Colonial Empire

A four-masted steel barque built in 1902 by John Reed & Co., Whiteinch, Glasgow, Yard. No. 323.
Dimensions: 92,06×13,15×7,48 meters [302'1"×43'2"×24'7"] and tonnage: 2435 GRT and 2281 NRT. The four-masted barque Schürbek was a close sistership.

Rigged in jubilee fashion, i.e. with nothing above double top- and top-gallant sails. A close sistership to the four-masted barque Schürbek. Equipped with a donkey steam engine. One of the first ship to be equipped with bildge keels, these were nine inch high and 144 feet long. The builder's [?] plans are preserved at the Museum of Transport, Glasgow.

1902 February 10: Launched at the shipyard of John Reed & Co., Whiteinch, Glasgow, for G. Duncan & Co., London.
1902-1904: In command of Captain David Watson late of the same owner's barque Indian Empire.
1902 April 2 - June 20: Sailed from Cardiff to Mauritius in 79 days with a cargo of coal.
1902 October 16 - November 23: Sailed from Newcastle, NSW, to Valparaiso with a cargo of 3730 tons of coal.
1903 March 17: Sailed from Iquique for Dunkerque and arrived to Falmouth 102 days out.
1903 September 11 -: Sailed from London to Cape Town in 69 days.
1904 February 10 - May 19: Sailed from Melbourne to Falmouth f.o. in 98 days with a cargo of 33.928 sacks of grain.
1904-: Captain James Simpson late of the same owner's ship Indian Empire.
1910: Sold to Cook & Dundee, London.
1917: Sold to H.M. Grayson, London.
1917 September 27: Wrecked on the Thunderbolt Reef in the Bay of Angola at Cape Recife.

There is a picture of the ship in Sea Breezes Vol. IX (1926-27), p 355.

Updated 1997-06-17 by Lars Bruzelius.

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