Cimba

---

title: "Cimba" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["clippers", "individual-sailing-vessels", "victorian-era-merchant-ships-of-the-united-kingdom", "world-war-i-merchant-ships-of-norway", "lumber-ships", "ships-built-in-aberdeen", "shipwrecks-of-the-saint-lawrence-river", "maritime-incidents-in-1915", "1878-ships", "wool-trade"] topic_path: "history" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cimba" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::data[format=table title="Infobox ship"]

Field	Value
display_title	ital
section1	{{Infobox ship/image
image	StateLibQld 1 128373 Cimba (ship).jpg
image_caption	Cimba
section2	{{Infobox ship/career
country	United Kingdom
flag
name	Cimba
owner	A. Nicol & Co. Aberdeen
builder	A. Hood, Aberdeen
launched	April 1878
section3	{{Infobox ship/career
hide_header	title
country	Norway
flag
acquired	1906 March, Sold to Norwegian owners.
fate	Stranded near Pointe Des Monts, 26 July 1915
section4	{{Infobox ship/characteristics
type	Iron-hulled clipper
tons_burthen	1174 GRT, 1117 NRT; 1022 tons under deck
length	223 ft
beam	34 ft
draught	21 ft
sail_plan	Full-rigged ship. "Rigged with royals, with double topgallant sails on the fore and main masts, and double gallant sails."
notes	British Reg. No. 77444; Signal RKJS
last	Bruzelius
first	Lars
title	Sailing Ships: Cimba (1878)
work	Cimba
publisher	The Maritime History Virtual Archives
date	1997-05-06
url	http://www.bruzelius.info/Nautica/Ships/Merchant/Sail/C/Cimba%281878%29.html
access-date	11 February 2011}}
::

|display_title=ital |section1={{Infobox ship/image | image = StateLibQld 1 128373 Cimba (ship).jpg | image_caption = Cimba

|section2={{Infobox ship/career | hide_header = |country = United Kingdom |flag = | name = Cimba | owner = A. Nicol & Co. Aberdeen | ordered = | builder = A. Hood, Aberdeen | original_cost = | laid_down = | launched = April 1878 | acquired = | commissioned = | decommissioned = | in_service = | out_of_service = | renamed = | struck = | reinstated = | honours = | captured = | fate = | notes =

|section3={{Infobox ship/career | hide_header =title |country = Norway |flag = | name = | owner = | ordered = | builder = | original_cost = | laid_down = | launched = | acquired = 1906 March, Sold to Norwegian owners. | commissioned = | decommissioned = | in_service = | out_of_service = | renamed = | struck = | reinstated = | honours = | captured = | fate = Stranded near Pointe Des Monts, 26 July 1915 | notes =

|section4={{Infobox ship/characteristics | hide_header = | header_caption = | type = Iron-hulled clipper | tons_burthen = 1174 GRT, 1117 NRT; 1022 tons under deck | length = 223 ft | beam = 34 ft | draught = 21 ft | hold_depth = | propulsion = | sail_plan = Full-rigged ship. "Rigged with royals, with double topgallant sails on the fore and main masts, and double gallant sails." | complement = | armament = | notes = British Reg. No. 77444; Signal RKJS | last = Bruzelius | first = Lars | title = Sailing Ships: Cimba (1878) | work = Cimba | publisher = The Maritime History Virtual Archives | date = 1997-05-06 | url = http://www.bruzelius.info/Nautica/Ships/Merchant/Sail/C/Cimba%281878%29.html | access-date = 11 February 2011}}

Cimba was a British-built clipper in the Australian wool trade. She sailed between London and Sydney for 20 years, from 1878 to 1898. In 1905, Cimba set the sailing ship record for a passage from Callao to Iquique, of 14 days.

Construction

Cimba was an iron-hulled ship, built in Aberdeen in 1878. Her hull was painted green with gold scrolls, a yellow stripe, white bulwarks and white paint aloft. A lion was her figurehead. | last1 = Winchester | first1 = Clarence | last2 = Hardy | first2 = A.C. (Arthur Cecil) | last3 = Brown | first3 = Frank Charles | title = Shipping Wonders of the World | publisher = Amalgamated Press | volume = 41-45 | year = 1936 | location = London | page = 1312 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=vrgfAAAAMAAJ | oclc = 12715461}} ::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a7/StateLibQld_1_129399_Cimba_(ship).jpg" caption="''Cimba''"] ::

Cimba was very heavily rigged, with her main lower masts a bit shorter than some clippers at 60 ft., and with heavy lower yards, the fore and main yards at over 4 tons apiece. She had the reputation of being a "tender" ship, i.e., heeling over easily under sail.

Voyages

Cimba sailed in the wool trade between London and Sydney for 20 years, from 1878 to 1898, and was a regular visitor to Port Jackson for almost 30 years. Her first captain, J. Fimster, served until 1895, at which time Captain J. W. Holmes took over until her sale to Norwegian owners in 1906. Captain Holmes had served as third mate aboard Salamis, chief mate on the clippers Blackadder and Hallowe'en, and commander of the ship Leucadia.

Under her Norwegian owners, ''Cimba'''s chief cargo was lumber. She carried firewood from the Baltic to East Indian Dock in Aberdeen Bay, and made a fast passage from Dublin to the St. Lawrence of 14 days. ::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/31/StateLibQld_1_128245_Cimba_(ship).jpg" caption="''Cimba''"] ::

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f5/Point_de_Monts_1885-1889.jpg" caption="''Point de Monts'', Henry Richard S. Bunnett"] ::

Loss of the ship

Cimba was stranded in the fog near Pointe Des Monts, 1 mile west, in the Gulf of St. Lawrence on 26 July 1915. She was en route to Matane from Liverpool, and was the last sailing vessel to be lost in this area. | last = Brookes | first = Ivan S. | title = The Lower St. Lawrence: a Pictorial History of Shipping and Industrial Development | publisher = Freshwater Press | year = 1974 | location = Cleveland | page = 145 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=TYrtAAAAMAAJ&q=cimba | oclc = 1004161}}

References

References

1. Lubbock, Basil. (1921). "The Colonial Clippers". James Brown & Son.

::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::