Bark Marques

The "Marques" was a British-registered barque that sank during the Tall Ships' Races in 1984.

The "Marques" was built in Valencia, Spain, in 1917, as a polacca-rigged brig. She was used to carry fruit from the Canary Islands to northern Europe. Damaged during World War II, she was repaired in 1947 and subsequently used in the Mediterranean. She was badly maintained and by 1971 she was in poor condition.

In 1971 Englishman Robin Cecil-Wright bought the "Marques" and had her extensively repaired and re-rigged in Southhampton, England. She saw use in movies, most notably Dracula, and in television shows such as the The Onedin Line and Poldark. In 1977 Mark Litchfield bought a one-half share in the ship. She was again re-rigged, this time as a barque, largely for her part in the BBC documentary on Charles Darwin as his ship, the " HMS Beagle". At this time she was renamed the "Bark Marques".

In 1983 she sailed from Bristol, England, to Antigua in the Caribbean for use in charter tours during the northern winter. In the summer of 1984 she sailed to San Juan, Puerto Rico to compete in the Cutty Sark Tall Ships' Races.

The "Bark Marques" won the first tall ships' race, from Puerto Rico to Bermuda. The ship left Hamilton on the second race, bound for Halifax, Nova Scotia, on 2 June, 1984. On the night of 2 June the ship ran into a gale. In the early hours of 3 June she was hit by a sudden squall and a large wave, possible a rogue wave, and was knocked down onto her side. Although the ship had been converted to a sail training and charter cruise ship, she had retained the main cargo hatch from her days as a commercial vessel. When she was knocked down the main hatch was breached and water flooded into the interior of the ship. She sank in less than a minute, with the loss of 19 of her 28 crew members.

ources

*Parrott, Daniel: Tall Ships Down - The Last Voyages of the Pamir, Albatross, Marques, Pride of Baltimore and the Maria Asumpta. McGraw Hill, 2003. ISBN 0-07-143545-X.
* [http://www.mysticseaport.org/Library/Manuscripts/coll/coll244/coll244.html#head54970384 Mystic Seaport Website: History of the bark Marques]
* [http://www.seadercraft.com/sea-sci.html Seadercraft.com Article: Monster Ocean Waves (about the sinking)]
* [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,951176-1,00.html Time Magazine article: It Meant to Kill Us (about the sinking)]
* [http://seafarer.netfirms.com/2/marques.htm Scale Reproductions: MARQUES - Barque-Rigged Sail-Training Ship (history and sinking)]
* [http://freaquewaves.blogspot.com/2006_07_01_archive.html Freaque Waves Blog: The Brigantine MARQUES (about the sinking)]