James Craig

James Craig restored (credit: Peter Harris)

I came across the story of this ship and I start with a bit of background of this barque that was rescued and restored (or rebuilt).

The James Craig is a tall ship built in 1874, designed as a three-masted barque. She has a rich and long history and is currently used for educational purposes and sailing experiences.

Excerpt of Lloyd's register 1912 edition for James Craig

The ship is named after James Craig, a prominent Australian ship owner, and it offers insight into maritime history and the development of sailing vessels during the 19th century. The James Craig is part of the Sydney Heritage Fleet and is actively involved in sail training and public voyages, promoting sailing and maritime skills. Here is an article of James Craig by Jeff Toghill from 1978 giving the short history of her.

James J. Craig

Joseph James Craig was a business man.  His many interests included acting as a shipping and forwarding agent and general carrier, coal merchant and coal mine owner; lime merchant and lime manufacturer; brick, tile and pottery manufacturer; ship-owner, Quarry owner etc.  The Cyclopedia of New Zealand states .... Mr J. J. Craig's business was probably for variety, colossal proportions and industrial enterprise, the champion concern of the Colony of New Zealand.  His extensive fleet  of over 20 sea-going vessels includes a four-masted barque, other three-masted barques, barquentines, schooners, cutters, and ketches not to mention shares in vessels and a chartered fleet of over 2000 tons vessels. The carrying business, the nucleus of the vast concern which includes a most complete plant was established by his father in 1866. Joseph showed from an early time in the company a rare degree the faculty for managing large concerns and acceded to his present position on the death of his father in 1885. He held a number of prestigious public offices in his lifetime, company directorships and consulted on business matters. (credit: Engineers Australia Engineering Heritage Committee)

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In the 2007 published book "The Axe Had Never Sounded: Place, People and Heritage of Recherche Bay, Tasmania" by John Mulvaney he writes about James Craig as follows on pages 112 - 116 in the Good and Bad Times chapter (can be downloaded as pdf):

"The James Craig was purchased for use as a coal hulk, to be towed to Hobart when filled. Substantial concrete foundations on the high land at Evoralls Point, surviving today, indicate where the coal was conveyed down to sea level. They are overgrown with trees and understorey, as are the traces of the tramway. 75 years sufficed to convert a very visible industrial complex to archaeological remnants.

This time production appeared to justify the expenditure, when 9,950 tons of coal were produced during 1926 and output during 1927 was on course for greater tonnage. However this mine was not meant to be an easy investment. At Christmas in 1926, a creek flooded the mine, adding to operating costs. Then the main shaft met a fault and the coal seam was lost, requiring expensive tunneling. This was followed by a union dispute on Hobart's waterfront. When the mine company refused to pay the unloading rates demanded, the mine shut down. Reopening in 1928, it closed two years later when the company became

bankrupt.

The seventh company to try its luck on the coalfield was formed in 1931. It abandoned the previous ship loading plant and transferred operations to a small wharf constructed at Waterhole Cove. A new mine location also was chosen. Despite the annual production of some 10,000 tons, misfortune struck when the company's tunnel also met a fault. This mine finally stopped production in 1939, the year in which the Leprena sawmill closed. Catamaran resumed its life as a ghost town, a future archaeological prospect and a symbol of undercapitalised ambition.

James Craig

The Catamaran Coal Mining Company purchased the James Craig in late 1925 and towed the hulk to Recherche Bay to serve as a bunker for the coal brought to the wharf. Within two years the vessel was found to be unsuitable for this function, so she was towed up to Coal Pit Bay and anchored near the French anchorage of 1792.

James Craig (then the Clan Macleod), New York harbour 1890.

The James Craig, then named the Clan Macleod, New York, 1890. Sydney Heritage Fleet.

James Craig was built at Sunderland in 1873 as the Clan Macleod. Launched a year later, this square-rigger iron barque is a heritage item today, a rare survivor of the iron ships of the Clipper era. The nine decades that separated her construction from that of the Recherche reflect the immense technological progress within that period, even though the design harnessed wind power. 

The ship was constructed of wrought iron plates riveted on to iron frames and stringers. While her mizzenmast was pine, the two mainmasts and bowsprit were of iron; the tallest reached 35 metres. The interior of the iron plates was covered with cement as protection. Almost 55 metres long, the vessel's beam was nine metres and its hold was 5.5 metres deep. Access to the hold was gained through three hatches. 

During the first quarter century, Clan Macleod sailed the world's trade routes carrying coal or general cargo. Her first voyage to Australia in 1879 carried British general cargo to Brisbane. As the years passed competition increased from coal driven steamships, which were faster and more reliable timewise. 

An Auckland merchant and ship owner, J. J. Craig, bought the vessel in 1899, but he only renamed it after his son, James Craig, in 1905. Her first voyage was to take Australian Newcastle coal to Auckland. She made 34 trans-Tasman voyages until 1911, when she was purchased by the British New Guinea Development Company, and converted into a storage hulk in Port Moresby harbour.

James Craig submerged, 1960s, Recherche Bay.

The James Craig hulk resting in Recherche Bay in the 1960s, before its rescue during the early 1970s. Sydney Heritage Fleet.

James Craig regained some standing because of World War 1 shipping shortage, when she was refitted and rerigged. A normal trading life seemed likely when she was purchased in 1918 by Henry Jones and Company, of IXL food. Unfortunately, she suffered damage en route to Sydney and was towed to port. A bad voyage to New Zealand followed. Then she was towed to Recherche Bay to await cargo, but none came. So she lay there at anchor. Eventually sold to the Catamaran Coal Mining Company and stripped down to her hull, her life as a coal bunker proved short. The derelict vessel was towed up the harbour and abandoned. Her second-last misfortune was to break her cable and drift. Then came disaster. As she was a hazard to other ships an enterprising fisherman blew a hole in her stern. She settled on the sandy and muddy bottom which d'Entrecasteaux had once judged excellent for holding the anchor. The stern was in five metres of water, while the prow stood high above the water. Sheltered in the harbour and its hull preserved below the seabed, James Craig survived there for nearly 40 years. 

The hulk suffered senseless indignities during those forgotten decades. Vandals blew holes with gelignite in over a dozen places and an arsonist destroyed the decking; the above water iron plates rusted into a maze of holes. Recherche Bay slumbered as a vacation fishing harbour and on a favoured walking track south from Cockle Creek. This was the same path worn by generations of Aboriginal Tasmanians and followed by Labillardière's party to the south coast. 

A Sydney group of historic ship lovers knew of the James Craig and feared that she might be refloated and taken to the San Francisco Maritime Museum. This was a time when modern technology offered a challenge to heritage ship lovers and maritime archaeologists to investigate or refloat sunken wrecks. The world looked on in wonderment when, in 1970, television screens showed Isambard Brunel's leviathan, the wrought iron Great Britain brilliantly rescued and refloated in the Falkland Islands. Viewers saw it being towed up the river from Avonmouth to the Bristol dry dock in which she had been built 130 years earlier. 

Australian waters around 1970 also provided exciting discoveries. First came the retrieval of James Cook's Endeavour cannons from the Barrier Reef. Off Western Australia, Dutch shipwrecks were located and excavated beneath the sea. The first ship was Vergulde Draeck in 1972 and the Batavia followed. 

It was March 1972 when James Craig's challenge was accepted by a group of Sydney and Tasmanian volunteers who patched holes and made a sandbag coffer dam near the stern to negate the three metre wide hole blasted in the stern. The long task of pumping out the water from this leaky hull commenced. 

A salvage team arrived in October 1972 and the ship gradually started to rise from the natural moorings in which she was embedded. By May 1973 the hull was in a sufficiently repaired condition to stand the strains of towing. The tug Sirius Cove nudged the ship out of her Recherche Bay homeport and towed it to Hobart. 

Funding restoration and a place where she might be permanently berthed proved to be difficult and changing problems over many years. Eventually James Craig was towed to Sydney. The decision by the Sydney Heritage Fleet organisation to totally restore the vessel so that it was capable of sailing with passengers posed problems. How authentic? Compromises were necessary without changing the basic appearance, using some excellent historic photographs of the vessel in her heyday. Mild steel substituted for wrought iron for those plates that required replacement; to meet contemporary regulations engines, shafts and propellers were fitted. This seems a practical solution to endow a rusty hull with decking, masts and people, but 'authenticity' is questionable. 

The 1873 owner-financier of Clan Macleod would be intrigued, however, to learn that the restoration of his craft cost 12.5 million dollars. It is a reflection on the preconceptions or bias of Australian society that material objects - houses, ships, city landmarks - readily attract supporters, defenders and fund raisers. The preservation of the heritage values of the cultural landscape at Recherche Bay are more intangible - symbolic friendly racial contact, descriptions of lost Aboriginal lifeways, a landscape symbolic of the first European experience and their philosophical preconceptions, archaeological sites hidden within forests - but are they any less important or worth funding because they are more elusive and thought-provoking?

The following account of the James Craig draws upon Toghill, 1978 The James Craig, and Richards, 2000, Signals 52."

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The Sydney Heritage fleets website has a number of articles that are interesting, among them interviews with ex crew and other like the diary below and early history by David Wenban as well as an excerpt of Alan Villiers "Set of Sails" book (published 1949), I have the book and read the full chapter. 

Villiers sailed forward of the mast with James Craig from Sydney to Hobart. There the crew praised Captain Murchison who had managed to get the ship clear of the storm in Gabo as mentioned above. The atmosphere on the vessel was very happy. The experience must also be an old memory of Villiers as this must have happened in the 1920's when he was working up time for his Mate's ticket and the book was printed some 30 years later. He writes that he joined James Craig for her 2nd refit in Sydney after the damage of the storm, he also goes on with the Scottish crew that she had inherited from her Clan days. He goes on mentioning the stiff cotton canvas topsails that nobody likes as they can rip the nails off in a jiffy but then he further exhorts the splendid qualities of James Craig: she tacks like a yacht and runs like a greyhound and her binnacle lights do not blow out + she's a delight to steer, so he had fallen in love with the lady by the time they reached Hobart. From there they were towed to Huon River to load timber for Port Pirie and Adelaide, some crew leave to join a wooden newbuild that is just launched there, and he tells of the month long journey with a fresh water tank coming loose and wreaking havoc on deck until they get it overboard. Once the timber had been discharged they load superphospates in bags for New Zealand. Then he goes on to tell how he did several voyages until they one day arrived from New Zealand to Port Phillip Bay and they got word forward that the ship will be stationed in Hobart as a coal hulk and sail no more. The rest we know by now and I think Villiers embellishes a bit the time or voyages onboard as he joined Rothesay when he was 15 years old and by the time he was signing off Bellands he was 17 years of age (from James Craig Alan Villiers signed on the Bellands for a miserable voyage around Cape of Good Hope to France). Also the Engineers Australia Engineering Heritage Committee places him onboard before the storm of Gabo so he maybe was taking some writers privileges in his autobiography, go figure, equally the engineers could be wrong.

James Craig as pictured in Villiers book

Excerpt of Alan Villiers time on James Craig

There is online the diary of Geoff Winter on Sydney Heritage fleets website, he was heavily involved in the salvage of James Craig from the Pigsties bay (another smaller bay inside Recherche Bay).

Pigsties bay

Pigsties bay (credit: Google maps)

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Then I saw the nomination Document for Engineering Heritage Recognition by Engineers Australia Engineering Heritage Committee, compiled in 2015 and consists of some 60 pages of interesting details, among them a table of all voyages James Craig undertook from her launch in Sunderland until her salvage in Tasmania and return to Sydney. The file can be downloaded as pdf from here.

James Craig in Port Moresby as storage hulk

Recommended Level of Recognition Following its assessment against the prescribed heritage criteria it is considered that the restored SV James Craig is of outstanding engineering heritage significance to the nation. Accordingly, it is recommended that it be recognised as an Engineering Heritage National Marker.

Barque James Craig 

The last surviving sea-going  barque in the southern hemisphere

"The barque James Craig launched in Sunderland England in 1874 enjoyed a long life moving cargo around the globe.  She rounded Cape Horn 23 times and is the only remaining sea-going iron ‘tall ship’ in Australia – an epitome of the great age of sail.  She is a rare example of the once common merchant marine trading vessels that plied the world’s oceans to populate and provedore the new and old worlds. Restored by volunteers of the Sydney Heritage Fleet and the generosity of firms and nameless people, The James Craig demonstrates the design, materials and technology used to construct late 19th century iron sailing vessels. Her restoration is associated with the revival of traditional maritime skills and a level of philanthropy from individuals hitherto unseen in Australia for an item of moveable heritage.  

The Institution of Engineers Australia, Sydney Heritage Fleet 2016"

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James Craig photo by Alice Austen in New York, 1887

The current story of this rescued tall ship, starts from Tasmania and then restored in Sydney, Australia. This old timer was built in 1874 as Clan Macleod from Sunderland. She sailed from the continent for South America and Australia and passed the Cape Horn 23 times until 1900 when she was sold to trade between Australia and New Zealand until 1911 when she was converted to a storage hulk in Port Moresby. By the First World War, tonnage was needed and she was re-rigged and refitted for trade in the Pacific in 1918. The reprieve for was short-lived, with the exception of the grain trade, she was soon unable to compete with cargo-carrying steamships. In 1925 she was laid up again in Tasmania, waiting for the cargo that never came. She was then used as a coal storage hulk, until eventually being abandoned at Recherche Bay in Tasmania after breaking her anchor cable. To avoid her drifting and becoming a navigational hazard, a large hole was blown in her stern and she was wrecked in place.

Restoration

James Craig in Tasmania (Friends of FOC FB page)

James Craig in Tasmania (Friends of FOC FB page)

James Craig in Tasmania (Friends of FOC FB page)

Part of the inspiration for preserving James Craig has been credited to Karl Kortum (again!), who had also been involved in encouraging Australians to preserve the similar-sized barque Polly Woodside in Melbourne in 1962. Restoration of James Craig began in 1972, when volunteers refloated her and towed her to Hobart for initial repairs. Brought back to Sydney under tow in 1981 and over the next twenty-five years most of the hull was replaced. The ship was relaunched in 1997, and restoration work was completed in 2001. Incredibly she's still active today, see her under sail on this video.

According to Sydney maritime museum there are only four 19th century barques left in the world capable of sailing. James Craig is the only one in the Southern Hemisphere and the only one which regularly carries the general public to sea. I did some research and think it could be these that they mean:

- James Craig (1874): Obviously;

- Elissa (1877): Three-masted barque maintained by the Galveston Historical Foundation in Texas, USA, built in Aberdeen, Scotland, see more here;

- Star of India (1863) originally Euterpe: The world's oldest active sailing ship, a barque based at the Maritime Museum of San Diego (here Alan Villiers was material to her rescue);

- Belem (1896), built in France. In 2025 she was the flagship of Hanseship;

- Sedov (1921) originally Magdalene Vinnen II: While launched just after the 19th century, this Russian vessel is often listed among the last remaining, active, large-scale, historically designed, 4-masted barques;

- Kruzenshtern (1926) originally Padua of the famous "P" liners, today Russian owned. 

That's already six of them and with a bit more effort many more can be found (unless considering only those built in the 1800's)! 

James Craig hoisted all of its 21 sails for the first time in nearly 80 years in 2001 and sailed through Sydney Heads. The story of her rebirth, the result of an award-winning 30-year restoration, is even more extraordinary than its earlier life. Here is another video of James Craig and her restoration presented by Chris Wisbey, they also have a gallery of her restoration and older.

In 2003, she was awarded the World Ship Trusts Maritime Heritage Award for authentic restoration. In this honour she joins a select band of restored ships throughout the world, including the Vasa (Sweden 1627), USS Constitution (USA 1797) and Cutty Sark (UK 1869). None of these can sail today though. 

James Craig is owned by the Sydney Heritage Fleet, a community-based, non-profit organisation dedicated to the preservation of Australia’s maritime heritage. 

Below a magnificent series of photos of the James Craig at Twofold Bay taken by Peter Harris on 31st January during her voyage from Sydney to Hobart.

James Craig restored (Friends of FOC FB page)

James Craig restored (Friends of FOC FB page)

James Craig restored (Friends of FOC FB page)

James Craig figure head (Friends of FOC FB page)

Literature

Jeff Toghill has also published a number of marine books for navigation and sailing, most notably he was part of the team salvaging and restoring the James Craig so perhaps it naturally fell on him to write the book and document the history and restoration process. I found these titles available on EBay.

The James Craig by Jeff Toghill (1978)

The James Craig by Jeff Toghill (2003)

Publisher: Sydney Maritime Museum Limited (trading as Australian Heritage Fleet)

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There is also "Sailing Ships of the Tasman Sea" by Jack Churchouse that references James Craig in her latter active days and of her tumultuous return to Hobart with 4 feet of water in her hold where she had battled storms for 3 weeks and basically run out of provisions.

"Leaking badly, and with four feet of water in her hold, the barque James Craig was towed into port in distress by the tug Hero on Saturday morning. The James Craig, which is an iron barque, formerly known as the Clan Macleod, built in 1874, was bound from Newcastle with coal for Tasmania. When off Gabo she struck..." the continuation can be read in the article by Jeff Toghill who references a local news paper article.

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I also found an online pdf report of the mining activities at Recherche Bay where James Craig was eventually scuttled for many years:

The Recherche Bay D'Entrecasteaux visit in 1792 and 1793

A Tasmanian-French Collaboration

Archaeological Project (2006)

Final Report

"Mining 1840-1940

In 1793 Labillardiere, of the d'Entrecasteaux expedition, noted a coal seam at South Cape. In 1838 the coal was again noticed by a mariner, Captain George King. In 1840 a syndicate of nine people approached the colonial government with a view to mining at Recherche Bay. A team of convict miners and an overseer from the Tasman Peninsula Coal Mines were lent to the syndicate.

The workforce, in 1841, totalled 43, with seven miners. The gangs worked in three shifts, including a night shift mustered at 10pm. At least 12,000 tons of coal was brought to the Hobart market. This mining venture collapsed, owing 4,316 pounds for the services of the convict miners, tools and stores. It

is uncertain exactly when this period of mining at Coal Pit Bight ended.

From 1900-1912 further coal mines in the area were worked. During the 1920s mining at Coal Pit Bight continued including more complex mining operations. During this time the James Craig was brought to Recherche Bay for use as a hulk between there and Hobart. However, there she was beached and remained until salvaged for restoration in the 1980s."

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In 2006 Michael York published his book "All hands on deck : the restoration of the James Craig". 300 people spent 22 years salvaging and restoring the James Craig the only surviving clipper ship left in Australian and New Zealand waters. This title is available for a reasonable price from AbeBooks.

The book features also a foreword from then prime minister Howard:

"Prime Minister, Canberra

Foreword: Restoration of the James Craig

As an island continent, Australia is a nation that, more than most, relies on its sea transport. From the First Fleet right through to the giant cargo and passenger liners of today, shipping has provided us with an important link to the rest of the world.

The story of the James Craig is a fascinating chapter in this rich and colourful maritime history. After her launch in 1874, the Clan Macleod carried cargoes to and from sea ports all over the world, before coming into service on the trans-Tasman route, where, in 1905, she was renamed the James Craig.

However, the dawn of the twentieth century was to usher in a new era in shipping. The elegant sails of the windjammers were no match for the steam power of newer ships, and the James Craig was eventually abandoned at Recherche Bay in southern Tasmania.

It would have been a sad end for such a grand old ship, but the James Craig was to get another chance at life. She was refloated in 1972, and what followed was a mammoth undertaking to restore the windjammer to her former glory. The work required to create an authentic restoration was painstaking, and called on shipbuilding skills rarely used today.

The efforts of those who worked tirelessly over the years on the restoration is commendable, and the fruit of their labour, the James Craig restored to full working order, is a fine legacy for future generations. As a record of the restoration, this book is an excellent tribute to their dedication, and I hope that it may one day inspire others to embark on similar endeavours.

(John Howard)"

All Hands on Deck is the result of Michael York's 25-year involvement with the James Craig. Michael readily admits he had no idea what he was letting himself in for in 1981 when he first saw the shapely but patched outline of her hull in Tasmanian waters. In the era now known in his family as Before JC, Michael had spent his life sailing and working on boats. He built his first boat at the age of 11, but wartime and an apprenticeship in shipbuilding, led him into a career as an engineer. He has sailed in 15 Sydney to Hobart Races, including the 1975 record-breaking run on Kialoa; the Admiral's Cup on Caprice of Huon in 1965; and the America's Cup on Gretel in 1962.

He took the step into a corporate career, and in time became the Founder and Managing Director of Borg-Warner Mechanical Seals Australia and South East Asia. His corporate background and training in ocean racing and, above all a passion to see a job through to the finish line were to stand him in good stead in the restoration of the James Craig.

All hands on deck by Michael York

They said it could never happen, that it was a project with magnificent scope for failure but the James Craig today is a true restoration of one of the great sailing vessels from a bygone age.

This is the 22-year story of overwhelming and impossible tasks, the relearning of forgotten skills, and the perseverance, bloody-mindedness, dedication and generosity of volunteer workers and skilled craftspeople whose efforts turned a vision into reality.

The James Craig is a 19th century iron-hulled clipper ship, built in Sunderland, England. She then plied her trade along the North American coast including New York and Portland, Oregon as well as in the southern hemisphere. She had been abandoned as a rusting hulk for many years in a quiet Tasmanian bay when the San Francisco Maritime Museum (editor: Karl Kortum) and the Sydney Maritime Museum both became aware of her existence and both were interested in salvaging and restoring her. Such was the James Craig's importance as one of the few restorable sailing ships of its era in the world, that the San Francisco Museum was prepared to ship her back to America for the museum.

The Sydney Maritime Museum won the day, and the book is the story of the early sailing days of James Craig, the 22 years it took to restore her, and finally her return to glory under sail. The book is splendidly illustrated with photographs dating back to 1889, step-by-step through the restoration process, and of course her return as a glorious sea-going sailing ship.

It is largely told through the voices of many of those who were involved in the salvage and restoration process.

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General characteristics
Name(s): 

Clan Macleod (1874-1905), 

James Craig (1905-)
Builder: Bartram, Haswell & Co, Sunderland, England
Yard number: 75
Launched: 18 February 1874
Reclassified Storage hulk 1911-1918
Coal lighter 1925-1932
Reinstated February 2001
Registries:

Glasgow, United Kingdom (1874-1900),
Auckland, New Zealand (1900-1911),
Hobart, Tasmania (1918-1925, 1972-1981)
Sydney, Australia (1981-)
IMO number: 8676788
Type: Iron-hulled barque

Tonnage: 671 gross tons
Length Hull: 54.8 m
LOA: 70.0 m
Beam: 9.5 m
Height: 33.0 m at mainmast
Draught: 3.7 m
Depth of hold: 5.5 m
Sail plan: Barque rig, 21 sails
Speed: 14 knots
Deadweight: 1,100 tons
Complement 16 persons

I can only wish James Craig fair winds and water under the keel after so much love and effort to restore her for the generations that have only seen sailing ships as stuffy museums or in pictures, maybe one day I will have the chance to visit her for real!