Travelling Through Time in Newcastle & The Hunter

Lovely photo by Sam Hood of the French steel barque Ville de Havre near Nobbys. She was built in 1899
and made a number of eventful voyages to the Pacific before being torpedoed by a German U-boat off Ushant
in 1916. Behind the ship the pilot vessel can be seen, and the taut line from the bow suggests she is being
towed to sea. Zaara Street power station is visible in the right background. Since the power station was built
in 1914, this photo may have been one of the last taken of this lovely ship before its wartime destruction.
The American wooden schooner Minnie A. Caine, on American Independence Day, 1913. The ship was
launched in Seattle in 1900 and carried lumber across the Pacific from the United States to Australia, often
visiting Newcastle to load a return cargo of coal. By the 1920s these routes were no longer profitable for sailing
ships and the vessel was laid up. It lingered until 1939 when it went ashore and was wrecked in the USA.
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