Built as steel 4 masted barque under yard No 57 by the yard of Mackie and Thomson at Glasgow for Andrew Weir and Co. (Bank Line), Glasgow.
21 September 1892 launched under the name OLIVEBANK.
Tonnage 2.824 gross, 2.647 net, dim. 326.0 x 43.1 x 24.5ft.
Oct. 1892 completed.
Together with her sister the CEDARBANK she were the pride of the Bank Line.
Maiden voyage under command of Capt. J.N. Petrie.
In 1900 she made a quick passage from Melbourne to Falmouth in 87 days.
1909 Made a passage from Santa Rosalia, California to Newcastle N.S.W. in 60 days.
25 February 1911, when under command of Capt. David George her cargo of coal caught fire in the harbour of Santa Rosalia, she grounded due to the amount of water pumped in to extinguish the fire.
She was refloated and repaired but on 29 June 1911 at the same port she was thrown against a breakwater by a hurricane and sustained minor damage to her stern and rudder. One man of her crew was killed in the accident.
During 1913 she made a passage from Callao to Newcastle N.S.W. in 56 days and back to Antofagasta in 52 days, then she was sold in August 1913 to A/S Olivebank (E Monsen and Co. managers) at Tvedestrand, Norway.
September 1916 sold to Tvedestrands Rederi A/S (J.A. Henschien, manager), Tvedestrand for NKr. 935.000.
1918 Sold to Christianssands Shipping Co. Ltd., Kristiansand, Norway.
September 1920 sold to Skibs A/S Otra (Lars Jørgensen manager), Kristiansand.
August 1922 sold for 85.000 Kroner to A/S Caledonia (John J Lorentzen, Kristiania (Oslo), Norway, renamed CALEDONIA.
1923 Sailed from Campbellton to Adelaide in 122 days.
1924 Sailed from Melbourne to Queenstown in 113 days. (Basil Lubbock gives the year 1925 for this voyage.)
October 1924 sold to Captain Gustav Erikson at Mariehamn, renamed again OLIVEBANK, made her first voyage for Erikson under command of Captain K Tørberg.
1924 Sailed from Cardiff, U.K to Port Lincoln in 93 days, made that voyage in ballast.
24 April 1926, she sailed in ballast from Melbourne for the Seychelles to load guano for New Zealand. Failing to round Cape Leeuwin, the captain turned round and sailed through the Torres Straits, arriving at Mahe on 27 June after a passage of 64 days. At that time it was said that she was the largest sailing vessel ever went through the Torrens Straits.
Sailed again from Mahe on 16 August and after a passage of 89 days she arrived at Dunedin, New Zealand on 13 Nov.
Thereafter mostly used in the grain trade from Australia to Europe till World War II.
After she had discharged her cargo of wheat from Australia at Barry Docks, Captain Carl Granith received orders to proceed to Mariehamn her homeport.
29 August 1939 sailed from Barry in ballast, with a total of 21 crew, some crewmembers had left the ship at Barry to be in time for the start of the Navigation School in Finland.
During the voyage on 3 September war was declared by England and France on Germany
Wind was good and the captain decided to proceed into the North Sea. The tarpaulin on hatch No 4 was painted with the Finish colours, and the lifeboats ware made ready. Lookout was doubled at the forecastle day and night.
Near Dover a British destroyer hauled her, but not any information on minefields were given to the vessel. When sailing in the North Sea they passed all kinds of wreckage.
08 September in an position of about 105 miles west by south from Bovbjerg, it was nice weather windforce 3, when the lookout on the forecastle did give three strokes on the bell, and shouted “mine dead ahead”, the captain ordered hard starboard. All hands were called on deck, and then many mines were discovered in the water around the OLIVEBANK. After 15 minutes to try to get out of the minefield she was hit by a hidden mine. The OLIVEBANK got a heavy list to port, several yards fell down on deck and the ship began rapidly to sink. Before the lifeboats could be lowered the ship sank, and the crew had to jump over the side and had to swim away from the sinking vessel to avoid the suction. At the time of the explosion not one of the crew was wearing a lifebelt, after the vessel sank only a few of the crew were swimming around trying to fetch something of the floating wreckage to hold fast to. After a few moments a yard vertically stuck up from the water as a spar-buoy. It was the fore-upper-topsail yard which was sticking out of the water for about three meters. Seven men of the crew reached the mast, the second and third mate, 4 deckboys and an able seaman, 14 men were lost under which Captain Granith and the first mate, who was seen drifting on a lifeboat tank, but never seen again.
The men on the mast lashed themselves to the yard with ropes and a saved painter of a lifeboat.
The men on the mast were hungry and thirsty, sometimes the waves broke over them and life was a nightmare, after a night with much hardship at least daylight came for the shivering men. In the distance a big steamer passed but the men were not noticed, also a German airplane low flying passed but they were not seen. Hunger, cold, thirst and tiredness, which caused intense drowsiness.
The day slowly passed and a new night came over the men, now half in trance and half in consciousness, nobody was talking, they could hardly think. One of the men got hysterical and tried to cut his pulse but the other men succeeded in twisting the knife from his hand and calmed him down.
The night passed slowly, it was a pitch dark night, around midnight a light was seen, it was a fishing vessel, the men shouted in the hope they would be heard. They even thought it might be possible for one to swim to the vessel not far away, but they were not strong enough. Nobody heard the cries for help, and the only hope was that the vessel would be still around when daylight came.
When daylight came they started to wave with a shirt, but the vessel steered away from the desperate men.
Suddenly the trawler turned and headed straight for the men. Later they heard that first the trawler crew tought that it was a German U-boat. But at least they understood that it were sailors in distress.
The trawler stopped near and lowered a dinghy and rowed to the men on the mast. Two men at a time were transported to the trawler. It was a very difficult operation; they were so frozen, tired and stiff that they were unable to help. When the 7 men were save on board the Danish trawler TALONA from Esbjerg under command of Capt. Soren Hansen, the vessel steamed to Esbjerg and 11 September they landed at that port, and sent to the sailors home for shelter and new clothes. The consulate of Finland informed the authorities in Finland; thereafter their voyage home was arranged.
Tuvalu 1981 50c sg167, scott?
Solomon Islands 1984, 12c sg519, scott?
Sources Bank Line 1885-1985 by H.S. Appleyard. Last part mostly from an article in The Dog Watch 1979 by one of the survivors, the a.b. Evert Blomquist, later one of the captains on Eriksons ships.
The Last of the Windjammers by Basil Lubbock.
http://pc-78-120.udac.se:8001/WWW/Nauti ... 1892).html