A HALF-BLOCK BUILDER'S MODEL FOR THE IRON SAILING SHIP JAMES CRAIG (Ex-CLAN MACLEOD), BUILT FOR T. DUNLOP & SONS BY BARTRAM & HASWELL, SUNDERLAND, 1874

carved from 1in. laminated yellow pine with ebonised topsides, boxwood stringing, finely carved female figurehead, cut-away bowsprit and masts, scored decks with lined deck housing as appropriate, mounted on blue-green painted display board with engraved brass builder's plate lower right (old wear, missing components) -- 12 x 54¾in. (30.5 x 139cm.) overall

An iron framed ship of 671 gross tons, the Clan Macleod was a typical barque-rigged cargo ship of her day and served with the Dunlop fleet from her launch until 1883 when sold to Sir Roderick Cameron who in turn sold her to Mr J.J. Craig of Auckland, New Zealand in 1899. He re-named her after eldest son in 1905 and sold her on in 1911. She continued plying an ever dwindling trade, becoming ever more uneconomic against steam propulsion and, in 1932 her last owner, the Catamaran Coal Mining Company (who had used her as a collier), gave up and abandoned her as a beached hulk at Recherche Bay, Tasmania. It seems her iron frames withstood the next forty years tolerably well as, in 1972, she was purchased by a trust and restored to her former glory. She now sails regularly from her home port of Sydney, Australia, as one of only four preserved square-rigged 'tall ships' built in the 19th Century fully 144 years since her launch in Sunderland.