LEKT GLENGOWAN

1895 Built by Anderson Rodgers & Co. Ltd., Port Glasgow as ironhulled three masted sailing ship GLENGOWAN for Archibald Sterling & Co. Ltd., Glasgow. After loading full cargo of coal at Swansea for order San Francisco - her maiden voyage ended in disaster when the cargo caught fire in the South Atlantic wich forced Captain Doughty to head for Falkland Islands in an attempt to save the ship. She arrived in Port Stanley on 17/12-1895 but was scuttled the following day in shallow waters at Whalebone Cove. Extract from the Falkland Islands Shipping Records: ”Ship came in with cargo on fire, put ashore at East end of Stanley and condemned”. 1909 Purchased by Chr. Salvesen & Co., Leith and towed to the company’s shore-station at New Island for use as coal storage hulk. 1910 During the 1910/11 whaling season manager Andreas Nilsen decided to make a large gap in the vessel’s stern to allow 24” gauge railway coal wagons being rolled directly into the ship to ease unloading the coal. This construction gave mr. Nilsen the idea to do a somewhat similar arrangement for winching whales aboard factory ships – but without realizing his plan. The whaling personality Petter Sørlle must have been inspired by Nilsen’s idea eight years later when he designed and patented the stern slip for factory ships, (but not realised before 1924 during the convertion of the Fl/F LANCING at the Framnæs mek. Værksted, Sandefjord.). 1916 The New Island shore station closed down, and most of the plant equipment was shipped to Leith Harbour, South Georgia. The GLENGOWAN was left on her own and sank at her moorings. Parts of her structure is still visible per 2010