Ships from the Age of Sail and Steam

For a specific ship search, make your selections below. For an alphabetical ship listing select Alphabetical Ship Search. Search is NOT case-sensitive. 1. ship name - match exact ship name 2. any reference to - finds any word match i.e. bark will find all barks in text. 3. text containing - finds any partial match i.e. rig will ALSO find frigate.
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Search result for any reference to: bark
Adler: Bark; 463 tons; Crew: 17; Bremerhafen, Germany; 1843 The Bark Adler sailed between Bergen (Norway) and Quebec (Canada) with passengers from 1862 to 1867 when she stranded on the St. Lawrence.
Alabama: CSS Alabama; Bark with a single-screw auxiliary direct-acting 600 ihp engine; Length: 67.1 m; Beam: 9.7 m; Depth in hold: 4.3 m; 1,050 tons; Comp.: 148; Armament: 1x110pdr, 1x68pdr, 6x32pdr; Birkenhead, England; 1862 Captain Raphael Semmes of the CSS Alabama was the confederate privateer with the most Union victims to his credit, a total of 71. The CSS Alabama's privateering career came to an end on June 19th, 1864 when she went down valiantly in an engagement spectacle off Cherbourg France, against the USS Kearsage commanded by Captain Winslow.
Bear: SS Bear, USS Bear, SS Bear of Oakland, SS Arctic Bear; Steam screw assisted Barkentine; Length: 198 ft, 4 in; Beam: 29 ft, 9 in; Draft: 18 ft; 703 displacement tons; Comp.: 26; 3x6pdr rapid fire guns (1885); Linthouse, Goven, Scotland; 1874 Built as the sealing vessel SS Bear by Alexander Stephen and Sons Ltd, she operated for a decade in the annual sealing hunt. SS Bear was commissioned as the USS Bear on the 17th of March 1884. She was used in the rescue of Lieutenant A. W. Greeley and six other survivors of the arctic expedition marooned at Cape Sabine and rescued on the 22nd of June 1884. In April of the following year, she was decommissioned and transferred to the US revenue Cutter Service in which she had a long service. Sold to the City of Oakland for use as a museum vessel and renamed Bear of Oakland. After purchasing Bear and equipping her with a diesel engine, Rear Admiral Richard E. Byrd used her as a second vessel for his Antarctic Expedition of 1933-35. Sold in 1962 to Philadelphia as a museum vessel. She lost tow and foundered about 90 miles south of Cape Sable, Nova Scotia on the 19th of March 1963, while on the way to her new berth in Philadelphia.
Champion of the Seas: Three-masted Clipper; Length: 76.8 m; Beam: 13.9 m; Draft: 8.9 m; 2447 tons; Boston, United States; 1854 Champion was initially designed as a passenger ship and ordered by James Baines of the Black Ball Line for service between Liverpool and Melbourne. On her maiden voyage from Liverpool to Melbourne she recorded a fastest single day run of 465 nautical miles, December 10-11, 1854. She was later used as a merchant vessel for general trade. Champion was abandoned by her crew off Cape Horn on January 3rd 1877 when she was leaking badly. The crew was rescued by the British bark Windsor. Champion's figurehead was a sailor with the left hand extended while holding a hat in the right hand. Her hull was painted black with white inner works and her waterways were painted blue.
Charles W. Morgan: Whaling Ship; Length: 114 ft; 314 tons; Crew: 26; New Bedford, United States; 1841 The Charles W. Morgan had a remarkable 80-year career in whaling and she is the only intact wooden whaler in the USA. Originally ship-rigged with square sails on all masts, she was re-rigged as a bark in 1880 with fore-and-aft sails on the mizzenmast
Concretia: CGS Concretia; Single screw steam driven lighthouse supply and buoy tender; 24 NHP; Length: 126 ft; Beam: 22 ft; Draft: 10 ft; 320 tons; Montreal Shipbuilders, Quebec; 1917 Concretia's hull, as made so abundantly clear by her name, was made of concrete (or ferrocement) as a WWI experimental lighthouse supply and buoy vessel. She was rebuilt in 1935 as a barge and abandoned in 1952 at Kingston, Ontario. She was salvaged and rebuilt in 1980 as the barkentine Onaygorah and in August 1982 she sailed to the Fiji Islands as a marine biology research vessel.
David Dows: Barkentine; Length: 278 ft (260 ft keel); Beam: 37 ft; Draft: 18 ft; 1,481 net registered tons; Toledo, Ohio, United States; 1881 David Dows is most often referred to as a five masted schooner, as she would have appeared after her square rig on the foremast was removed, leaving a fore-and aft rig on all masts. She was dubbed "The Queen of the Lakes" because of her sheer size and appealing shape. After having been reduced to a barge, she was abandoned during a winter storm on November 30th, 1889 and sank to the bottom of Lake Michigan near Whiting Indiana.
Dover Castle: Full-rigged Ship; Length: 185 ft; Beam: 34 ft; Depth of hold: 22 ft; 1003 grt; Sunderland, England; 1858 Dover Castle was re-rigged in 1875 as a bark. Sold to Norwegian interests in 1880 and renamed Kem.
Erebus: HMS Erebus; Bomb Vessel; bark-rigged; 372 tons; Crew: 67; Armament: 1x13inch mortar, 1x10inch mortar, 8x24pdr, 2x6pdr; Wales; 1826 Most known for its role on polar expeditions during the 1840's. Erebus was abandoned in June 1848 after being bound in the ice at Victoria Strait in Northern Canada for almost a year. Despite numerous rescue expeditions, only some remains of the crew and a few diaries were ever found.
Esquimaux: 70 Hp Steam Whaler; bark-rigged; Length: 157 ft; Beam: 30 ft; Depth of hold: 19 ft; 465 tons; St. Johns, Newfoundland; 1865 Initially built as a ship-rigged three-masted steam whaler, she was converted to a bark in 1883, as were so many whalers and merchant vessels of her time. Sold in 1900 to Evelyn B. Baldwin for the Baldwin-Ziegler arctic expedition and renamed America.
Falls of Clyde: Iron-hulled four-masted Bark; Length: 85.3 m; Beam: 12.2 m; Draft: 6.4 m; 1809 displacement tons; Port Glasgow, Inverclyde, Scotland; 1878 Named after a waterfall up the River Clyde, the Falls of Clyde was originally a full-rigged ship designed for global trade, later re-rigged as a Bark. Currently the Falls of Clyde is part of the Hawaii Maritime Center in Honolulu Harbor.
France: Bark; Length: 110 m; 3,784 gross tons.; Crew: 46; Glasgow, Scotland; 1890 The first of the five-masted barks and the largest of her time. She was built for the nitrate trade between Chile and Europe. On may 13, 1901 she was abandoned by her crew while caught in a storm.
Great Republic: Four-masted Bark; Length: 335 ft; Beam: 53 ft; Depth of hold: 29 ft; Boston, United States; 1853 In February 1855 she sailed from New York to Liverpool in 13 days. A year later she made the trip from New York to San Francisco in 92 days. Initially bark-rigged, she was re-rigged as a three-masted ship circa 1862. The Great Republic, which had been renamed to Denmark in 1869, was abandoned off Bermuda when she started taking on water during a hurricane in 1872. She was on her way from Rio de Janeiro, Brasil to St. John, New Brunswick.
Halve Maen: Half Moon VOC Vlieboat; 80 om tons; Comp.: 20; Amsterdam, Netherlands; 1608 Contracted by the Dutch VOC, English explorer Henry Hudson's bark-rigged ship was to find the Northeast passage to the Indies. The Hudson river still bears his name as he explored the river and much of lower New York Bay. Two replica's of the Halve Maen have been built.
Hioma: Bark; Suursadam, Estonia; 1848 Her claim to fame is that in February 1854, on her way to Peru, she became the first recorded Estonian ship to cross the equator and sail around Cape Horn, the southern most tip of South America.
Maria Rickmers: Five-masted Bark with a 750hp auxiliary steam engine; Length: 114 m; Beam: 14.6 m; Draft: 7.72 m; 3,822 grt (3,344 nrt); Speed: 15 knots (sail), 8 knots (steam); Crew: 44; Glasgow, Scotland; 1891 This large five-masted bark went mysteriously missing seven months after she was built. While returning to Bremerhaven from her maiden voyage to Saigon she disappeared in the Indian Ocean after having been seen passing through the Sunda Straits.
Mary Celeste: Brigantine; Length: 103 ft; 282 tons; Crew: 8; Spencer's Island, Nova Scotia; 1860 Originally built as the Amazon, she was re-named Mary Celeste in 1869 and became famous for being found abandoned off Gibraltar by the British bark 'Dei Gratia' on December 4th (or 5th), 1872. The ship and her cargo were mostly in-tact, a true ghost-ship. Speculation plenty about what happened to the captain and crew without us adding to it.
Omega: Bark; Length: 94.9 m; 2,471 gross tons.; Greenock, Scotland; 1887 Omega, formerly called Drumcliff, changed hands several times, trading in case oil, guano, nitrate, wheat, and general goods. Her claim to fame is that she was the last square-rigger in commercial trade, befitting her name. She sank on June 26, 1958.
Resolute: Bark; Length 35.1m; 424 bm tons; Crew: 61; England; 1849 Originally built as the merchant ship Ptarmigan she was purchases by the Royal Navy in 1850. HMS Resolute was one of a number of vessels sent out in 1850 and 1852 to search for the missing arctic exploration ships HMS Erebus and HMS Terror.
Rochester: Down Easter; Length: 131 ft 2 in; Beam: 30 ft 10 in; Depth of hold: 15 ft 5 in; 563 tons; Maine, United States; 1837 Rochester was launched as a full-rigged ship but she may have been re-rigged as a bark after having been sold and renamed Bremerhaven in 1850. She brought German emigrants to the New World in the 1850's and 1860's. Sold to Norwegian interests in 1870, she travelled from London to New York in 1877 on her last known voyage.
Sindia: Steel-hulled four-masted Bark; Length: 329 ft; Beam: 45.2 ft; Draft : 26.7 ft; 3068 gross tons; Comp: 33; Belfast, Ireland; 1887 The bark Sindia was purchased in 1900 by the Standard Oil Company (John D. Rockefeller) fom the original owner, T.J. Brocklebank shipping (Liverpool). While returning to New York fully laden with silks and satins from Cobin, Japan, she was wrecked during a storm on December 15th, 1901 on a beach near Ocean City. Later claims that the crew had been drunk were somewhat refuted.
Susan Constant: Bark; Length: 17 m; Beam: 7 m; Draft: 3 m; 120 tons; Complement:85; Armament: 4 minions, 4 falcons; London, England; 1605 The Susan Constant was purchased in 1606 by the Virginia Company. Captained by Christopher Newport the Susan Constant took 71 colonists to Jamestown Island to become the first English colony in North America. The Susan Constant was accompanied on her voyage by the Godspeed carrying 52 settlers and the Discovery with 21 passengers.
Terra Nova: Steam assisted Bark; 140 bhp single screw compound steam engine; Length: 187 ft; Beam: 31.4 ft; Draft: 19 ft; 764 grt; Comp: 65; Dundee, Scotland; 1884 Originally built for the Dundee whaling and sealing fleet, she worked the annual spring seal hunt for a decade before being converted for polar expeditionary and scientific duty. She acted as a relief ship for the Jackson-Harmsworth Arctic Expedition of 1894-1897 and as Captain Robert Scott's vessel on his doomed Antarctic polar expedition of 1910. Terra Nova was sunk by ice off the southwestern tip of Greenland on the 13th of September 1943.
Tormilind: Four-masted Barkentine; Length: 45.71 m; Beam: 10.3 m; 495.46 grt; crew 10; Hara, Estonia; 1922 Built for the Käsmu Laevaomanikud shipping company, she is said to have been the most beautiful Estonian sailing ship ever built. She was lost in 1944.
Union:: Bark; Length: 36.2 m; Beam: 8.7 m; Depth of hold: 4.6 m; 408 ton; Bremen, Germany, 1854 Union was used as an emigrant vessel to the New World. Sold to Engelbert Walte in 1863 and she sailed under the command of Johann Conrad Heinrich Eckenberg from 1863 to 1864. In 1865 she was sold to Norwegian interests. After 1872, no records remain and what ultimately happened to the vessel is not known
United States: SS United States; Three-masted barkentine-rigged wooden hull side-paddle wheel steamer; Length: 244.6 ft ; Beam: 40 ft; Depth of hold: 30.8 ft; 1,857 tons; New York, United States; 1847 The United States was the first US steamship specifically designed and purpose built as a trans-atlantic steam vessel. She was sold to German Interests in 1849 and renamed Hansa. She was rebuilt in 1853 and carried immigrants from Europe to he New World until 1857. Sold into British ownership in 1858 and renamed Indian Empire for the Galway-Halifax-New york passage in which she was used for only one year. Her hulked remains sank on the 4th of May 1866, while moored at the Victoria Dock in London.
Winwick: Barque; 266 ton; Crew: 11; Lynn; 1835 Winwick sailed under the command of Captain Ware between London, Cadiz and Montevideo between 1835 and 1840. The barque and her cargo of 180 tuns of oil and three passengers were wrecked on the 12th of December 1841 at Lyall Bay, Wellington New Zealand wich Captain Ware may have mistaken for Port Nicholson. One life was lost. The oil, stores, furniture and tackle were sold off by public auction on December 30th 1841.
Yeoman: Bark; 904 gross tons; Saint John, New Brunswick Canada; 1845 Transferred out of Canadian registry to Greenock, Scotland.

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