File:The Columbus (or Great American Raft) RMG PW7708.tiff

'Columbus' was a four-masted barque built by Charles Wood of Port Glasgow at Anse-du-Fort, Isle of Orleans, Quebec, and launched on 28 July 1824. Her dimensions were 301 ft x 50 ft 6ins x 22 ft 5 in, 3690 tons. She was flat-bottomed, with straight sides and made of timbers as nearly square as possible, with the intention of carrying a cargo of timber over the Atlantic and then herself being taken apart and sold as part of it. On 5 September she sailed under Capt William Mckellar with 6300 tons of timber for London. She grounded at Bersimis on the St Lawrence on the 9th but got off and continued on the 12th. On 29 October she was off the Scillies and on 1 November arrived in the Downs in a leaking condition. With the help of pilots and steam tugs she was brought as far as Blackwall Reach for unloading but her owners did not dismantle her as planned. Instead, against Wood's advice, they sent her back to St John's, New Brunswick, for another cargo and she was wrecked outward-bound in the English Channel on 17 May 1825. British reports of her appear in Lloyd's List, 2 November 1824 and 'The Times', 13 October, 9 November 1824 and 31 May 1825. Other references are in Charles Wood's own book, 'Ballast' (Glasgow 1836), F.W. Wallace, 'Wooden Ships and Iron Men' ( London 1924/1973) and articles on the timber trade by D. M. Williams in 'The Mariner's Mirror', vol.54 (1968), and E. R. Marcil in 'The American Neptune', vol. 48 (1988). See also PAF7709, another print of 1824. PAH0540 includes a plan. PAD6407 shows her before launch with 14 ft of draught marks on her sternpost. PAD7904, in Henry Moses 'Sketches of Shipping' series, shows her as background to a view of cutters in Blackwall Reach.

This print is inscribed:"The Columbus (or great American raft)." and "Engraved by permission from an accurate drawing made on the spot." The dimensions are listed beneath these inscriptions.