Featured Books
Fighting Temeraire by Sam Willis
Live Yankees: The Sewalls and Their Ships by W. H. Bunting
His Majesty's Ship by Alaric Bond
Galveston's the Elissa: The Tall Ship of Texas by Kurt Voss
My River Chronicles - Rediscovering the America on the Hudson by Jessica DuLong
The Frigate Surprise: The Complete Story of the Ship Made Famous in the Novels of Patrick O'Brian by by Geoff Hunt and Brian Lavery
James Nelson's George Washington's Secret Navy
Defying Empire:Trading with the Enemy in Colonial New York by Thomas Truxes
Deadly Shoals, a Wiki Coffin Mystery by Joan Druett
Star Crossedby Linda Collison
The Privateer's Revenge: A Kydd Sea Adventure (Kydd Sea Adventures)
Peter Wicked: A Matty Graves Novel (The Matty Graves Novels)
The Jackass Frigate byAlaric Bond
Steady As She Goesby John Molloy
Voyages, the Age of Sail: Documents in American Maritime History, Volume I, 1492-1865
Expedition Whydah: The Story of the World's First Excavation of a Pirate Treasure Ship and the Man Who Found Her
Jewish Pirates of the Caribbean: How a Generation of Swashbuckling Jews Carved Out an Empire in the New World in Their Quest for Treasure, Religious Freedom--and Revenge
The Illustrated Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time
The Last Packet: the Charles Cooper – from Black Rock Harbor to the Falklands
As we described in our recent post -The Two Lady Elizabeths, last of the Windjammers, the Lady Elizabeth, was damaged rounding Cape Horn in 1913 and limped into Port Stanley where she was condemned and sold as a warehouse. She was not the first. On June 1, 1866, the three-masted square-rigger, Charles Cooper, outbound from Philadelphia for San Francisco with a cargo of coal, sprang a leak rounding Cape Horn and put into Port Stanley for repairs. She was condemned and sold as a storage hulk. “The once fine ship was stripped and later grounded in front of Ross Road where she served as a warehouse until the 1960s.”
The Charles Cooper was an American deep water packet ship capable of carrying 250 passengers and 3,500 barrels of cargo. She was built at the William Hall Shipyard of Black Rock, Connecticut and launched on November 11th, 1856.
Today, Black Rock harbor is filled with yachts. Part of the city of Bridgeport, Black Rock is at the dowdier end of Fairfield County, Connecticut. I have sailed with friends out of Black Rock harbor and remained blissfully ignorant of its dynamic industrial past. During the Revolutionary War, Black Rock was a center of rebel intelligence gathering, as well as a haven for attacking British shipping between Rhode Island and new York.
Shipbuilding in Black Rock harbor began in the 1700s . In 1856 Captain Wilson Hall consolidated five shipyards into one operation. That same year he launched the Charles Cooper. Because the Charles Cooper survived, if only as a storage hulk until the 1960s, it provides one of the last links to the great age of American wooden packet ships.
In 1968 the Charles Cooper was bought by the South Street Seaport Museum of New York who hoped to transport the ship “home”. After it became clear that the salvage would be too expensive, the ship was returned to Falklands ownership and given into the care of the Falklands Island Museum. In 2003 the bow of the ship and several large beams were cut off the wreck and moved to the museum for preservation.
Those parts of the ship which will not be used for the exhibit are being recycled as souvenirs.
The remainder of the timber will be sorted and some will be used to make high quality souvenirs for sale at the Museum. Timber will also become available for purchase by local carpenters and craftsmen, so if you are interested in building yourself something with Cooper wood, contact the Museum Manager to express your interest. Certificates of authenticity will be issued for all timber sold.
It is hoped that through these sales, the Museum will be able to raise funds towards the continued upkeep of the Charles Cooper.
“Charles Cooper” may come home, piece by piece
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