Topic: Ravenscrag Ship

[Kenneth Kuroiwa]

 Topic: Ravenscrag Ship

Richard Haus <rhau...@hotmail.com> Jan 25 01:05AM ^

 
I did research on wikipedia on the Ravenscrag. Here is what I found:

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The SS Ravenscrag ....... historically most famous for bringing Portuguese immigrants Joao Fernandes, Augusto Dias, Jose do Espirito Santo and Manuel Nunes to the islands, as these men are considered to have introduced the ukulele to Hawaii. The ship was the second ship of Portuguese immigrants to arrive in Honolulu, reaching Honolulu on August 23, 1879, ......
The Ravenscrag, described as "an iron vessel of 1,169 tons", built in Greenock in 1893, was reported lost at sea on 7 April 1898 after failing to arrive at the Peruvian port of Callao.[2]

I am wondering how the ship could have sailed into the Honolulu harbor on August 23, 1879 when Wiki reports that it was not even made until 1893. There is a typo on Wiki's site. Anyone know where I can find more accurate information about the ship and would love a color pic of it.

Thanks
Richard

******************

Good question, Richard,

Since my Portuguese auntie's grandmother arrived in Honolulu on the Ravenscrag, I recently had occasion to look into the story.

It seems well established that the second ship of immigrants arriving in Honolulu on August 23, 1879, from the Madeira islands was the indeed  the Ravenscrag. Melody Lassalle's "Island Routes" article on the arrival of the Ravenscrag,

         < http://www.yourislandroutes.com/ships/ravenscrag.shtml >

contributed by Sandy Sakai, takes excerpts from the Pacific Hawaii State Archives and the Hawaii State Library (on microfilm) and the Commercial Advertiser (newspaper), August 1879.

The Wikipedia article on the Ravenscrag is only a stub, so the part about it being built in 1893 appears to be in error. Checking its "References" leads back to an April 7, 1898, New York Times article that does state that the ship was built in 1898 at Greenock (Scotland).

In response to your question, I googled "Ships built at Greenock," and got the Wikipedia page "Scotts Shipbuilding and Engineering  Company." 

At the bottom, there is an "External Links" link

=> Clyde built ships data base - lists all ships built on the Clyde   (ships and shipbuilders on the River Clyde)

      < http://www.clydesite.co.uk/clydebuilt/index.asp >

Nothing about the Ravenscrag on that particular list, but I checked the "Search for Ships" link on the left side

      < http://www.clydesite.co.uk/clydebuilt/search.asp >

and came up with a Ravenscrag listing that said it was built in 1866 and that the shipbuilder was Robert Steele & Company (type: sailing vessel).

     < http://www.clydesite.co.uk/clydebuilt/shipview.asp >

That would indicate that the Ravenscrag had been in service for well over a decade when it made the historic Madeira-to-Honolulu voyage.

Another reference to the 1879 voyage of the Ravenscrag can be found at "The History of the De Harne Family in Hawaii" (Mike Clark),

        < http://www.mikesclark.com/genealogy/hawaii.html >

which includes recollections of the voyage from Frances de Harne —nee Francisca de Jesus Camacho—   at the time, a ten-almost-eleven-year-old girl:

The following is a description of the voyage of the Ravenscrag made up of excerpts (in italics and quotes) from a 1946 article by Elma Cabral that appeared in

Paradise of the Pacific Magazine (v. 58, n. 12, p. 17-19), along with remembrances that Frances told to her daughters.

"It was on the twenty-second day of April 1879, that the Ravenscrag, an English sailing vessel left Funchal in the Madeira Islands with 423 emigrants for the Sandwich Islands--135 of whom were men, with 110 women and children........."

Hope this helps to clear up the contradiction.

Ken Kuroiwa
Saitama Women's Junior College,
Hidaka City, Saitama, Japan