Clippership WOOLAHRA Towing into Humboldt Bay, California, by Steam Tug RANGER, May 27, 1898

oil on canvas, 24" x 36"

SOLD

The Woolahra was what the British used to call a Colonial Clipper, being used in one of the colonies of the British Empire. She was built at Sunderland, England in 1875, and registered 942 tons. She was apparently owned by the Cowinlaw Brothers of Sydney, N.S.W. for her entire career.

 Earlier in her career she may have participated in the trade between the mother country and the colonies, but later in her life she ran coal from Newcastle, N.S.W. to San Francisco, and on at least three occasions, carried stone ballast to Eureka, California where she picked up cargos of lumber for Australia.

 She was towed across the bar in Humboldt Bay for the first time on January 26, 1897, by the tug Ranger, and was reported at that time to be the first vessel to have come to Humboldt Bay direct from Australia for lumber cargo. She was reported back to Humboldt Bay the following year having her picture taken by the photographer of the Humboldt Times on May 28, 1898. The Humboldt Times also reported that she was once more brought over the bar by Ranger on December 13, 1899.

It is recorded that she was wrecked on Tongue Point near Cape Terawhite, New Zealand while bound in ballast from Wellington to Kaipara to load lumber for Australia. She is said ti have wrecked within a half mile of a sheep station which was the only established living area for miles on the coast. The captain and a seaman were lost, the rest of the company getting safely back to shore. She is shown in the painting on Humboldt Bay, being towed by Ranger.