Casgliadau Arlein

Full hull ship mode of a late-nineteenth century trading ketch. This model represents a typical trading ketch, a type of sailing vessel that would have been seen off the Pembrokeshire coast from the 1870s onwards, with some of the last of their kind still trading in the 1950s. The ketch rig, with its tall main mast and shorter mizzen mast became increasingly popular from the 1870s onwards, and vessels of this type owned locally would have typically have carried cargoes of culm (anthracite dust) and limestone from south Pembrokeshire to the north coast of the county and on to the ports of southern Ceredigion, supplying the coastal lime kilns. Ketches from north Devon ports, especially Appledore, would also have been seen in the area, loading similar cargoes. One surviving example, the 'Garlandstone', originally built for Captain John Russan of Dale in 1907, can still be seen today at Morwellham Quay in Devon.