Pair of fine sideboards from the billet-head of the Norwegian barque ‘Sophie’, painted black with gilded foliate decoration. When this dismasted vessel was first seen and then boarded by a Scillies gig crew it appeared to be a ‘Mary Celeste’- type mystery (though that came later). All was in order – table laid, warm food on the stove and the clock still wound – but a well-fed dog was the only life aboard. Two gigs, the St Mary’s lifeboat and the Scilly packet ‘Lady of the Isles’ brought her 2½ miles to anchor off New Grimsby. Five days later the puzzle was solved when her crew arrived at Gibraltar on the British steamer ‘Glenmore’. It appeared that although she had been replanked over her original planking, the 29-year-old ‘Sophie’ was thought to be breaking up; so the crew had abandoned her. However she was not totally abandoned, so the owners claimed, in the salvage proceedings, since the dog had remained on board! Algernon Dorrien-Smith bought her hulk for £250, using much of her timber on the Tresco estate and her cargo of coal to heat his greenhouses.

‘Sophie’ details at time of wreck. Wooden barque of 594 tons, registered in Frederickstad. Built by Helsingfors (Helsinki), 1857. Dimensions (in feet and tenths): 135.2 x 33.7 x 18.2.
Owner: Actielskabet ‘Sophie’ (J. Bjorge). Registered voyage: Cardiff to Frederickstad. Cargo: anthracite. Master at loss: C. Bjorge. Wrecked: found abandoned 15 December 1896.