BALCLUTHA

[aukepalmhof]

Built as steel full rigger by Charles Connell & Co, Glasgow for Robert McMillan at Dumbarton, Scotland.
09 December 1886 launched under the name BALCLUTHA meaning the Gaelic worth bal=town on the Clutha (Clyde) and it is the old name of Dumbarton.
Tonnage 1.689 gross, 2.660 dwt., dim. 91.50 x 11.70 x 6.90m., between pp. 74.00m.
Sail area c. 1900m².
Call sign KJHR

15 Jan. 1887 sailed on her maiden voyage under command of captain J.F Constable and 25 crew from Cardiff where she had loaded 2.650 ton coal and around Cape Horn bound for San Francisco. She arrived after a passage of 140 days at this port, after unloading the coal she loaded bags of wheat for her home country.

Altogether she rounded Cape Horn seventeen times and she made 4 voyages from Europe to San Francisco out with coal or general cargo, home with grain.
1890 Her Captain given as Morrell and in 1995 as Binnie.
Her port of call in the Pacific included Chile for loading nitrate, and New Zealand for wool, and Rangoon for rice.
After thirteen years under the flag of McMillan she was sold to West Coast of the United States interest and registered in Hawaii from 1899 till 1902.
She was then used in the Pacific lumber trade for the next three years; she sailed from Puget Sound, Washington to Australia.

She was the last vessel, which carried the Hawaiian Kingdom flag, in 1901 by a special act of the USA Congress she was allowed to go to American registry, and could be used in the American coastwise trade.

1902 Sold to Pope and Talboth, San Francisco, and used in the salmon fisheries in Alaska.

16 May 1904 under command of Capt. Bremer from San Francisco to Karluk she grounded, without loss of live, on Sitkin Island one of the Geese Islands off Kodiak while on charter to the Alaska Packers Association.
The ship was sold to the Alaska Packers Association where she lay for $500; she was salvaged July 1905 and after extensive repairs (most probably in Alameda) renamed STAR OF ALASKA.

Spring 1906 she set sail again to Alaska

Till 1930 used in the seven month fishing season off the Alaskan coast, she carried supplies and cannery workers, around 300 men, the fishermen were mostly white, while the cannery workers were Chinese, from Alameda to Chignik Bay, Alaska, after the workers and supplies were landed she stayed for anchor with only a few watchmen on board till the autumn, when her holds were loaded with canned salmon.
Early September she sailed back to Alamada, with on board circa 78.000 cases of tinned salmon, a 2.400 mile voyage. She was the fastest vessel in the Alaska Packers fleet and her average passage time was 15th days from Alaska to Alamada, and 24 days from that port to Alaska.
During the winter season she was laid up and during that time renovations and repair took place.
1911 Her poop deck was extended to house Italian and Scandinavian fishermen, later Chinese cannery workers used her tweendecks, by adding new bunks.

Her last voyage was in 1932, not as a sailing vessel but under tow, at that time she was the last vessel of Alaska Packers, and when returned she was laid up.

1933 was she bought by Frank Kissinger for $5.000, renamed PACIFIC QUEEN, he fitted her out as a “ark of nautical monstrosities”, a reporter wrote that she was painted “like a circus wagon with a silver hull, brilliant red masts and spars, and a gilt figurehead.”

She was towed up and down the west coast of America for nearly 20 years, usually Kissinger exhibiting her as a “pirate ship”. He was living on board her together with his wife. Was sometimes chartered out to movie company’s to take part in a movie, the best know was Mutiny on the Bounty, where she played a small par in, when she lay at anchor off Cataline Island, in which Clark Gable and Charles Laughton took part.
During the Second War she was an exhibited vessels alongside Fisherman’s Wharf, San Francisco.

Later was she beached on the Marin Mud flat off Sausalito, San Francisco Bay, still Kissinger and his wife were living on her.
When Kissinger died in 1952, his widow inherits the PACIFIC QUEEN.

1954 She was bought by the San Francisco Maritime Museum for $25.000, and by cash donations and the help of many volunteers she was refloated
19 July 1955 she was towed to pier 43 at Fisherman’s Wharf, San Francisco and renamed again in BALCLUTHA, and restored to her old glory.
1978 Transferred to the National Park Service, and in 1985 designated a National Historic Landmark.

2016 Still in use as a museum ship at San Francisco.

Penrhyn Island 1981 6c sg178, 1981 50c sg198, 1984 80c sg350, 1985 80c sgO31. (The name on the stamp is wrong it gives BALCUTHA.)
Togo 2015 950f sg?, scott? (name is wrongly given on stamp.)
USA 2016 Forever stamp sg?, scott? (The tug alongside her is the HERCULES: viewtopic.php?f=2&t=17256
Mozambique 2019 116MT sg?, scott?

Source: Watercraft Philately CD Rom, Ships on Stamps. http://www.ship-modelers-assn.org/fam0309.htm
De Laatste Grote Zeil Schepen by Otmar Schäuffelen.
http://www.bruzelius.info/Nautica/Ships ... 1186).html

[Arturo]

Balclutha

Penrhyn Islands 1981, S.G.?, Scott: 142