A new gig ‘Zelda’ was launched from the Rechabite Slip, St Mary’s on a sunny Friday evening on 22nd April, prior to the 2022 World Pilot Gig Championships.
‘Zelda’ was built by Andrew Hicks of Scillonian Boat Building and Repairs on the island. She was named by his mother, Rosamund Hicks after a heritage vessel built in 1874 by Peters of St Mawes. Originally a Tresco gig, she was built with money from the salvage of a wrecked steamship of the same name.
The image shows the salvage steamer ‘Hyaena’ working the sunken wreck of the steamer ‘Zelda’. ‘Zelda’ struck the Maiden Bower, Bryher, while bound from Liverpool for Palermo in 1874. Among the salvage craft is a lifeboat from the ‘Zelda’ and the Scilly ketch ‘Edmund’, rigged for lifting.
Here the vessels sit alongside the quay in St Mary’s harbour.
In the 1950’s, the original ‘Zelda’ was sold to Padstow Regatta Committee but was badly damaged by a lorry reversing into her on the quay. The original 19th Century ‘Zelda’ on the walls of the Pilot Gig Restaurant in Hugh Town.
To find out more about the new gig ‘Zelda’, visit St Mary’s Gig Club on facebook
To see more archive images, search ‘Zelda’ on cornishmemory.com
Sources: Images courtesy of Carter Collection, Kresen Kernow
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