Built in 1877 as an iron barque under yard No 294 by Alexander Hall & Company, Aberdeen, Scotland for Henry F. Watt in Liverpool.
27 October 1877 launched as the ELISSA.
Tonnage 431 grt, 409 nrt and a tonnage under decks of 391 ton. Dim. 149.6 x 28.0 x 14.5ft.
187 Completed.
Under command of Captain G. Wheaton she was used for tramping and sailed where she could find any cargo. Mostly used in the trade between the U.K. and South America.
1889 Command was taken over by Captain J. Williams.
1897 Sold to A/S Fjeld (Bugge & Olsen), Larvik, Norway and renamed FJELD, under Norway flag she was kept also mostly in the South America trade.
22 February 1912 sold in Le Havre to Holmström & Co., Torekov, Sweden for SEK 18.000.
March 1912 Sold to H.A. Högland & Carl Constantin Johansson, Kalmar, Sweden for SEK 19,000 and renamed in GUSTAF.
In the winter of 1914-1915 was she re-rigged in a barquentine.
26 October 1915 sold in Sundsvall to Nils Österman & Co., Stockholm for SEK 40,000.
22 May 1916 sold to August Gilbert Melin, Marstrand, Sweden.
1917 Laid up by the Marstrands Varv and repaired.
1918 An Avance oil engine installed
27 September 1918 sold to Sven Salén, Gotenborg for SEK 423,000.
23 September 1919 sold to William Millar, Gothenburg for SEK 297,000.
25 September 1929 sold to AB John Millars Eftr (Ernst Ludvig Ramberg), Göteborg for SEK 5,500.
31 October 1929 sold to Erik Nylund, Mariehamn, Åland for SEK 23,000. (part owner of the company is Gustaf Erikson, Mariehamn). Her Barquentine rig was altered in a schooner rig.
1936 She was rebuilt in a motorship a 2S.C. SA. oil engine, manufactured by A/B Jönkopinga Motorfbk. was installed, a bridge and deckhouse are built on the quarterdeck and her bow altered.
13 January 1942 sold to Oy P. Molander AB, Björneborg, Finland registered in Sideby, Finland.
15 May 1950 transferred to Oy Thelmita AB, Sideby, she trade by this owner in the Baltic, North Sea with mainly pulpwood.
1955 Sold to Birger Asén ( Rederi AB Gustaf)in Helsingfors. Tonnage then given by Lloyds Registry as 431 gross, 322 net, 620 dwt.
December 1959 sold to A Kavadas & D. Vassilatos, Piraeus, Greece and renamed CHRISTOPHOROS.
1968 Sold to M. Christidou, P. Konidaris, Piraeus and renamed ACHAIOS.
1969 Renamed in PIONEER and used for smuggling.
1970 Seized by Greek authorities.
November 1970 sold to marine archaeologist Peter Throckmorton by a Greek shipbreaking yard he was looking for an old sailing vessel for the San Francisco Maritime Museum.
She did not sail but stayed in Piraeus until she was bought in 1975 by the Galveston Historical Foundation.
Thereafter some repairs on her hull took place and after one year she was towed to Gibraltar where she was prepared for the North Atlantic crossing under tow.
07 June 1979 she was ready for the crossing and arrived on 20 July 1979 in Galveston, Texas
At great expense she was overhauled and again rerigged in a barque.
Sail area 1115 sq. meters
04 July 1982 opened for the public as a floating museum at Galveston, renamed again in ELISSA.
She can also be chartered or used as a school ship.
2014 In service, same name and owners.
Wikipedia has on the ship:
ELISSA was built in Aberdeen, Scotland as a merchant vessel in a time when steamships were overtaking sailing ships. She was originally launched on October 27, 1877. According to the descendants of Henry Fowler Watt, ELISSA’s builder, she was named for the Queen of Carthage, Elissa (more commonly called Dido), Aeneas' tragic lover in the epic poem The.
ELISSA also sailed under Norwegian and Swedish flags. In Norway she was known as the FJELD of Tønsberg and her master was Captain Herman Andersen. In Sweden her name was GUSTAV of Gothenburg. In 1918, she was converted into a two-masted brigantine and an engine was installed. She was sold to Finland in 1930 (owned by Gustaf Erikson to 1942) and reconverted into a schooner. In 1959, she was sold to Greece, and successively sailed under the names CHRISTOPHOROS, in 1967 as ACHAEOS, and in 1969 as PIONEER. In 1970, she was rescued from destruction in Piraeus after being purchased for the San Francisco Maritime Museum. However, she languished in a salvage yard in Piraeus until she was purchased for $40,000, in 1975, by the Galveston Historical Foundation, her current owners. In 1979, after a year in Greece having repairs done to her hull, ELISSA was first towed to Gibraltar. There, she was prepared for an ocean tow by Captain Jim Currie of the New Orleans surveyors J.K. Tynan International. The restoration process continued until she was ready for tow on June 7, 1979.
ELISSA has an iron hull, and the pin rail and bright work is made of teak. Her masts are Douglas fir from Oregon, and her 19 sails were made in Maine. She has survived numerous modifications including installation of an engine, and the incremental removal of all her rigging and masts.
ELISSA made her first voyage as a restored sailing ship in 1985, traveling to Corpus Christi, Texas. A year later, she sailed to New York City to take part in the Statue of Liberty's centennial celebrations. When she's not sailing, ELISSA is moored at the Texas Seaport Museum in Galveston. Public tours are available year-round-provided she is not out sailing. The ship is sailed and maintained by qualified volunteers, who come from various places in East Texas.
In July 2011, the U.S. Coast Guard declared ELISSA to be "not seaworthy. Officials at the Texas Seaport Museum in Galveston where ELISSA is berthed were astonished when a Coast Guard inspection in 2011 revealed a rotten hull. The tall ship is inspected twice every five years, said John Schaumburg, museum assistant director. The 2011 inspection uncovered the worst rot since the tall ship was rebuilt in 1982, he said.
There is much speculation as to the cause of the hull rot, but the Texas Seaport Museum raised the $3 million that paid for hull replacement and other long-overdue maintenance projects, finishing in January, 2013. The next "Elissa" project, costing $1,500,000, is to replace the 22,000 board feet of Douglas fir decking.
Togo 2013 750F sg?, scott? (Stamp image supplied by Mr. Sitnikov.)
Togo 2015 950f sg?, scott?
Source: http://www.bruzelius.info/Nautica/Ships ... 1877).html Great Sailing Ships of the World by Otmar Schauffelen, and various internet sites.