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Launch of the County of Roxburgh

Burrell Collection Photo Library

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Launch of the County of Roxburgh

An oil painting entitled Launch of the County of Roxburgh from Barclay Curle's Shipyard 1886 by John MacNiven (1849-1894). The ship is pictured slipping into the river in the distance, right, beyond the paddle steamer.

The County of Roxburgh was a four-masted full-rigged iron merchant ship that was built for the shipping company R & J Craig of West George Street. Launched in June 1886 from Barclay, Curle & Co's Clydeholm Shipyard at Whiteinch, she was intended for the Indian jute trade. The ship was wrecked in February 1906 on the Takaroa Atoll in the Tuamotu Archipelago, Polynesia, on a voyage from Caldera in Chile to Melbourne, Australia. Having lost her sails she drifted in a severe storm and could not avoid the atoll's reefs. At the beginning of the 21st century, the rusting wreck remains beached on the atoll shore.

A crowd is watching the launch on the left of the picture, from a section of the old towpath that stretched from Renfrew to Glasgow along the south bank of the River Clyde.

Reproduced with the permission of Glasgow City Council, Glasgow Museums

Keywords:
Barclay, Curle & Co, barques, Clydeholm Shipyard, County of Roxburgh, crowds, jute, merchant ships, oil paintings, paddle steamers, R & J Craig, River Clyde, sailing ships, ship launches, shipyards, towpaths



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