Category:Windward (ship, 1860)

Ship[edit]

• Built by: Stephen and Forbes, Peterhead
• Type: Three masted barque, carvel built from oak, greenheart and teak with iron plated bows, designed and fitted specifically for the Arctic seal and whale trade.
• Launched: Tuesday, January 10th, 1860.
• Length: 36 m
• Breadth: 8.8 m
• Depth: 5.05
• GRT: 321 tons
• 1866 Fitted with steam engines in order to compete more effectively with the steam whalers from other ports.

History[edit]

• 1860 Named: WINDWARD, the naming tastefully performed by Miss Mitchell, for William Mitchell, a successful ironmonger, in partnership with Captain David Ewan, a seasoned arctic whale ship master and fellow native of Peterhead
• 1860.02.25 Bound to the Greenland Sea, commanded by Capt. D Ewan, stranded on on the Ronheads rocks in leaving the harbour and remains (10 p.m.) opposite the mouth of the north Peterhead harbour. There was a strong gale from the south, the ship did not come round to the wind as she should have done to enable her to clear the rocks. The tide being at its height. The Captain had confided too much in the pilot (who is since dead). The certificates of the Captain and the mate were returned. The Windward was fully repaired and sea worthy in time to make a voyage to the Greenland sealing and whaling that year.
• 1894 Sold and served as supply vessel to the Jackson-Harmsworth Franz Joseph Land expedition (1894-1897) and during that time, in the summer of 1896, gained global fame as the ship that rescued and took home Norwegian explorer Fridtjof Nansen and his colleague Hjalmar Johansen after their failed attempt to reach the North Pole. She later served in Robert Peary's numerous arctic expeditions before making a brief return to the Scottish whaling trade.
• 1907.06 Struck a reef at Carey's Island, Davis Strait, during a whaling voyage.