Archibald Russell – My tangible link and family yarns

by Iain Cameron

After reading the article, “The End of Great Sailing Ship Era - Tall Ships” (9th August 2022) memories of family yarns from my early boyhood and my close links with the Tall Ships era came flooding back.

Of all the Tall Ships that graced the world’s great oceans and the coastlines of Australia from the late 1880s to the mid 1940s, the ARCHIBALD RUSSELL held a special interest for me.

The ARCHIBALD RUSSELL was one of the last square-rigged ships to be built on the Clyde by Scott Shipbuilding and Engineering, Greenock for John Hardie & Sons, Glasgow and launched on 23rd January, 1905. She was a four masted steel hulled barque with an overall length of 292 feet, weighing in at 3950 tones.

Scotts Shipbuilding and Engineering Company Limited

The ARCHIBALD RUSSELL made her maiden voyage on 21st March, 1905 departing Port Talbot, Wales and arriving in Iquique, Chile with a cargo of coal. Her last voyage appears to depart Port Lincoln, South Australia, on 3rd April, 1939 arriving at Falmouth, after a passage of 121 days with a load of Australian wheat on 2nd August.

ARCHIBALD RUSSELL under full sail

One of her fastest voyages in what was generally called the “Grain Races”, was a passage of 93 days, departing Williamstown on 4th March and arriving Queenstown 5th June, 1929 with 3840 tons of wheat. After some 72 voyages on the World’s Oceans between 1905 and 1939, being sold to Gustav Erikson, Finland in December, 1923 and detained by the British Government in June, 1941 the ARCHIBALD RUSSELL was used as a storage ship during the Second World War.

This long history of the ARCHIBALD RUSSELL came to an end in 1949, when she was broken up by J. J. King & Co. at Gateshead-on-Tyne, Newcastle.

My association with this once great Tall Ship comes from my grandmother, Jessie Mary Fowler (Ne: Cameron) whose first cousin John Cameron came to the ARCHIBALD RUSSELL as first mate in 1912. Between 1912 and 1919 his ship made several voyages to Australia, Melbourne in particular. Our family story goes that during John Cameron’s many times in Melbourne, he stayed with my grandmother’s sister-in-law, at her house at 27 The Strand, Williamstown. He was rowed ashore by his crew, as The Strand house was directly adjacent to a good landing site from his ship that was moored in Hobson’s Bay near the mouth of the Yarra River. John Cameron often brought his telescope and tripod as the first floor veranda of the house gave him a clear uninterrupted view of his ship and its crew’s activities.

Railway Pier Williamstown at the turn of the Century

It must have been during one of these visits, that he presented my grandmother with a model he had made of the ARCHIBALD RUSSELL. The photographs show the ARCHIBALD RUSSELL fully rigged on all masts. My research indicates this to be an accurate representation of the ship during John Cameron’s time aboard. The model together with its yarns have been known to me since my very early boyhood. It was given to me some time after my grandmother passed away in 1944. Today, that model of the ARCHIBALD RUSSELL is now in my house in Perth, Western Australia.

A close inspection of the model in its glass box, shows it to be in remarkably good condition for something that is at least 100 years old and has been transported across the Nullarbor from Melbourne to Perth.

Many records of the ARCHIBALD RUSSELL can be found as photographs on many internet sites. However, in my research of the ARCHIBALD RUSSELL, I have not been able to find the existence of any other similar models, so assume that the one in my possession may be the only one.

Thank you to the crew of Southernwooden Boat Sailing for their wonderful work and stories on their website. To all of them and you, their readers, I wish all your futures come with calm seas and fair winds.

Iain Cameron

Perth, Western Australia.