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Ravenscrag (or Ravenscraig) is the name of several ships, some being sailing vessels (SV) and some steamships (SS). One of the sailing vessels is historically significant for bringing to the Hawaiian Islands in 1879 Portuguese immigrants who subsequently introduced the ukulele to island culture. ==Capt. Biggam's Ravenscrag== The best known of several similarly named ships, the ''Ravenscrag'' (spelled without the "i") is a British sailing vessel commanded by Capt. Biggam that on 23 August 1879 brought 419 Portuguese immigrants from the Madeira Islands to the Hawaiian Islands to work as contract laborers in the sugarcane plantations. The ship left the Madeiran port of Funchal on 23 April 1879 and took exactly four months to cross the Atlantic Ocean, round Cape Horn, and then sail across the Pacific to Honolulu, Hawaii.〔〔〔 Among the passengers were Manuel Nunes, Augusto Dias, Jose do Espirito Santo, and Joao Fernandes, who are credited with introducing the ukulele to Hawaii.〔〔 This was the second ship of Portuguese immigrants to reach the Islands, having been preceded on 30 September 1878 by the German bark .〔〔 Though depicted in a U.S. Postal Service description of a 2004 commemorative stamp release as a wooden-hulled bark,〔 the Ravenscrag was actually a 1,263 tons, long, iron-hulled, three-masted sailing ship with square sails on each mast (i.e., a clipper).〔〔 It was commissioned by Scottish-Canadian shipping magnate Sir Hugh Allan for his Allan Shipping Line with freight service between Britain and the States, and named by Allan after his mansion in Montreal, Canada, which had been named, in turn, after Ravenscraig Castle in Scotland.〔 The ship was built for Allan in 1866 by Robert Steele & Co. at Yard No. 52 in Greenock, England, and owned by J. & A. Allan & Company of Glasgow, Scotland, an Allan Line subsidiary that was overseen by Sir Hugh's older brother James Allan.〔〔 Biggam, still under the employ of the Allan Line, is shown as captain of the Ravenscrag in an 1885 trade journal,〔 the same year the ship was sold to John Crow Richardson of Swansea, England. It was then sold in 1896 to F.G. Mabane of South Shields, England. Two years later the New York Times on 7 April 1898 reported that ''"the British ship Ravenscrag . . . has not arrived here (Callao, Peru) and is officially reported missing."'' The article further states that the Ravenscrag was ''"an iron vessel, built at Greenock in 1893, hails from South Shields, Eng. and is owned by T.G. Mabano."''〔 Allowing for misspellings and incorrect reporting of dates, this is clearly the same ship that Captain Biggam and 419 Portuguese immigrants sailed 19 years earlier to the Hawaiian Islands. Though feared lost a sea, the Ravenscrag did arrive at the port of Callao several days late, having been delayed by unusually strong currents while crossing the Atlantic.〔〔 The Norwegian firm of Johanson Joh. & Co. of Oslo in 1901 purchased the ''Ravenscrag'', and renamed it the SV ''Armenia''. The ship at this time was still full rigged for sail, but the Norwegians subsequently rerigged it as a bark.〔 The SV ''Armenia'' met its demise on 27 August 1907 when, while on a voyage from Rio de Janeiro to Glasgow to deliver lumber, it was attempting to put in at the port of Matane, Quebec in a thick fog, and ran aground at Capucins on the Quebec side of the St. Lawrence River.〔〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「SS Ravenscrag」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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