I came upon the Spirit of Mystery today. I’d gone to take a look around the Mayflower Marina; and the slipway over near Blagdon’s yard.
Spirit of Mystery is a Mount’s Bay Lugger (a replica). The original sailed to Australia and back in 1854/55 carrying seven fishermen from Newlyn who hoped to find their fortunes. I read that she took 116 days and that previous to that the vessel had never been out of sight of land. 12,000 miles, what an undertaking!
She was built by Chris Rees at Millbrook and launched in June 2008. She weighs 16 tonnes and is 37’ in length with an 11’ beam. She has wood in her from the Cutty Sark and HMS Victory and some rigging from SS Great Britain. That is quite some pedigree.
Although the original was sail only, the new Spirit of Mystery has an engine and watertight bulkheads.
The 2008 voyage had on board Pete Goss and two of the Goss family along with Mark Maidment. They left Newlyn on 20th October arriving in Cape Town on 25th December. Leaving on the 13th January 2009 they were sailing to arrive in Australia in the first week of March.
However, that was not quite the way it was to be for on March 4th she was hit and rolled 90 degrees by a giant wave. Poor Mark Maidment had his leg broken; the dinghy was washed overboard. Sailing into Portland to transfer her injured crewman, Spirit of mystery finally reached Melbourne on 9th March 2009.
Sounded like quite an adventurous voyage!
Steve
Spirit of Mystery is a Mount’s Bay Lugger (a replica). The original sailed to Australia and back in 1854/55 carrying seven fishermen from Newlyn who hoped to find their fortunes. I read that she took 116 days and that previous to that the vessel had never been out of sight of land. 12,000 miles, what an undertaking!
She was built by Chris Rees at Millbrook and launched in June 2008. She weighs 16 tonnes and is 37’ in length with an 11’ beam. She has wood in her from the Cutty Sark and HMS Victory and some rigging from SS Great Britain. That is quite some pedigree.
Although the original was sail only, the new Spirit of Mystery has an engine and watertight bulkheads.
The 2008 voyage had on board Pete Goss and two of the Goss family along with Mark Maidment. They left Newlyn on 20th October arriving in Cape Town on 25th December. Leaving on the 13th January 2009 they were sailing to arrive in Australia in the first week of March.
However, that was not quite the way it was to be for on March 4th she was hit and rolled 90 degrees by a giant wave. Poor Mark Maidment had his leg broken; the dinghy was washed overboard. Sailing into Portland to transfer her injured crewman, Spirit of mystery finally reached Melbourne on 9th March 2009.
Sounded like quite an adventurous voyage!
Steve
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