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Lot Essay
The Lynton was widely acknowledged to be one of the most handsome barques ever to come out of a Mersey yard. Built by Evans of Liverpool in 1894, she was a huge steel four-master registered at 2,531 tons gross and measured 300 feet in length with a 43½ foot beam. Beautifully fitted out and finished with a plethora of carved teak, her rig had several particularly distinctive features and she proved a very good sailer, especially when close-hauled, despite her deadweight. Frequently logging 11 knots, she was one of the fastest bulk-carriers afloat and spent her first five years in the Calcutta jute trade under Captain Fraser.
Sold by Johnston, Sproule & Co., her original owners, in 1899, she was then owned by W. Montgomery of London until 1906 when she was bought by Thomas Shute for £11,000. This was the highest price paid that year for any British sailing ship and was indicative of her continuing usefulness in a world increasingly dominated by steam. Her new owner put her into the South American nitrate trade where she spent eight colourful years which included several bruising South Atlantic/Cape Horn passages and a record run from Iquique (Chile) to the mouth of the Elbe in 95 days just before the Great War. Sold to Russian owners in 1914, she was one of the many saililng vessels to become wartime losses when she was torpedoed and sunk off the south coast of Ireland whilst on passage from Pensacola to the Clyde on 21st May 1917.
Sold by Johnston, Sproule & Co., her original owners, in 1899, she was then owned by W. Montgomery of London until 1906 when she was bought by Thomas Shute for £11,000. This was the highest price paid that year for any British sailing ship and was indicative of her continuing usefulness in a world increasingly dominated by steam. Her new owner put her into the South American nitrate trade where she spent eight colourful years which included several bruising South Atlantic/Cape Horn passages and a record run from Iquique (Chile) to the mouth of the Elbe in 95 days just before the Great War. Sold to Russian owners in 1914, she was one of the many saililng vessels to become wartime losses when she was torpedoed and sunk off the south coast of Ireland whilst on passage from Pensacola to the Clyde on 21st May 1917.