Lady of St Kilda
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 Sketch of the Lady of St Kilda by Jno. R. Browning c 1890 | |
| History | |
|---|---|
| United Kingdom | |
| Name | Lady of St Kilda |
| Owner | Sir Thomas Dyke Acland, 10th Baronet |
| Builder | Robert Newman |
| Launched | 1834 at Dartmouth, Devon, England |
| Fate | Wrecked November 1844 |
| General characteristics | |
| Tonnage | 139 tons |
The Lady of St Kilda was a schooner which served from 1834 before being shipwrecked off Tahiti shortly after 1843.[1]
It is notable for its cultural importance to Melbourne, Australia, where it was moored in the 1840s. Several places in bayside Melbourne, including the suburb of St Kilda, and the former municipality the City of St Kilda (now part of the City of Port Phillip) take its name from the ship, its owner and captain.[2][3][4][5]
The schooner was bought by Sir Thomas Dyke Acland, a member of a prominent British political family in 1834. Built in Dartmouth, Devon, England to carry fruit from the Mediterranean to London it was named Lady of St Kilda after the island of St Kilda in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland to commemorate a visit to the island by his wife, Lydia, in 1812.[6]
Thomas Acland sold the vessel in 1840 to Jonathan Cundy Pope of Plymouth. The vessel was again used as a trading vessel and sailed for Port Phillip Bay in Melbourne in February 1841. The vessel was usually moored off the foreshore, which was soon known as "the St. Kilda foreshore."
In July 1842, the Lady of St Kilda sailed for Canton (now Guangzhou).[citation needed] The vessel was sold in Tahiti for £1,200 in 1844.[7] In November 1844, she was wrecked on a coral reef in Tahiti.[8]
