Ama Begoñakoa

A four-masted steel barque built in 1902 by Archibald McMillan & Sons, Dumbarton, at a cost of £ 30.000. Dimensions 91,44×13,15×7,51 meters [300'0"×43'2"×24'8"] and tonnage 2516 GRT and 2356 NRT. Equipped with two deeptanks midships with a total capacity of 1500 tons of water ballast.

Rigged with royal sails over double top- and topgallant sails.

1902 July: Launched at the shipyard of A. McMillan & Sons, Dumbarton, for Compania Navigazion Sota y Aznar, Montevideo, as a sail training ship. Captain T. de Undabarrena.
1910 June: Sold to Devitt & Moore, London, and was renamed Medway. Captain Robert Jackson, ex first mate of the Port Jackson was given command of the ship.
1910 August 5 — November 19: Sailed from London to Sydney in 106 days.
1911 February 8 — May 21: Sailed from Sydney with a cargo of wool and tallow in casks to London in 102 days.
1911 August: Sailed from London to Sydney.
1912 January 16: Sailed from Sydney to Falmouth for orders in 101 days.
1912: Transferred to Devitt & Moores Ocean Training Ships Ltd.
1912 July 9 — August 25: Sailed from Lisbon to New York in 47 days.
1912 October 13 — February 19: Sailed from New York with 93.460 cases of oil for Adelaide where she arrived after 129 days.
1913 May 20 — September 20: Sailed from Sydney with 45.087 bags of wheat to Falmouth for orders in 125 days.
1914 July 20 — November 13: Sailed from Sydney with a cargo of wheat for Falmouth for orders where she arrived after 116 days.
1915 April 22 — July 27: Sailed from Birkenhead with 3630 tons of steal rails for Hobart, Tasmania, where she arrived after a passage of 95 days. Captain David Williams.
1915 September 27 — December 18: Sailed from Hobart in ballast to Portland, Oregon, in 82 days.
1916 January 5 — May 26: Sailed from Portland, OR, with a cargo of wheat to Falmouth in 142 days. At Falmouth she got orders for Bordeaux.
1916 September 11: Sailed from Barry with a cargo of 202 tons general cargo, 1906 tons of cement, and 1543 tons of coal for St Vincent, Cape Verde Islands and Santos where she arrived on November 10.
1916 December 29 — January 30: Sailed from Santos to Tocopilla in 52 days.
1917 February 19 — April 3: Sailed from Tocopilla to Cape Town in 43 days with a cargo of 3700 tons of nitrate. According to Course this is the fastest passage on record between the two ports.
1917 May 1 — July 2: Sailed from Cape Town in ballast to Tocopilla in 62 days. Another record according to Course.
1917 July 21 — September 20: Tocopilla to Durban 61 days.
1917 November 21 — January 24: Durban to Iquique in 65 days.
1918 February 14 — April 12: Iquique to Cape Town 57 days.
1918: Appropriated in Cape Town by the British Government and was rebuilt as a motortanker at Hong Kong.
1920: Sold to Anglo Saxon Petroleum Co., London, for £ 41.000.
1922: Was renamed Myr Shell.
1933: Sold for £ 1500. Broken up in Japan after having served as a depot ship in Singapore.

References:

Four- and five masted ships, general references.
Course, A.G.: Painted Ports. The story of the ships of Messrs Devitt and Moore.
Hollis & Carter, London, 1961.
Underhill, Harold A.: Sail Training and Cadet Ships.
Brown, Son & Ferguson, Glasgow, 1953.

Updated 1998-06-22 by Lars Bruzelius.

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