The stamp series
I came across this series of stamps published in Falkland Islands in 1979, they feature sixteen notable tall ships at the end of the windjammer era. I can see the most expensive stamp being a fast American clipper but not sure how the logic was ship vs pricing seeing the 1 cent stamp is these days under Russian ownership. Perhaps all ships had something to do with Falklands, maybe just a port of call, for sure some of them as they ended wrecked there or as storage hulks.
The Flying Cloud above was one of the fastest clippers ever made and she clocked the fastest time between San Francisco and New York in 89 days and 8 hours in 1854, the record stood for 135 years. She was in 1851 built in USA so a bona fide wooden 'Down-Easter'. Basil Lubbock covers her history in his book "Down-Easters".
Originally built in 1869 as a tea clipper in UK by British owners she was after few years turned to the wool trade in Australia and held the speed record from the downunder to ol'Blighty for several years. Today she's on display in a permanent drydock at the Greenwich. Cutty Sark means 'short shirt' in a Broad Scottish dialect.
The Criccieth Castle is not famous for setting records but of her 1912 foundering off the Horn and with her crew and the pregnant wife of the Captain they managed after eight days, in a lifeboat, to reach Falklands islands and she gave birth to a daughter. However 16 of the crew perished to hypothermia. The ship was originally built in Workington, Cumberland in 1877 as Silverdale.
Grace Harwar was built in 1889 in Scotland and participated in several grain races in her lifetime but never won any. She was notorious for the dubious reputation of being cursed and having claimed several sailors lives. The most famous would be the friend of Alan Villiers, Mr Ronald Walker, who in 1929 lost his life to a falling yard during foul weather when filming up in the rigging. The ship was scrapped in 1935 in Charlestown, Fife of Forth after a short trip from Falmouth.
Garthpool was the earlier sistership to Lawhill, built 1891 in Dundee and had a 'baldheaded' rig that lacked royals. She ran aground in 1929 off Cape Verde islands. She made her career carrying case oil and in the end participated in the grain races from Australia.
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Lawhill was built in 1892 and had a colourful career for several entities and ended up being scrapped in Maputo in 1959. She was also very modern build of her day having been implemented with many improvements by the famous Captain 'Bracewinch' Jarvis.
This French ship was built in St Nazaire in 1899. In 1906 she was on a voyage from Sydney via Cape Horn to Falmouth for orders loaded with a cargo of wheat under command of Captain Lemoine. I guess the reason she's in the series is because she encountered a strong east-north-easterly gale with foggy weather, and grounded on Bleaker Island, Falkland Islands. No souls on board were lost.
Fennia was a Finnish training ship that was originally built in Nantes in 1902. After encountering a severe gale turned back after having lost most of her rigging, she managed to limp back to Falklands and was declared total loss in 1927. Subsequently she was used as a storage hulk for several years by the FIC until she was towed away in 1967 to Uruguay and later scrapped there in 1977 after the plans to restore her as a museum in the USA did not materialise.
Preussen was built in 1902 in Geestemunde and was the flagship of the German Laiesz 'flying' P-liners. She was unfortunately shipwrecked off Dover in 1910 after having collided by another vessel 'Brighton' (that was in fault) and lost a lot of her rigging forward, all crew was rescued. She was the largest tall ship built back in the day with a cargo capacity of 8000 tons DWT.
Pommern was built in 1903 in Glasgow as Mneme. Later in 1908, she was renamed Pommern by the Laiesz company and after that she was purchased by Gustaf Erikson who kept the same name. She was gifted after the 2nd WW by the shipowner to the Åland Maritime Museum and is still today on display in original condition. In her sailing days she won the grain race twice.
Mozart was built in 1904 in Greenock and was rigged as a barquentine which was peculiar for the grain route ships. The Finnish boatologist George Kahre wrote in his book 'The last tall ships' that she was difficult to steer and in a running wind it was a lot of work compared to a bark rig, she would have been more manageable with 5 masts configuration with smaller sails. She was until the end owned by Erikson and scrapped in 1935 in Dalmuir, UK.
Pamir was built in 1905 by Blohm&Voss yard in Hamburg and was also part of the Laiesz 'flying' P-liners fleet. She was also then under Italian, Finnish and New Zealand ownership until she ended up with West German owners in 1951 and refurbished as a sail training ship. Unfortunately she sank in 1957 after capsizing mid-Atlantic in hurricane 'Carrie', of her complement of 86 crew, only 6 survived.
Archibald Russel was built in 1905 in Greenock. As she got older she was sold to Finnish owners in 1923 but seized in Goole as a prize of war in 1939 and then returned back to Erikson in 1948 but eventually was sold to the scrappers in 1949 in Gateshead-on-Tyne, UK where she was demolished.
Passat was built in 1911 by Blohm&Voss yard in Hamburg and was also part of the Laiesz 'flying' P-liners fleet. In 1932 she also ended up under Finnish ownership with Erikson but in 1951 was sold back to West German owners who refurbished her into a sail training ship but following the disaster with Pamir she was decommisioned in 1957 after almost having themselves capsized with a shifting cargo of barley. She is today on display as a museum in Travemunde, Germany.
Priwall was built in 1917 by Blohm&Voss yard in Hamburg and was also part of the Laiesz 'flying' P-liners fleet. In 1935 she was recorded as the fastest of the grain race. She was never sold but gifted to Chile in 1941 to avoid beinb seized by the Allied Forces. Unfortunately in 1945 after having loaded a cargo of saltpeter she caught fire enroute to Mexico. An attempt was made tow her to Callao but it failed and she sunk.
Padua was built in 1926 by Blohm&Voss yard in Hamburg and was the last of the Laiesz 'flying' P-liners fleet. In 1946 she was surrendered to the Soviet union as war reparations, she still is under Russian ownership today and is employed as a sail training ship but with the ongoing world politics and wars is probably making her operation very difficult and not welcome to many ports and events. It is a pity for the sailors as they are not at fault in this situation.
As a footnote: I also did post these on a tall ship forum and a bunch of Argentinian members went bananas over the Falklands vs Malvinas name. As I understand is that historically these islands have never been populated by Argentines, but the sovereignty dispute has been ongoing since 1832 with United Kingdom. When I was there in 2023 it seemed to me that the Falklanders were more than capable of managing their own affairs. Acc to Wikipedia the population these days is divided chiefly by native islanders of nearly 60%, then British 30%, Chilean 5% and then the rest (also Argentines) by other nationalities.
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