hour period. She did not have speed in light and moderate winds to break records, but could be depended upon to catch the wool sales, and very rarely was she seen on the overdue list. MOUNT STEWART was launched from the yard of Barclay, Curle & Co. in May, 1891. She was built of steel, finely proportioned, perfectly sparred, with the dainty skysail yard at the main, and was a delight to the sailor’s eye. She registered 1,903 tons; length, 271 feet 6 inches; breadth, 40 feet, 1 inch; depth, 23 feet, 4 inches; molded depth, 25 feet, 1 inch, with a freeboard amidships of 5 feet 3 inches. Her poop was just 41 feet in length which reflected the short poop of the cargo carrier.

The commander of the MOUNT STEWART, Captain M. C. McColm, took charge of the ship in 1908 and remained in her until 1925. He made the ship his home. His wife, an Australian lady, was at sea with him a little over 13 years of the 17 years he spent aboard. Other members of the crew also made the MOUNT STEWART their home - her sail maker was in her for 16 years and her cook for 11 years. Captain C. Green had command of her up until 1908. Captain McColm was a young man when he took command, brought the old ship safely through the many dangers of the world war I, and hauled down his flag at Nantes in the summer of 1925. He was always a sail-carrier, and in June-July of 1921 drove the MOUNT STEWART from Delagoa Bay to Sydney in 38 days. The ship was kept in the London and Sydney trade, but in 1922-3 she was laid up for over a year in Milford Haven. She was then ordered to load salt at Gracie, Beazley’s berth in Liverpool. At the time she raised quite a bit of excitement in the famous sailing port of old times with all the windjammer men living in retirement along the shores of the Mercey, since she was one of the last half-dozen deep-water sailing ships still flying the Red Ensign.

Alas, it was to be her last voyage. She jogged out to Sydney in 125 days; crossed to Iquique from Newcastle, N.S.W., and then on her arrival at Nantes from the West Coast of South America, was sold to the ship-breakers. This was a heart breaking affair for many of the old seamen, who had been a long time in the ship, and one of her hands, who had no home except the MOUNT STEWART, prophesied that he would not survive her long. Sure enough, a few days before the crew were paid off, he fell down the hold, broke his back and died in the hospital. Captain McColm, on giving up command of the MOUNT STEWART, retired with his wife and two young sons, who had never lived in a house ashore, to a dairy farm in New South Wales.

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