Bronze Age Gold from Wales

Photograph of a painting showing a stern view of the four-masted barque FENNIA

Barque FENNIA (3112gt). Built 1902 by Chantiers de la Méditerranée as French-owned CHAMPIGNY for Société des Longs Coureiers Français, Le Havre. Her maiden voyage was from Le Havre to Penarth. In 1923 she was purchased by A/B Finska Skolskeppsrederiet (the Finnish School Ship Association) of Helsingfors, renamed FENNIA and fitted out as a cadet ship trading as a Cape Horner tramp ship. On 10 February 1927 she sailed from Cardiff bound for Valparaiso with a cargo of nearly 4000 tons of coal but faced violent storms with squalls of Force 10 around the Horn. She lost most of her masts but managed to reach the Falkland Islands and safe anchorage after accepting a tow from a steamer. The ship was condemned and became the Falkland Islands Company wool store. In 1967 she was sold to San Francisco Maritime Museum, to be restored to her former glory, and was towed from Port Stanley. Money ran out however and she only made it to Montevideo where she remained for years before being towed to Uruguay and scrapped.