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Description: | Case lid for waterline model of the Herzogin Cecilie (1902), a four masted barque. The lid is broken with the panes of glass stuck together with tape.
CA: BBC.
A diminutive model of one of the giants of the age of sail. The four-masted steel barque 'Herzogin Cecilie' (1902) is depicted here under full sail, steering a steady course, leaving a wake in the plaster sea that would look more convincing had the barque been a motor-powered ship. The model itself has also been rather heavy-handedly made, using gloss colours too strong for the scale of the object.
The vessel, and others like her, marked the ultimate development of the sailing ship, the culmination of a long evolution. She was built by Rickmers AG, Bremmerhaven, for Norddeutsche Lloyd, Bremen, as a sail training ship, carrying royals over double topgallant sails. At the end of the First World War she was handed over to the Chilean Navy.
She was returned to Germany in 1920 only to be handed over again, the following year, this time to the French Government as war reparation. Later that year she was sold to the Finnish shipowner Gustaf Erikson, of Mariehamn, and 'Herzogin Cecilie' soon became famous as his fastest sailing vessel on the Australian wheat run. With a multi-national crew of 26 she took part in the famous and fiercely competitive grain races. Her career came to an end in 1936 when she was stranded and wrecked at Bolt Head, Salcombe, on the south Devon coast. Today she is still known to the local community and to divers as a well-preserved wreck. | Publisher: | "http://collections.rmg.co.uk/" | Source: | Royal Museums Greenwich | Identifier: | http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections... | Go to resource |
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