The Wreck of the Herzogin Cecilie

The square-sailed windjammer Herzogin Cecilie grounded en route to discharge its wheat at Ipswich on 25 April 1936 at Ham Stone Rock near Salcombe in South Devon having won the Port Lincoln in Australia to Falmouth in Cornwall Great Grain Race in eighty-six days. Launched in 1902 as a cadet ship, the Herzogin or Duchess Cecilie was named after Prussia's Crown Prince Wilhelm's spouse Cecilie of Mecklenburg-Schwerin. In 1921 the ship was sold to the Finnish Shipping tycoon Gustaf Eriksson of Mariehamn.

The Duchess was one of the last sailing cargo ships and won the prestigious Great Grain Races six times. The crew was saved by the Salcombe lifeboatmen. By July 1936 the ship had been towed into Starehole Bay where the wreck today lies submerged. The Duchess purportedly sold for salvage for two hundred and twenty-five pounds. Salvaged items include portholes and timber from the chart room held at the Cottage Hotel Hope Cove and in Finland, the restored Captain's saloon at the Aland Maritime Museum at Mariehamn and memorabilia held at the Eriksson family museum at Pellas, both places situated on the beautiful Aland Archipelago in the Baltic Sea.