SEATTLE'S BARKENTINE DAYS

Barkentine DIAMOND HEAD
(ex-Gainsborough)
O.N. 157574
194.2' x 31.2' x 20.2' 
G.t. 1,012
Built 1866
photo by the remarkable tug master
Capt. H.H. Morrison
Undated. Low-res in public domain.

Text by Margaret Pitcairn Strachan
Courtesy of the Seattle Times 1947

"In 1866 an English ship-building firm named C. Longley christened the first large iron-hulled ship. Hundreds of persons flooded to watch her make her way into the Thames, expecting to see her sink, because such a novelty as a barkentine made of iron couldn't float! But cheers soon were forthcoming, and all those folk who saw the wonder of that age, sail proudly forth, are dead, while today (1947) the ship herself carries on in Seattle's own Lake Union.
        The Lady Gainsborough was indeed a thing of beauty. Painted white, with trimmings of mahogany and with solid teakwood railings, the barkentine had three tremendous masts that carried heavy canvas.
        Today, denuded of masts and super-structure and old-time fittings, she goes by the name of Diamond Head and is leased by the General Petroleum Co to Seattle's City Light for use as an oil-storage tank. Next year, when modern facilities replace the Diamond Head, she will revert to her previous job as an oil barge.
        Fantastic tales have been written about the ship, but mostly they have been the product of someone's imagination. Her real story is thrilling enough without resorting to invention.
        The Lady Gainsborough broke all records when she was in her prime, sailing around Cape Horn with her canvas whipping in the wind. She took mail to Englishmen stationed at the outposts of the Empire, and carried distinguished European passengers. Sometimes she stopped at China and brought back Chinese coolies, crowded together in her hold.
        When bigger ships were constructed, the Gainsborough became a tramp, carrying cargoes of coal and sugar. Laden with coal from Westport, N.Z., she was wrecked at Diamond Head, HI., 31 August 1896. Auctioned for $1,800 and pulled off, she was towed into port and placed under the Hawaiian flag. She was renamed the Diamond Head, for the place where she had come to grief. She served in Allen & Robinson's line of packets between Honolulu and West Coast ports of the US.
        From this time on, the Pacific Northwest figured in the log of the ship. Under a Capt. Petersen, she sailed from Port Gamble, Port Blakely, Port Townsend, Seattle, Vancouver, WA., and Ladysmith, B.C.

Capt. Waldemar C. Sorensen
(1870-1954)
One-time mate of the 
barkentine Diamond Head.
A native of Denmark, Sorensen came 
to Seattle in 1892. He was master of 
vessels sailing to Alaska and 
coastal waters until his retirement
ca. 1917. Before WW I he taught
navigation classes at the YMCA.

Original gelatin-silver photo from the archives
of the Saltwater People Historical Society©

There was a Captain who well remembers this phase of the ship's history, for he sailed on her as mate in 1907.
        The former mate is Capt. Waldemar C. Sorensen of Woodinville. The other day he came to board the Diamond Head once more and stand beside her wheel while I plied him with questions aboard the ship.
        "Here was where the first mate slept." he said, walking along the tarred deck "and here was the second mate's bunk, and here was the dining room. I first saw her when I was a deckboy, sailing on a Danish schooner in 1885. We were lying by Big Ben at London, and she came in. She was good-looking in those days, all right! All white-painted and with the figurehead of the Duchess of Gainsborough."
        Capt. Sorensen enjoyed meeting the present watchman of the Diamond Head, who is in truth a watch-woman--Mrs. Philip Mettler. Mrs. Mettler's husband became the watchman in 1935 and they lived on board, occupying the captain's quarters for two years while a houseboat was prepared for them next to the ship. When there was talk of doing away with the ship, Mettler began working on barges for General Petroleum. Then came the shortage of oil during the war and once more the ship was needed. Mrs. Mettler obtained her license as a "qualified tanker man," 

16 October 1942, and has held the job ever since.
        Three years after Sorensen sailed on the Diamond Head she was sold to the Tyee Whaling Co of San Francisco. Under the command of Captain Barnason, for five years her decks rang with the shouts of whaling men. General Petroleum Co., next purchased the vessel and her glorious days of riding the waves were over.

        Slowly mystery began to enshroud her history. It was told that she had been a vessel carrying prisoners to the penal colony at Van Dieman's Land, Tasmania. Imaginative men claimed to have heard strange noises on board and a tale of the captain's wife being murdered at sea grew rapidly, as well as stories of mutiny aboard her as a slaver.

        Today all known relics of the Diamond Head are gone –– except some teakwood cigarette boxes made from her railing. Her anchor was donated to the scrap drive during the war. Even the captain's quarters are absent. The hold is filled with 7,500 barrels of oil –– a paltry amount compared to the 100,000 barrels a 15,000-ton ship can carry. But those 15,000-ton ships can't boast of having been the first of the large iron ships, or of having been wrecked and salvaged at Diamond Head, or of breaking sailing records long, long ago."