E.R. STERLING

A 6 masted barqentine.

E. R. Sterling was built in 1883, and was a once a four-masted ship. She was a trading ship to India. She was orginally called Lord Wolsely.

In 1898, she was sold to a German ship company and re rigged as a bark. She was renamed Columbia.

In 1903, she was dismasted off Cape Flattery, and sold to a Vancouver company. She reverted to her original name.

Just three years later, she was sold again to another Vancouver owner and renamed yet again. She was named Everett G. Griggs and converted to a 6-masted barquentine. In other words, she set square sails or, the as it is more commonly called, the square rig, on her foremast, and set gaff sails or the fore and aft rig on her main, mizzen, spanker, jigger and driver masts. She had a crew of 17. She sailed in the lumber trade in this rig and in 1910 was sold to her namesake.

She was furnished for his family and his son took over as captain, keeping her in the lumber trade.

In 1927 she loaded wheat in Australia and set sail for London. Unfortunately, she never arrived at her intended destination.

Between the Falkland Islands and Cape Verde she was dismasted twice. On the second dismasting, she was forced into the Virgin Islands, but she had no repair shops available to her. A Dutch tug towed the damaged barquentine to London. She only had her jigger mast standing in one piece. All her other masts had been destroyed or were broken in half.

She was beyond fixing, and sold to the scrapyards.

Photo Credits: The Alexander Turnbull Library NZ