Old Photograph Falls of Halladale Ship River Clyde Scotland

Old photograph of Falls of Halladale ship in the River Clyde by Glasgow, Scotland. The Falls of Halladale was a four masted iron hulled barque that was built in 1886 for the long distance bulk carrier trade. She was built for the Falls Line, Wright, Breakenridge and Company, Glasgow, at the shipyard of Russell and Company, Greenock on the River Clyde, she was named after a rather small waterfall on the Halladale River in the Caithness district of Scotland. The Falls of Halladale is best known for her spectacular demise in a shipwreck near Peterborough, Victoria on the shipwreck coast of Victoria, Australia. On the night of 14 November 1908 she was sailed in dense fog directly onto the rocks due to a navigational error. The crew of 29 abandoned ship safely and all made it ashore by boat, leaving the ship foundering with her sails unfurled. For weeks after the wreck large crowds gathered to view the ship as she gradually broke up and then sank in the shallow water. Soon after the accident the ship's master, Captain David Wood Thomson, was brought before a Court of Marine Inquiry in Melbourne and found guilty of a gross act of misconduct, having carelessly navigated the ship, having neglected to take proper soundings, and having failed to place the ship on a port tack before it became too late to avoid the shipwreck. Captain Thomson's punishment included a small fine and he had his Certificate of Competency as a Master suspended for six months.



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