Balclutha

Balclutha. . was built in Scotland for the San Francisco grain trade. From the time of her launching, in 1886, until 1890 she was employed in transporting the grain harvests of California's interior valleys to the ports of Europe. , "Although the building and use of steamships increased on both sides of the ocean during this period the sailing ship par excellence, the great square rigger, did not disappear from the longer routes of commerce. The development of the Pacific coast of the United States opened a new traffic for the noble white-winged three masters. The grain of the Pacific slope could not bear the railway charge to the East, but it could bear the ocean rate around Cape Horn. , To San Francisco and Portland now flocked the largest and best sailing vessels of all the maritime nations of the world. Grain was a treacherous cargo liable to shift if loaded in bulk, and alway imposing a severe strain on the hull that conveyed it. Only the strongest and most powerful ships and experienced seamen were fit for the 14000 mile voyage around the stormy Cape. , It was a contest of truly Olympian dignity, - of the best ships of many flags with each other and the elements. Out through the Golden Gate they rode every year southward bound, the long lean iron models of Liverpool and Glasgow, the broader waist wooden New Englanders, the sturdy, careful Norwegian and German ships and here and there a graceful Frenchman or Italian. The British were the most numerous, next came the Americans. The other flags were small by comparison. In this splendid grain trade there sailed from San Francisco for Europe in 1881-85, 761 British iron ships and 418 American ships." -- from "The American Merchant Marine" by Winthrop Marvin