A Fine Presentation Half Hull Model of the Hawthornbank, launched in 1889 and Built by Russell and Co of Greenock and Glasgow for Andrew Weir of Glasgow

A Fine Presentation Half Hull Model of the Hawthornbank, launched in 1889 and Built by Russell and Co of Greenock and Glasgow for Andrew Weir of Glasgow 

A fine and important half hull model of the Hawthornbank, built for Andrew Weir and Co of Glasgow in 1889. Contained in its original, and highly unusual, bowfronted case with patinated brass fittings and raised on a later stand. English, 1889.

Amongst the first mentions of this fine vessel in the Scottish newspapers appears to be an article in the Greenock Telegraph and Clyde Shipping Gazette, 20^th of September 1889, the paper mentioning that ‘The new ship Hawthornbank’ was ‘launched about the middle of the month by Messrs. Russell and Co. for Messrs. Andrew Weir and Co’. Earlier in the month, on the 17^th of September, the Liverpool Journal of Commerce described the launch of the vessel as follows ‘There was launched on Saturday from the East-end shipbuilding yard of Messrs. Russell and Co., of Port-Glasgow, a three-masted steel sailing barque, named the Hawthornbank, built to the order of Andrew Weir and Co., Glasgow. Her dimensions are:- Length, 230 feet ; breadth, 26 feet ; depth, 21 feet 6 inches ; 1,320 tons’.

The Liverpool Journal of Commerce records Hawthornbank arriving in Vancouver Canada from Java in the 11^th of April 1891 edition, mention being made of the fact that the crossing had been difficult. She arrived ‘with damage; part of the cargo was jettisoned’. Thankfully other operations were more straightforward and the vessel was certainly still in operation in 1895 when an advert in the Fife Free Press, 27^th of July, offered the opportunity to buy 2 64ths  of the shares in the ship, described as ‘the sailing ship, managed by A. Weir and Co., Glasgow’.

The scope of the vast voyages undertaken by the vessel are underlined by entries in the shipping sections of the press. The Liverpool Journal of Commerce, 9^th of March 1899, recorded Hawthornbank having left San Francisco en route to Queenstown for example.

In 1903 Hawthornbank, still operated by Weir and Co. but now based out of Swansea, was involved in a serious collision ‘with her stern seriously damaged and headgear and fore-topmast gone’ according to a report in the Western Mail, on the 17^th of October of that year. Even this unlucky event did not put an end to the vessel’s seafaring career as by November of that same year she was recorded arriving at West India Dock from Antwerp. In this latter period the vessel was captained by Alex S. Noble of Peterhead who had previously been first mate on the Hawthornbank for 5 ½ years. Noble died on the 1^st of January 1904. Operating with a new captain in charge, Hawthornbank was still in constant demand in 1907, a voyage from Bilbao to London terminating in April of that year. In 1910 she was sold to the Norwegian firm J.A.Henschien and she operated successfully until sold to the Danish shipping company Motorselsk. of Marienborg in 1915. She was sunk by a German submarine whilst operating off of the Scottish coast in 1917 with the loss of 9 lives, this enemy action ending the remarkable 27 year career of this fine servant of the seas.

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