James Craig - Newcastle Harbour NSW

James Craig - Newcastle Harbour NSW

This shot was taken from the Stockton breakwall as the James Craig sailed into Newcastle Harbour on the 11th October 2008 as part of the Newcastle Maritime Festival.

The barque James Craig was built by Bartram, Haswell & Co. in Sunderland, England in 1874 and was originally named Clan Macleod with her maiden voyage to Peru.

For 26 years she plied the trade routes of the world carrying general cargoes during which period she rounded Cape Horn 23 times. In 1900 she was purchased by Mr J J Craig of Auckland and was used on trans-Tasman trade routes as a general cargo carrier. In 1905 she was re-named James Craig and then a short six years later, in 1911, she was laid up because increasing competition from steam ships made sailing vessels uneconomical. She was then stripped and used as a copra hulk in New Guinea. After the First World War there was an acute shortage of cargo ships. This gave James Craig a new lease of life after being towed from New Guinea to Sydney for re-fitting.

Her return to service was brief because in 1925 she was reduced to a coal hulk at Recherche Bay, Tasmania. In 1932 she was abandoned and became beached after breaking her moorings in a storm. She remained beached until 1972 when volunteers from the Sydney Heritage Fleet re-floated her. In 1973 she was towed to Hobart where temporary repairs were carried out. She was towed to Sydney in 1981 and restoration work commenced. The James Craig’s restored hull was re-launched in February 1997.

Thank you to the James Craig official website at http://www.shf.org.au/JCraig/JCraig.html for this information.

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