The Star of India

THE STAR OF INDIA, the world’s oldest iron hulled sailing ship, now lives in San Diego well cared for by the San Diego Maritime Museum. Their web site says:

“The STAR OF INDIA is the world’s oldest active ship. She was built at Ramsey shipyard on the Isle of Man and launched as the Euterpe in 1863. She began her working life as a cargo ship in the India trade and was nearly lost on her first two voyages surviving a mutiny, collision, cyclone and the death of her captain. In 1871 she embarked on a quarter century of hauling emigrants to New Zealand. She circumnavigated the globe 21 times during this service.”

She was sold to Hawaiian owners in 1897, to Pacific Colonial Ship Co. in 1899, registered in the US the following year, and sold to the Alaska Packers’ Association in 1901. Renamed the Star Of India, she began carrying salmon then lumber until her last sailing season in 1923. The SDMM tells us that “…by 1923 steam power had replaced sails on merchant ships and the Star of India was laid up in Oakland.” A group of San Diegans led by Jerry MacMullen purchased the ship for $9,000.00 dollars and had her towed to San Diego in 1927.”

As a child during World War II, I knew the STAR as a rotting hulk along the embarcadero. After the war her masts were restepped. I was allowed aboard her on one birthday. Later I was able to give my kids the joy of climbing her decks on their birthdays in the early 1960’s. As we all grew older, the STAR grew to be a shabby shell of herself along the harbor front. Only in the late 1950’s was the STAR OF INDIA Auxiliary begun, and repairs were slow to start. Captain Carl Bowman doggedly pulled in the pennies and nickels, and eventually one sunny day in 1976, the STAR was ready to sail again.

That morning all was rush aboard the my mother’s yacht the MEGABOB. My mother and her husband Bob had planned on going out with the STAR when she sailed, but the food was late, the guests were late, and mother was in more than a dither. Slowly every corner of the yacht filled with the hoards of friends, cameras on shoulders, on the bridge, on tripods, and in hands not filled with hot coffee. Slowly the MEGABOB motored out to watch the STAR sail down the bay for the first time since 1927. Thousands of boats sailed with her that morning as accompaniment to a city wide celebration. In 1984 and again in 1986 the Star sailed with a huge flotilla of enthusiasts surrounding her. We were among them.

By 1988 my mother was too ill to go aboard the yacht any longer, and Bob never again took a large party of friends out to see the Star sail. Then for a period of several years, the STAR didn’t sail at all. Enthusiasm, fund raising, and hard work put her out to sea again.. The last few years she has sailed on a yearly basis but with only a small flotilla around her. This year she sailed in company with the Californian, a San Diego built craft that now belongs to the museum.

On a chill 2003 November morning, my husband and I watched tugs tow the STAR out to sea. Only a handful of boats accompanied her this cloudy day, and there were few bystanders to cheer her on. Only later in the afternoon were we able to drive to the top of Point Loma and watch her slowly move on the ocean’s surface far below us. She stood into the small airs around her almost alone on the giant expanse of sea. Timelessly she hung suspended taking our imaginations backwards into another age.

I’ve built an album of a few photographs showing the Star sailing from 1976 to the present. I apologize for the damage on the earlier pictures, and thank Blather for trading for a scanner. If you double click on the small image, not only will you get a larger picture but you can access a slideshow. Enjoy.

Star Of India links:

Star of India Photo Album

San Diego Maritime Museum

Manx Maritime History:Star of India

Euterpe

Alaskan Packers Association Fleet Listing.

Semiahmoo History: Alaskan Packers Association: Cannery.

Balclutha ex Star of Alaska

Euterpe to Star of India: With tongue in cheek