Ship of the season
MONKBARNS
Full rigged, steel, 3 masted ship
Builder: A.McMillan & Son, Dumbarton, Scotland
Owners: D. Corsar, Liverpool. (1895 to1912) The ‘Flying Horse Line’
Launched: June 1895
Tonnage: 1911 GRT
Length: 267fT
Beam: 40ft 1 in
Depth: 23ft 6ins
N.B. One of the last sailers under the British ensign, she carried the ‘Flying Horse’ figurehead. i.e. Pegasus.
History:
1904. A best passage of 110 days under Capt. Robinson from ’Frisco to Falmouth with grain, better by 2 days than the grain ‘flyers’, Loch Carron and Marguerite Molinos.
1910.An ‘unpleasant passage’ from Hamburg to Melbourne. Held up in the North Sea for 17 days by furious gales. Capt. J. Parry was glad to arrive as his cargo included 750 cases of dynamite and 300 kegs of gunpowder.
1910. Owned by Corsar but managed by Hardie &Co. The ‘Flying Horse ‘fleet was being dispersed and Monkbarns was sold to John Stewart &Co, London, for £4,850.
1911 to 1914. Monkbarns made the usual round of sailers in those days under Capt. Donaldson,i.e.
Europe to the River Plate; River Plate to Newcastle, New South Wales; N.S.W. to the nitrate ports in South America and from there to the U.K. or the Continent.
1923. Arrived in the Mersey under Capt. William Davies,her master from 1919, the first sailing ship to load in Liverpool for 18months ,with a cargo of rock salt for Sydney.
1926. Sailing from Valparaiso on Jan. 20th she put into Rio de Janeiro as Capt. William Davies was seriously ill. He subsequently died in a Rio hospital leaving a devastated young family in North Wales . Monkbarns continued her passage to London under the first officer.
Later that year she was sold to the Norwegians for £2,500 and used as a coal hulk.
For further information see Basil Lubbock’s books The last of the Windjammers vol. 1 and 2.
