CAPRICORN wreck

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aukepalmhof
Posts: 7771
Joined: Thu Apr 02, 2009 1:28 am

CAPRICORN wreck

Post by aukepalmhof » Thu Aug 20, 2009 9:24 pm

Built as a wooden three-masted barque in 1859 by Cox& Son at Bideford, Devon, U.K. for Madge & Co., Swansea.
Launched under the name CAPRICORN.
Tonnage 390 tons. Dim. 124.0 x 27.0 x 17.9ft.
Port of registry Swansea.

Remained with the same owner till sold in the Falklands. Madge was a Swansea grocer, who had entered the ship owning business, jointly owned by a number of Swansea tradesmen, holding shares in the vessel.
She was specially built for the copper ore trade from South America
Virtually all her south bound voyages were South Wales/West Coast South America with coal

In the end of 1881 the CAPRICORN sailed from Swansea, loaded with a cargo of coal for Santiago, Chile.
By February she was about 100 miles off Cape Horn, were she met very heavy weather and high seas. At that time the captain was informed that the cargo of coal in the hold was on fire.
The master decided to look for shelter under the lee of Staten Island, to extinguish the fire, but when he arrived there the fire had spread so much, that the only option was to scuttle her in shallow water. After the fire was extinguish, the seawater was pumped out, and the barque was refloated.

During the bad weather much damage was caused, and the fire and scuttling compelled the master to sail to the Falkland Islands for repair.
After she arrived at Port Stanley she was surveyed, and the repair was higher than the value of the vessel, and she was condemned as unseaworthy on 19th September 1882.

Purchased by Messrs. Dean, for £ 500 for use as a storage hulk and lighter. She was kept afloat for many years in Port Stanley.
During 1942 she was shifted to the place she now occupies and scuttled for use as a jetty, and was used by the troops stationed there during World War II.

Not much is left of this pretty little barque, her remains can be found a little to the eastward of the Falkland Island Government Air Service hangar, of all the hulks that remain in the harbour, she is the most unrecognizable.

Falkland Islands 1982 13p sg418, scott?

Source: Condemned at Stanley by John Smith. Info received from Mr. John D. Stevenson.
Attachments
tmpFF.jpg

aukepalmhof
Posts: 7771
Joined: Thu Apr 02, 2009 1:28 am

Re: CAPRICORN wreck

Post by aukepalmhof » Wed Mar 29, 2017 8:42 pm

CAPRICORN
The bones of the 390-ton wooden barque CAPRICORN are still visible close to site of the old Beaver floatplane hangar along Ross Road West in Stanley. She was built in Swansea for the copper ore trade in 1859. In February 1882, outbound from South Wales, her cargo of coal ignited in heavy weather off Cape Horn. She hastened to Staten Island where she was scuttled in shallow water to dowse the blaze. After being pumped out and re-floated she made sail for Stanley whereupon she was condemned as unseaworthy. She gained various employments as a lighter, storage hulk and finally a jetty head for the military garrison during the Second World War. CAPRICORN was stripped for firewood in 1948. At 157 years of age she continues to earn her keep as a part-time tourist attraction.

Falkland Islands 2017 £1.22 sg?, scott?
Source: Falkland Island Post.
Attachments
2017 shipswrecks falklands.jpg

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