Ship-in-a-Bottle: Jack-ass Barque 'OLYMPIC' Off Boon Rock Lighthouse By Jim Goodwin in a Vintage 3-liter Asbach Brandy Bottle.
HISTORY:
L: 244 ft, Beam: 42 ft, Depth: 21 ft, 1490 tons, Launched: June 23, 1892—Bath, Maine
The wood-hull Olympic was built at the New England Co. shipyard for Capt. W.H. Bess of New Bedford, MA. Her unique rig was atypical for barquentine or a barque so it was often called a “jack-ass barque.” Some claim she looked like “a schooner chasing a brig.” She was the only vessel built with this rig. Under Captain Stephen Gibbs, the Olympic sailed from NYC around the Cape Horn to Portland OR with a load of iron. Sold to Hackfield & Co. of Honolulu, she ran the sugar trade from Hawaii, California, and Australia from 1901-12. Involved in the West Coast to Australia timber trade before WWI, she was sold after the war to Thomas Crowley & Co. where she was converted to a true 4-masted barquentine with square sails on the foremast and gaff-rig on the aft three masts. Her last sail was in 1922 under Capt. T. J. Halcrow. Laid up briefly due to a shipping slump, she was converted into a towing barge.
