LETTERS advisor Norman Brouwer fo r their advice.
If yo u ca n add to the conversation, please e-m ail us at editorial@seahistory.org, and we'll put yo u in touch with the respective parties . CUMMING: The County of Kinross ( 17 19 tons) was, due to its large carrying capacity, "convenience of handling," and seaworthiness, reckoned by many to have been the most successful of 12 four-masted sister ships. It proved a very "cost-effective" competitor with steam for its 28- 1/2 years in the service of its owners, R&J Craig of Glasgow (1860-1943) . An earlier sistership of the County of Kinross (No. 78570) was, of course, the County of Peebles (No. 71 742), launched on 5 July 1875 . She was the very first true four-masted full-rig sailing ship m ade of iron. My great-great-grandfather, Captain Andrew Miller of Perth, Scodand, was the senior mas ter in the Craig fleet of28 ships. H e was also the first master of the County of Peebles. That ship has survived as the Munoz Gamero-now a breakwater, but still recognizable, in Punta Arenas, Chile. I have been researching the R&J Craig fleet, the "Scottish East India Line," for some years. It wo uld be enormously fulfilling to find further material on this sm all fleet of 12 four-masters. STANFORD: Norman Brouwer, author of The International Register of H istoric Ships, tells us the former County of Kinross was still working as a sandbarge in 1950. No other trace of her is known here. County ofKinross was one of a class of fo ur-masted full-rigged ships, one of which, the Falls of Clyde (1878) survives with o riginal rig restored, as a floating exhibit at the H awaii Maritime Center. These four-masted full -riggers are very interesting ships. Americans who sailed in Falls of Clyde spoke of the hellish co nfusion of so many mas ts and yards crammed in to ships that never exceeded 2,000 tons. The word I get is that she handled much better as a fo ur-masted barque. Interestingly enough , Alan Villiers tells us that both the great Captains Hilgendorf and Miethe of the big five- mas ted barque Potosi refused command of the five-masted ship Preussen-with those extra yards banging about and also the lack of a substantial spanker
6
We Welcome Your Letters! E-mail: editorial@seahistory.org or send m ail to: Editor, Sea H istory, 7 Timberknoll Rd., Pocasset, MA 02559 to help put her abo ut in racki ng. (This contrasts with Villi ers's earlier depi ction of Preussen as the ultimate sailing ship, in The war with Cape H orn (1 97 1). In the fin al chapters, after he m et with Ge rma n captains, he lands on her like a ton of bricks.) It is interesting that the ships generally credited with opening the ocean wo rld were actually what we today call "barques"fore and main square, mizzen fore-and-aft
County ofKinross
(i.e. Santa Maria, Golden H ind, Mayflower, even Endeavour-con verted from a brig to gain the extra fore-and-aft sail aft). From the late 1400s through the 1700s, these vessels were called "ships." Precisionists in the 1800s started classifying ships strictly by rig, and so the nam e "ship" was restricted to the pure square-rigger. Donald McKay, adding a fourth m as t to the superclipper Great Republic, kept squares on the first three m as ts and added a fore-and-aft fourth mast-what we today wo uld call a four-m as ted barque. But he called her "shipentine," borrowing from barquentine, meaning a ship square-rigged only on the foremast, the rest all fore-and-aft.
1he barquentine was never very popular in the US, but West Coast builders built several, wanting the schooner rig-for sailing north against the wind, and a squarerigged m as t-for the return trip south to give the steadying drive of that rig running down the coast. In conclusion, Villiers also felt the 2, 170-ton mtvertree (So uthampton , 1885), now in New Yo rk, should have been a barque-that is a three-m as ted barque wi th her m izzen simply converted to fore-and-aft rig, which, of course, was done to quite a few fu ll-riggers, to save labor and rigging costs with this simpler rig. She should have had double topgallants, instead of the "man-killing" single t'gans'ls with their 40-foo t drop. Clearly her Leyland Brothers owners were devoted to the full-r igged ship. Indeed, they had specified a main skysail for the wavertree in 1885 , for which we found the extra bolt-holes for an additional backstay in the sheerstrake but have no proof she ever carried it. Long after Villiers left us, I noticed that the model of the Tusitala (Scots built in 1882 under the name lnveruglas) in India House in New York was a pure full-rigger, unsullied by any vestige of a fore-and-aft spanker! I've since looked at every photo we have of this gallant vessel, the last fullrigger to carry the American flag in regular peace-time commerce, and none show her rigged with a spanker. Yo u'd have thought somebody wo uld have added this very useful sail to her wardrobe, but eviden tly no one ever did.
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