Ship 'Agnes Oswald'

[Countryquine]

Would be interested to know about this ship.   All I know about it is that a model of it was kept in Gilcomston St Colms church in Aberdeen.   My grandfather and uncle refurbished the model (around 1948) and a presentation was made to them for the work they had done.   Does anyone know what connection there is between the ship and the church?  It is no longer in Gilcomston St Colms, as that church has now been closed and I believe it is now in the Church of St Nicholas.

[Ruskie]

Via google I found this:

Company: Henry Murray & Co., Port
Glasgow

iron ship Agnes Oswald for Laird Law, built
1876, 1380 tons, length 243.5, breadth 37.2,
depth 22. Bought by the Shire Line, sold to
Shipbreakers May 1910.

Local libraries may also have information?

More here:
http://users.xplornet.com/~shipping/ShipsA.htm

Picture here:
http://www.findboatpics.net/zpla.html

[Ruskie]

I am just guessing here, but might the church be where the crew worshipped (or it was local to the port), or were crew or perhaps owner or builder of ship from the parish? 

[Archivos]

I don't think the ship had any particular connection with Aberdeen, but I found this from the book 'Churches of Aberdeen' by Alexander Gammie, in relation to Gilcomston Parish Church:

"...In front of the end gallery there was suspended the model of a ship, the Agnes Oswald, a custom which was followed in several of the other churches in the city in those days as a symbol of the importance of the seafaring calling to the population of that period."

You can read the whole book online via archive.org

[Ruskie]

That's very interesting - thank you Archivos. 

[Archivos]

No bother!  That book was published in 1909 - it's really useful for the history of churches in Aberdeen, and contains sketches of what they looked like too.  Worth bookmarking the online version!

[Countryquine]

Thanks all for your input - very interesting, and also very grateful for information re online book site, which will be useful for researching other topics.

[Flattybasher9]

A slight twist to this one. Aberdeen Art Gallery and Museum has the following :-

http://aagm.co.uk/thecollections/objects/object/-Agnes-Oswald-

Note the date.

Regards

Malky

[Countryquine]

Thank you for the additional information, Malky.   I know there was a piece in either the local paper or the church newsletter about the work my granddad and uncle did on it, and I am sure there would have been further information there, so perhaps I need to follow that one up.