City of Ragusa
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City of Ragusa of Liverpool was a 20-foot (6 m) yawl (in 19th-century terms),[2][3] owned by Nikola Primorac, which twice crossed the Atlantic in the early days of 19th-century small-boat ocean-adventuring. She carried the former alternative name of Dubrovnik, the birthplace of her owner. She was originally a ship's boat of a merchantman. The 1870 east-west trip between Ireland and the United States was crewed by John Charles Buckley, a middle-aged Irishman with seagoing experience, and Primorac, a Croatian and tobacconist. The crew on the west–east return trip of 1871 were Primorac and a "lad" called Edwin Richard William Hayter from New Zealand, who had been a steward on the steamer City of Limerick of the Inman Line.
City of Ragusa at Queenstown, County Cork, 1870. The windmill was removed for the crossing. | |
History | |
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United Kingdom and United States ensigns flown | |
Namesake | Ragusa |
Owner | Nikola Primorac (1869–1872)[1] |
Laid down | before 1869 |
Fate | Bombed at Liverpool Museum, 1941 |
General characteristics | |
Type | yawl (in 19th-century terms),[2][3] ex-ship's boat |
Tons burthen | 1.75 |
Length | 20 ft (6 m) |
Beam | 6 ft (1.8 m) |
Propulsion | sail. (Windmill or hand-powered 2-bladed prop removed June 1870) |
Sail plan | One square sail on main mast, otherwise gaff sails throughout, plus staysail and jib. |
Complement | 2 |
Notes | (1) Origin: Boat from brig Breeze (which foundered); (2) Drawings show British naval ensign and US flag; (3) registered Liverpool 2,020 |
Following each trip, the ship and crew were the subject of much international public attention, and President Grant viewed the City of Ragusa after she reached America. From 1872, the ship was exhibited in various places in England including the Crystal Palace, and finally at Liverpool Museum where she was destroyed in 1941 when Liverpool was bombed. After the adventure, Primorac resumed his life as a tobacconist in Liverpool, and ultimately died in Rainhill Asylum. Hayter returned to New Zealand, and Buckley made at least one other ocean adventuring trip at the end of 1871: a cargo-ship race involving the Hypathia.