CACrown ArchivesThe cinema collection
Menu
Research dossier · General Reference

Hougomont (barque)

four-masted steel barque

Cross-disciplinary reference desk with index cards, atlas, dictionary and catalogue
General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionDec 10, 2025
Entity authorityQ18450964 ↗
Source-derived summary

Hougomont was the name of a four-masted steel barque built in Greenock, Scotland in 1897 by Scotts Shipbuilding & Engineering Co. In 1924 she was purchased by Gustav Erikson's shipping company in Mariehamn, Åland, Finland. She was used for transport and schooling ship for young sailors until 1932 when a squall completely broke her rig on the Southern Ocean and she was sunk as breakwater near the town of Stenhouse Bay in South Australia.

Hougomont had a crew of 24 men. The name "Hougomont" is derived from Château d'Hougoumont where the Battle of Waterloo was fought. While seaworthy she sailed to Peru, Florida, Canada, Australia, England, Ireland, and Sweden among other destinations. She had two sister ships, Nivelle (stranded in 1906) and Archibald Russell.

History

Hougomont was unfortunate and damaged on several occasions while at sea.

In March 1903 she ran aground at Allonby on the Cumbrian coast. She was bound for Liverpool from San Francisco and had been driven off course by heavy weather.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Hougomont (barque)” is four-masted steel barque. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Hougomont, barque and four-masted, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA dependable orientation record for establishing vocabulary, names and a first evidence trail. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1897, 1924, 1932, 1906—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. For this dossier, Hougomont, barque and four-masted is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “four-masted steel barque” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Dec 10, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q18450964. Authority coordinates are -35.281, 136.945. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1897, 1924, 1932 and 1906.

Critical limits

A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

Best used for
  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
Verify next

The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Hougomont (barque)”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Hougomont (barque) primary sources, Hougomont (barque) archive and Hougomont research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Hougomont (barque)”?
  2. What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
  3. Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
Subject index

Search terms from this dossier

Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Hougomont (barque)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.