Name Garlandstone

1.      What is the vessel’s ability to demonstrate history in her physical fabric?

Evidence for designs, functions, techniques, processes, styles, customs and habits or uses and associations in relation to events and people.  How early, intact or rare these features are may impact on significance.

GARLANDSTONE is a ketch built in 1903 to carry cargo under sail. She was carvel-built of timber from the Cotehele Estate, but was not finished and ready for sea until 1909. Her build reflects the traditions of the Tamar River area with a keel of English elm, pitch pine decks and her keelson made from teak almost certainly taken from the naval dockyard at Devonport.  She has little dead rise, quite a hard turn of bilge and is flush decked without a raised covering board. Her propulsion was initially by sail alone however by 1912 her after cabin was removed and replaced with an engine space containing the twin cylinder paraffin engine built by Brazil Straker & Co. Ltd. of Bristol.  In her later working life, her foretopmast was shortened and her sail area reduced. GARLANDSTONE was subject to a programme of conservation work in the 1990s with the help of a Heritage Lottery grant including: restoration of her frames, planking and stanchions, her ceiling planking and beam shelves, deck planking, deck beams and upstanding. The hatch coamings and companionways were replaced, her fo’c’sle and aft accommodation was fitted out, stern repairs were made and she was fully re-rigged.  However, since then her time as a static exhibit with no external protection has led to further deterioration and her interior is currently stripped with no bulkheads or engine and flood damage has contributed to the need for further conservation work.

2.      What are the vessel’s associational links for which there is no physical evidence?

Associations with people or places.  Off-ship research.

GARLANDSTONE was built in Devon by James Goss, one of the West Country’s finest shipbuilders, and is the last but one wooden merchant vessel built in Southern England.  As such, she has close associations with Cornwall, although she was first registered at the Port of Milford Haven in 1909.  During the First World War, GARLANDSTONE continued to trade around the ports of South Wales and the Bristol Channel, and on at least one occasion crossed the Irish Sea. She may also have been one of the many sailing vessels that transported coal from South Wales to the allied forces in France.  Between 1920 and 1941, GARLANDSTONE operated principally in the salt trade from Gloucester or the coal trade from Lydney to small ports on the south and west coasts of Ireland. In these years she operated for some time under the command of Micha Leszczynski from one of the great families of Poland. She also continued operating during the Second World War, being purchased in 1943 by Alfred Parkhouse of Braunton, Devon, a member of a well-known coastal sailing vessel owning family who also owned the ketch CLARA MAY.  In 1961 she was sold to a United States citizen and her British register was closed. Although she has mainly regional connections, her national significance is due to the fact that she is one of only two surviving coastal ketches of her kind.  She has been recorded on the National Register of Historic Vessels since 1996 and is part of the National Historic Fleet.

3.      How does the vessel’s shape or form combine and contribute to her function?

Overall aesthetic impact of the vessel, her lines, material she was built from and her setting.  Does she remain in her working environment?

GARLANDSTONE has been described as the finest and biggest vessel ever built by James Goss, and she was renowned for her beautiful shape and sailing design. She has a rounded counter stern, a sharp bow, and narrow deck planking which follows her curved sheer.  When launched, her accommodation was designed for practical purposes, with a fo'c'sle with bunks for two seamen, and an after cabin where the crew ate and the master was berthed. This configuration was altered in 1912 when the aft cabin was replaced to make room for a fitted engine.  Her hold gave her the capacity to carry 100 tons of cargo.  Today she is part of a small collection of Goss-built vessels conserved at Morwellham Quay, thus remaining in the West Country as the area with the closest association to her working life.

Source: NHS-UK team, 16 March 2016. 

This statement was developed as part of the Heritage Lottery funded First World War project. http://www.ww1britainssurvivingvessels.org.uk/