The lady, The Scottish Lady, began her life a graceful clipper ship, ended it a barge in the Gulf of Alaska. With her graceful female figurehead out front, the proud Lady plied the seven seas for decades. Dismasted in a typhoon out of Manilla in 1871, she recovered (with help from shipyards, of course) and sailed on. The age of sail moved into the age of steam. Dismasted again off the east coast of the United States in 1899, the Lady fell from grace.
The Alaska Packer’s Association bought her and put her to work between Alaska and San Francisco, carrying fish from Alaska canneries. When a lady starts downhill, things move fast.
In 1926 a cement company put her to work hauling their products, converted her to a barge. Then came a reprieve, of sorts. Still another new owner put the Lady back to work as a ship, hauling lumber to South Africa.
Pearl Harbor day found her at the end of a towline, heading for an outfitting dock in Seattle. In drydock workers refitted her as a four-mast schooner, replaced her masts with solid sticks of Douglas Fir. New sails would come and she would be ready for launch by May 1.
Then the civilian contractors trying to get equipment to Alaska for their work on the Highway found her. The government stepped in and relegated the proud old girl to the end of a towline. Again. She wouldn’t need the new sails. And she didn’t need the graceful lady poised on her bow. Workers removed the figurehead.
More on getting civilians to Alaska
After the Highway Project workers scuttled her—or mercifully sent her to rest at the bottom of the Pacific—depending on your point of view.
Towing barges through the Gulf of Alaska Today
One of your funniest, and best. Wonder what happened to the figurehead?There’s figurehead museum in Mystic CT; maybe she’s there.
did my comment/question come through? I got a failure notice