Wreck of the Garthpool

The Garthpool was a four-masted steel-hulled barque hauling cargo in the early 20th century. She was launched for the jute trade in 1891 but the industry quickly become unprofitable. Slow and awkward, the ship then hauled case oil and other cargoes before she was sold to the Marine Navigation Company of Canada in 1917. Here the captain and crew took up the grain trade between Adelaide, Australia and the United Kingdom.

Shanty-superstar Stan Hugill was working aboard the Garthpool on November 11, 1929 when she ran ashore near Boavista, Cape Verde, an archipelago in the central Atlantic Ocean. Though all 7 passengers and 30 crew survived, the ship was wrecked, closing the era of commercial square-rigged ships sailing under a British flag.