Wooden Barque Under Sail
by James Williamson
Original - Sold
Price
$895
Dimensions
15.000 x 11.000 inches
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Title
Wooden Barque Under Sail
Artist
James Williamson
Medium
Painting - Watercolor
Description
Sail on, sail on, thou fearless barque, where'er blows the welcome wind, sail on, sail on, through endless space, through calm, through tempest sail on, and when the wind is right you can find serenity.
Excerpts from a poem by Thomas Moore.
Wooden Barque Under Sail watercolor painting by artist James Williamson.
Artist James Williamson ASMA,
Signature Member of the American Society of Marine Artists
Sailing Vessel Sigyn
Eight different ship-owners owned this wooden barque for the ships first 50 years, but she has been the property of a single owner for her second fifty years. The Sigyn slid down the ways on July 15, 1887, in the port city of Goteborg, Sweden. She is the last wooden barque of her type in the world. Made of oak and pine, her hull was copper sheathed up to the load waterline, the copper being secured to the hull by both wooden and copper bolts. From the start this craft was greatly admired or her lovely lines and the fine proportions of her rigging. She and her sister ship Gurli, were often called Hubes beauties, in reference to their builder, J. H. Hube.
The Sygyn is 378 tons, 180 feet in overall length, 30.6 feet in beam and 13 feet draft. With her original barque rig she had a sail area of 8,611 square feet and used 20 sails. Later as a barkentine, she had 16 sails. She usually had a crew of ten plus her master. She sailed to Canada, the United States, the Caribbean, ports in South America, North Africa, South Africa, the Canary Islands and Bangkok. A fine sailor, she could make 13 knots with the wind on her quarter and seven when tacking. Among her best voyages was one of 34 days from Liverpool to Puerto Rico. Her best single days run may have been the time she did 276.5 nautical miles, averaging over 11 knots.
In 1913 she was driven ashore near Kristiansand, Norway, and was seriously damaged and condemned. But salvage experts refloated her, and she was towed to Sweden and repaired. Her life had only begun. Her last commercial voyage ended in 1937 and the next year the Marine Museum at Turku, Finland, bought her. She was out on display in 1939. Bomb splinters inflicted some damage during World War 2, but despite shortages of materials and money, the museum maintained the ship. In 1954 a film assignment saw her set sail for a few hours off Turku. In 1971 and 1975 dry-docking strengthened her hull, which had begun to hog (arch along her keel). In 1979 she was re-rigged. A tour aboard her reveals the primitive conditions under which seaman of her day served.
Sigyn (ship)
Sigyn, built in Gotenborg in 1887, now a museum ship in Turku, is the last remaining wooden barque used for trade across the oceans. At the time she was built there were thousands of similar vessels, but she was one of the last ones built. She was quite small even for her time, considering she was built for long-distance trade, but well-built and considered fast and beautiful.
As merchant ship
In these times the steamships were taking over the most important routes; the Suez-Canal was already built, and the Panama Canal was planned. The tonnage of steam ships passed that of sailing ships in 1890, ten and thirty years later in Sweden and Finland respectively. On the other hand, this was the time when big barques of steel were built. Sigyn was planned for another niche: the small size and small draught made her suited to also use small remote harbours.
The first decade Sigyn sailed on the Atlantic on tramp trade, mostly with wood (pine, spruce, pitch pine, mahogany, cedar), but also e.g., coal, probably sugar, once even hay. In 1897 she made one journey to Bangkok. After 1900 she sailed mostly in European waters.
After being severely damaged while seeking shelter outside Kristiansand in 913, Sigyn was re-rigged as a barqentine. She was already old for being a softwood ship and the freight prices on ocean trade were declining, so a cheaper rig suited for coastal trade on the Baltic and North Sea seemed appropriate. This changed with World War 1: transatlantic trade became very profitable, and she crossed the Atlantic 12 times in 1915 and 1916.
After Sigyn ran aground in 1917 the copper hooding protecting against shipworm was removed and sold. Sigyn was thus no longer fit for the oceans. She was bought by Salsrs a Swedish sawmill by the Gulf of Bothnia.
In 1927 Sigyn was sold to Finland, like many other sailing ships in these times, when steel and steam were taking over in richer countries. The buyer Arthur Lundqvist from Vaedo in the Aland Islands was one of the last big peasant ship-owners. The shipping companies of the family remain as Lundqvistrederierna.
As museum ship
As representative for "nautical circles, Otto Anderson, rector of Abo Akademi, proposed 1936 the foundation of a maritime museum in Turku. A museum ship was needed and Sigyn was soon considered the best alternative. At that time there were only a few museum ships worldwide and Sigyn was to be the first in Finland.
Sigyn was bought 1939 and opened for the public 3 June 1939. Before the end of the year the Winter War begun, followed by the Continuation War Sigyn was damaged, and there was a severe lack of funds and people for her maintenance.
After the wars there were negotiations about Sigyn sailing as merchant ship again and thus earning the needed money herself. There was a shortage of tonnage after the war, so this would be profitable, but risky. The proposition was eventually turned down and Sigyn was repaired by donated money. 1948 she was again opened for visitors. In 1950 she even sailed on Airisto outside Turku as part of a film, Laivan kannella (Sigyn had had such a role once before, 1916 for Terje Vigen).
Sigyn's hull was partly renewed 1971 and 1972 at the Suomenlinna shipyard. Funds were not sufficient though and not until 1979 was Sigyn reopened for the public, now again as a barque. 1994 a floating dock called "Loke" was constructed to prevent the cat's back phenomenon, and Sigyn's hull was again renewed 1998-2001, now to a big part. This work was carried out at Sjokvarteret in Mariehamn, where Albanus and Linden had been built and thus much knowledge about wooden ships acquired. Some work has also been done in Turku, where Sigyn now is moored by Forum Marinum in the Aura River.
Launched: 1887
Maiden Voyage: Gothenburg Southhampton 1887
In Service: 1887-1938
Fate: Museum Ship
Tonnage: 378 GRT, 356 NRT Tons Burthen: 500 tonnes DWT Length LOA 57.5 m, LWL 42.7 Beam: 9 m
Draught: 4.0 m (fully loaded) Propulsion: sails only Sail Plan: barque, sail area 1000 m2
Speed: best day average 11.5 knots Crew: 10-11
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July 10th, 2012
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