Grassendale

An iron full-rigged ship built in 1885 by R. Williamson & Son, Workington. Dimensions: 267'0"×39'1"×23'6" and tonnage: 1860 GRT, 1819 NRT and 1727 tons under deck. Rigged with royals over single topgallant and double top-sails.

1885: Launched at the shipyard of R. Williamson & Son, Workington, for R.W. Leyland & Co., Liverpool.
1906 June: Sold through Clarkson & Co. to Gabriel Granlund Jr, Rauma, Finland, for £ 10.000 and was renamed Imperator Aleksander II. [Walker has 1900]
1907: Sold to F. Lehtinen, Rauma, Finland.
1918: Sold to Oy Tonnage, Helsingfors.
1918 September: Sold to AB Svenska Handels- och Sjöfartskompaniet (Sven Låftman), Stockholm, for SEK 900.000 and was renamed Ernst. The Swedish tonnage figures were 1849 GRT, 1766 NRT and 2800 DWT.
1919 November 13: Sold to AB Harald Schüssler, Stockholm, for SEK 500.000.
1920 January 8: Transferred to Rederi AB Svenska Lloyd, Gothenburg, while in Santos. Captain Karl Petter Mattsson, Öregrund, was appointed her new master.
1920 January 15: Left Santos with a cargo of cakes [cattle-fodder].
1920 April 24: Arrived at Skagen where she got a pilot to navigate the minefields at Hertha's Flak. The requested steam-tug could not come due to a strike among the firemen. In the meantime the wind increased and the ship had to sail eastwards to avoid the mines.
1920 April 25: Struck a mine at Hertha's Flak in position 57°45,5' N and 11°5' E and sank at a depth of 45 meters.

References:

Square-rigged ships, general references.
Svenska järn- och stålseglare.
Båtologen Årg. 30 (1992).
Walker, David: Champion of Sail. R.W. Leyland and his Shipping Line.
Conway Maritime Press, London, 1986. 4to, 191 pp, ill.

Updated 1997-05-16 by Lars Bruzelius

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