FAMOUS BARQUE SOLD

Dominion, Volume 18, Issue 183, 29 April 1924, Page 11

FAMOUS BARQUE SOLD

■ ♦— —— MUSCOOTA JOINS HULK FLEET. The American four-masted barque Muscoota, which has been idle ill Sydney Harbour since the end of 1922, has been sold to the Wallarah Coal Company, Ltd., which will convert her for use as a coal hulk. The Muscoota (says the “Sydney Morning Herald”) is a well-known figure on the harbour, having been anchored in Doublo Bay since January, 1923, and has had a long and varied career. The vessel was launched at Liverpool in 1888, and was christened by Queen Victoria. On her bows she carried a fine figurehead representing Queen Victoria bear; ing in ner hand the red rose of England. Misfortune overtook the vessel early in her career, and during one of her early voyages her captain was murdered. Soon afterwards Tier owners disposed of her, and her name was changed to Ottawa. At a later stage she was sold to German owners, who called her the Bertha, but it was not until she came under American ownership that she was known as the Muscoota. It is about four years since the Muscoota arrived in Newcastle, and, after discharging her cargo, was arrested for debt. For ten months laden with a new cargo of coal, she was moored in Newcastle Harbour pending the settlement of the claims, and during her stay she changed hands for £7OOO, the new owners being a syndicate in which Newcastle business men were u forested. The vessel remained, however, under the American flag. Off Wilson’s Promontory soon after midnight on Christmas, 1922, the Muscoota collided with the Norwegian steamer Yarra amidsrps and lost her figurehead, which remained on the deck of the Yarra. The Yarra was subsequently proved to be in the wrong, and damages were awarded the Muscoota. The vessel had meanwhile arrived in Sydney and undergone survey. She discharged her cargo of over one million feet of oregon, and has not been in commission since. Once there was a proposal to convert the barque into a schooner, but it was found that as she was an American ship it was obligatory on the owners to pay the United States Treasury 25 per cent, of any sum spent » in repairs in a port outside the United States. Hence it was impossible to do anything to the ship, except at prohibitive cost, and she has been sold to be used as a coal hulk.