FIGUREHEADS ON DISPLAY
BRITISH ADMIRAL – A Three masted Iron Ship of 1,808 tons, built in 1873 in Liverpool, England. (NAUTICAL MUSEUM – TOP FLOOR)
STAR OF GREECE – A three masted Iron Ship of 1289 tons, built in 1868 in Belfast, Northern Ireland. She was wrecked at Port Willunga on 13 July 1888 while en route to Great Britain with 16,000 bags of wheat. Seventeen of the 27 men on board lost their lives. They were buried at Aldinga where the local residents erected a monument. (NAUTICAL MUSEUM - TOP FLOOR)
WAVE QUEEN - A Three masted Wooden Barque of 250 tons, built in 1861 in Barnstaple, England. Wrecked at Rivoli Bay on 6 September 1874 while loading flour. The figurehead was enshrined for many years in an open sided corrugated tank at a farm at Tantanoola. (BALCONY – TOP FLOOR)
ANNIE LISLE – A Three masted Wooden Barque of 338 tons, built in 1856 in Quebec, Canada. A regular trader between Port Adelaide and Western Australian Ports; she was run down and badly damaged by the Australind while at anchor off Rottnest Island on 20 May 1887 and later converted into a hulk (BALCONY – TOP FLOOR)
HANNAH NICHOLSON - A Three masted Wooden Barque of 252 tons, built in 1858 in Whitehaven. One of many owners, Captain John Bickers of the BB Line, Port Adelaide, bought the vessel in 1872 and used her in the Mauritius sugar trade until 1894. Register closed in 1926. (BALCONY – TOP FLOOR)
CLAYMORE – A Three masted Wooden Barque of 287 tons, built in 1858 in Leith, England. Bought in 1869 by Captain John Bickers of the BB Line, Port Adelaide, and remained in that fleet until condemned in Calcutta, 1892. The figurehead depicts a Scottish clansman armed with a Claymore (sword) and a Targe (shield). (BALCONY – TOP FLOOR)
VILLE DE BORDEAUX – A three masted Wooden Ship of 822 tons, built in 1836 in Bordeaux, France. Had an eventful career as a French whaler and then as an illicit merchant vessel in Australia. Served as a lightship at the mouth of the Port Creek between 1848 and 1852. She was sold for conversion to a coal hulk in 1853 and was broken up in the 1860’s. (GROUND FLOOR)
SULTANA – A Three masted Wooden Barque of 349 tons, built in 1837 in Whitby, England. She ran aground on Troubridge Shoal on 28 September 1849. In 1850 the hull was dismantled and two barges and a cutter built from the salvaged timber. (GROUND FLOOR)
GLEN PARK – A three masted Steel Barque of 1799 tons, built in 1897 in Glasgow, Scotland. She ran aground near Wedge Island, Spencer Gulf on 1 February 1901 while carrying 3261 tons of wheat from Port Pirie and Port Germein. The ship was wrecked but all aboard were saved. (GROUND FLOOR)
GARTHNEILL (Formerly Inverneill) – A Three masted Steel Barque of 1,470 tons, built in 1895 in Glasgow, Scotland. After a world wide trading career, brought to Port Adelaide in 1926 by the Yorke Peninsula Barley Producers and converted into a grading plant. Broken up in 1935. (GROUND FLOOR)
MARGIT (formerly Craiglands) - A Three masted Steel Barque of 1,241 tons, built in 1891 in Londonderry, U.K. She ran aground on the Coorong near Kingston on 10 December 1911 while on a voyage from Victor Harbor to Britain loaded with 23,835 bags of wheat. (GROUND FLOOR)
GENERAL BLANCO (Formerly Coromandel) – A Three masted Wooden Ship of 985 tons, built in 1844 in Quebec, Canada. Arrived in Port Adelaide in 1856 under the Portuguese flag, she was dismasted near Troubridge Shoal in a storm on 3 September 1856, drifted back to the Semaphore anchorage and was towed to Port Adelaide. She was cut down to a lighter and then broken up in 1865 for Firewood. (GROUND FLOOR)
POSTBOY – A two masted Wooden Schooner built in Port Adelaide in 1874; she sank 2 years later in St. Vincent Gulf. Raised and repaired, she worked on until her final grounding at Arno Bay in 1907. (GROUND FLOOR)
Sources:
South Australian Maritime Museum.