Euterpe in Storm
RD-026
The Euterpe began her life as a full rigged ship on the stocks at Ramsey Shipyard in the Isle of Man in 1863. Iron ships were experiments of sorts then, with most vessels still being built of wood. Within five months of laying her keel, the ship was launched into her element. She bore the name Euterpe, after the Greek goddess of music.
She began her sailing life with two near-disastrous voyages to India. On her first trip she suffered a collision and a mutiny. On her second trip, a cyclone caught Euterpe in the Bay of Bengal, and with her topmasts cut away, she barely made port. Shortly afterward, her first captain died on board and was buried at sea.
After such a hard luck beginning, Euterpe settled down and made four more voyages to India as a cargo ship. In 1871 she was purchased by the Shaw Savill line of London and embarked on a quarter century of hauling emigrants to New Zealand, sometimes also touching Australia, California and Chile. She made 21 circumnavigations in this service, some of them lasting up to a year. It was rugged voyaging, with the little iron ship battling through terrific gales, "labouring and rolling in a most distressing manner," according to her log.
The Euterpe was sold to American owners in 1898, and in 1902, was re-rigged as a three masted bark, renamed the Star of India in 1906 and commenced sailing from Oakland, California to the Bering Sea each spring with a load of fishermen, cannery hands, box shook and tin plate. She returned each fall laden with canned salmon. This went on until 1923 when she was laid up by her owners the Alaska Packers.
For over 30 years she was left to the elements until being saved by enthusiastic group of maritime people in 1957. For the next twenty years they labored to restore the Star of India and in 1976 the fully restored ship put to sea for the first time in fifty years. She now is the showcase at the San Diego Maritime Museum (source: Maritime Museum of San Diego, www.sdmaritime.com)
This painting by Capt. Richard DeRosset depicts the Euterpe under storm sails in a full gale.