Kenilworth

A four-masted steel ship built in 1887 by J. Reid, Co., Port Glasgow. Dimensions: 91,49×13,12×7,36 meters [300'2"×43'1"×24'2"] and tonnage: 2308 GRT and 2243 NRT. Build with a flush deck and rigged with royals over double topgallant and top sails.

1887 March: Launched at the shipyard of J. Reid, & Co., Port Glasgow, for the Waverley Line (Williamson & Milligam), Liverpool. Command of the ship was given to Captain F. McNair, late of the same company's ship Cedric the Saxon.
1888 February 18 - March 30: Sailed from San Francisco to Newcastle, NSW, in 41 days.
1889 February 21 - July 28: Sailed from Liverpool to San Francisco in 128 days.
1889 August 26: Caught fire and burnt at McNeir's Warf at Port Costa, San Francisco The fire had broken out in a warehouse and spread to the Kenilworth and two wooden ships which drifted into the river and burned to the water's edge. The Kenilworth survived without serious damaged after having been beached full of water from the Mare Island fireboat. Abandoned to the underwriters as a constructional loss.
1889: Sold at auction to A. Sewall, & Co., New York. Repaired at the Union Iron Works at a cost of $45.000. Captain Baker was given command of the vessel by the new owners.
1898-1906: Captain W. Taylor.
1890 April 19 - July 29: Sailed from San Francisco with a cargo of 3404 tons of wheat to Liverpool in 101 days.
1906: Captain J.A. Amesbury.
1906 August 15: Left Philadelphia for San Francisco with a cargo of 3410 tons of coal.
1907 February 11: Put into Monte Video in distress after having lost her steering geer and received damaged to the rigging off Cape Horn and had to turn back.
1907 April 4: Left Monte Video for San Francisco after repairs.
1907 September 3: Returned to Rio de Janeiro in distress after 152 days at sea.
1907-1908: Sailed from Rio de Janeiro to San Francisco where she finally arrived after 88 days.
1908: Sold to Alaska Packers' Association, San Francisco, CA, and was renamed the Star of Scotland.
1917: Taken over by the U.S. Shipping Board and used in the California - Hawaii trade for the duration of the war after which she was returned to her owners.
1930: Sold to Arnold Pearce & Lew Lockhart, Los Angeles, and used as a fishing barge.
1938: Sold to A.C. Stralla, and was renamed to Rex. Used as a gambling ship off Santa Monica, CA.
1941: Sold to Frank A. Hellenthal, Santa Monica, CA, and was re-rigged as a six-mast schooner.
1942: Re-named to the Star of Scotland. Captain K. Flink.
1942 November 13: Sunk by shell fire by the German submarine U 159 some 900 miles West of Lüderitz Bay, Southwest Africa.

Although orginally rigged as a ship, she was soon reduced to a barque.

References:

Four- and five masted ships, general references.
Capt. Huycke : Star of Scotland, an American Ship, 1887-1942.
Newsletter of the North American Cape Horners, Vol. 1, No. 3, June, 1994. 45 pp, 6 plates.
John Lyman: The Star of Scotland, ex-Kenilworth.
The American Neptune Vol. 1, Salem, 1941. pp 333-344, ill., 4 plates, 1 plan.

Updated 1998-12-30 by Lars Bruzelius.

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