Truelove (1764 whaler barque)

Type

Whaler

Period

18th Century

Nation

Great Britain

Overview: Truelove was a wooden merchant ship launched in Philadelphia in 1764 that later became one of the most famous Hull whalers, celebrated for an unusually long career spanning over a century. She is remembered in scale-modeling and maritime history circles both for her longevity and for her role in Arctic whaling and Franklin expedition relief efforts. Specifications: According to Wikipedia, she was a merchant ship of 400 tons displacement, 296 register tons, 100 ft (30 m) long, with a 30 ft (9.1 m) beam and 16 ft (4.9 m) draught, rigged as a full-rigged ship. She had three masts and square rig, and was constructed with a "tumble home" design, with her hull sides sloping inwards to the upper decks from the water line. While serving as a merchant vessel she was fitted with twelve guns for defence against French attack. Service History: The Truelove was built in Philadelphia in 1764 and came into English hands during the American War of Independence where she had been used as a privateer, before being sold to John Voase, a wine merchant and ship owner in Hull, and converted into a whaling ship. She went on to make over 80 voyages, killing over 500 whales as well as seals, walruses, narwhals and polar bears, and famously survived the 1835 Melville Bay ice disaster in which, per the Yorkshire Post, "twenty of the fleet were crushed but Truelove survived unharmed." The Truelove was the last of the Hull whalers and sailed alongside the steam powered whaling vessels in the 1850's and 60's. Notable Facts: In 1873, decades after retiring from whaling, she travelled to her home port of Philadelphia and was presented with a flag in honour of her 'birth' there 109 years earlier. Despite proposals to preserve her as a museum ship, this never came about and she ended her days as a hulk on the Thames before she was finally broken up in the late 1890's, having been in use for over 130 years, outliving all other vessels of her class built at the same time. The ship's distinctive tumblehome hull was said to help her survive ice pressure, and she is further commemorated today by a sculpture in Hull by artist Stefan Gec.