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16 November 2023 — Star of India Celebrates 160 Years
For sixty years she roamed the highways of the seven seas, round the Horn and round the Cape, running her Easting Down (as sailors used to say) in violent gales, sweltering in the Doldrums calm on the Line, nudging the ice aside with her sharp iron cutwater in cold Alaskan seas. On 22 round voyages, she carried immigrants to New Zealand—a long, hard haul outwards from England—for Shaw Saville’s, a famous British shipping line. Jute from India, sugar from Hawaii, lumber from Puget Sound filling the huge hold and piled high on the main deck, coal for San Francisco, canned salmon by the thousand cases for that same port for the famed Alaska Packers’ Line—all these cargoes she safely delivered. All these hard voyages she safely made, without fuss, with little bother, almost without incident—just an old iron “windjammer” going quietly and efficiently about her share of the world’s sea-borne trade. And finally the winds blew her to San Diego, where she is—I hope—to see her second century out, and inspiring relic off a great age, when strong wind blew in her stout rigging and men knew how to make effective use of it for the delivery of passengers and cargoes over long voyages at sea.
—Alan Villiers
When Alan Villiers penned his introduction to Star of India: The Log of an Iron Ship, he could only hope that the great barque would continue to serve as a treasured fixture of the San Diego waterfront, welcoming visitors from all over the world to explore a veteran sailing cargo ship. We think he would be pleased to see that, at 160 years old, she is indeed well into her second century, the Grand Dame of the museum’s collection of vessels, and a treasured member of our nation’s historic-ship fleet.
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The Maritime Museum of San Diego, the Star’s museum home, recognized that there was no better way to celebrate the ship’s 160th birthday on 14 November than a weekend of sail excursions, reminding us all that she is truly “the world’s oldest active sailing ship.” The birthday girl got underway off Point Loma at the entrance to San Diego harbor, accompanied by a fleet of historic and replica vessels representing 1,000 years of history. Southern California weather cooperated for a picture-perfect day parade of sail, including the museum’s topsail schooner Californian, a replica of a 19th-century US Revenue cutter; San Salvador, the recreation of Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo’s exploration vessel that visited what is now San Diego in 1542; the museum’s Mark ll Patrol Craft Fast (PCF) Swift Boat; and other smaller craft as escort vessels. Visiting ships that participated were the schooner Bill of Rights out of Chula Vista, California, and Hōkūleʻa, the Polynesian Voyaging Society’s deep-sea voyaging canoe.
Sea History editor Deirdre O’Regan was on hand for the festivities, which included a performance of the musical The Star of India, by members of the Cloideryn Northern Theatre from the Isle of Man. She tells us that: “of note was the efficiency, skill, and fun demonstrated by the museum’s volunteer sailing crew. Not once did they have to holler ‘avast’ because a line was fouled or a sail snagged on a piece of rigging. It was as if the ship sailed every day; you would never know that it was the first time she had been underway in 5 years.” It was a wonderful way to celebrate a birthday, and we would like to congratulate Star of India and wish her many happy returns of the day.
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“Not only did the all-volunteer sailing crew perform their duties without a hitch, they were clearly having a GREAT time and were thrilled to not only be sailing the ship. but to share their knowledge and experience with guests. It could truly be a ‘master class’ in attracting volunteers to come work for a museum in a way that is very helpful for the museum and its ships, but also in building a community. They were clearly bonded to the ship and to each other.”—Deirdre O’Regan
Photo: Mark Albertazzi
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The vessel we know today as Star of India was launched as the full-rigged iron-hulled ship Euterpe, named for the Greek goddess of music and lyric poetry, on 14 November 1863, at Gibson, McDonald, & Arnold shipyard in Ramsey, on the Isle of Man. She was described by Kenneth D. Reynard, the museum’s fleet captain who wrote about the ship in Sea History in the 70s, “astonishingly heavy of construction;” Lloyds insurance requirements were changed not long afterward, allowing for thinner hull plating going forward, in response to improvements in the production process.
Euterpe’s first voyage had a less-than-auspicious beginning. Just days after departing Liverpool for Calcutta, she collided with a brig, shattering the jibboom and damaging the foresail, jibs, and headgear. When the captain decided to carry out repairs underway, the crew threatened a work stoppage if he didn’t turn around and return to port for repairs. The ship was taken back to the United Kingdom—and the balking crewmembers were sentenced to fourteen days of hard labor. Once fixed up, Euterpe was on her way once more to Calcutta. She would continue service between England and India until her purchase in late 1871 by Shaw, Savill (later Shaw, Savill & Albion); she would be carrying emigrants to New Zealand. Journals of the emigrants from this period paint a particularly unflattering picture of the food; Mrs. Lillian Barry, passenger in 1874, would recall later that “the food at times was very bad and once when a complaint was made regarding the soup, and investigation revealed a man’s sock in the stock pot.” E. F. Owens, who had been a passenger in 1879, wrote: “Food became very short, and all who might recall the early days will remember its lack of variety. As a boy, I can well remember the excitement among the passengers when a rat pie was brought from the galley, and the crowd that followed it from the cook house to the fore part of the ship where the single men bunked.”
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The windjammer Euterpe at Port Chalmers, Otago, New Zealand in 1883. Photo: PD | |
In 1901 Euterpe was sold to the Alaska Packers Association (APA), which had been buying older sailing ships for the salmon canning industry. She was reconfigured as a barque to reduce the number of crew needed, and fitted out with a donkey engine. In the spring, the ship headed to Alaska carrying coal, tin plate, box shook (wooden slats from which to build boxes), oil for packing the fish in, coal for cooking fish, and the laborers who would catch the fish, fabricate cans and wooden boxes, can the fish, and load the canned product all back into the hold for the journey back to San Francisco in the fall. The ship, renamed Star of India in 1906 to conform with the APA’s preference for “Star” names, would make this annual journey until 1923, when she ended her career as a working vessel. | |
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The Polynesian Voyaging Society’s deep-sea voyaging canoe Hōkūleʻa was on hand to join in the festivities.
Photo: Mark Albertazzi
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She was purchased for the Zoological Society of San Diego for $9000 and towed to the San Diego waterfront in hopes of incorporating the ship in a planned aquarium project. The barque received a warm reception, and began taking on visitors for an admission fee of 25 cents. The committee managing the barque staged a fundraiser performance of HMS Pinafore,—but the net profit was $4.85. These efforts weren’t enough to pay the bills, and interest in the ship waned and the Depression only made matters worse. Star of India languished; her donkey engine was sold for scrap, and her rigging was removed during World War II at the insistence of the US Navy, to get it out of the way of training aircraft pilots. In 1957 Alan Villiers, in town for a speaking engagement, came out to visit Star of India, and his reaction to the sorry condition of the vessel, published in the local newspaper, stirred up renewed interest in her welfare. Slowly, in increments, the transformation of the ship began to take place. Captain Ken Reynard, who joined the work on Star of India in 1961, described it in Sea History:
We had more rust, dirt, and decay, and even skepticism, than anything else; but slowly the work progressed (and her debts as well) until by 30 May 1963 with all but her royals crossed, we opened to the public…. 14 November 1963 dawned gray and looked like rain in her 100th anniversary but the sky cleared and a grand party was held, with Captain Alan Villiers as honored guest. I had made a fore lower topsail for her, determined that on this occasion at least one sail would be set.
By 1976 she was fully restored and able to put to sea again, under the command of Captain Carl Bowman, to join other vessels in celebrating our nation’s bicentennial. The many well-wishers who gathered for the party this past weekend recognize Star of India’s long, varied career, the lives that she has touched, the hard work invested to restore her and keep her in exemplary condition, and the community that cares for her. That, indeed, is something to celebrate.
Extra Credit
Star of India: the log of an iron ship, by Jerry MacMullen
The Star is Reborn!, by Kenneth Reynard
Sea History Today is written by Shelley Reid, NMHS senior staff writer. Past issues can be read online by clicking here.
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