"Sierra Morena" in Dundee Harbour - Ref: WC0909
An iron three masted, full rigged ship, the "Sierra Morena" was built by T R Oswald, Sunderland, in 1875 for the Sierra Shipping Co., Ltd., Liverpool. With a gross tonnage of 1423, she measured 231.2 feet in length.
The "Sierra Morena" made at least two recorded visits to Dundee, this photograph by the amateur, Alexander Wilson, dating from the first. She arrived on 14th June 1888 with a cargo of jute from Calcutta after 120 days at sea.
On 30th June 1889, after a voyage lasting 140 days, she arrived from Chittagong in what is nowadays Bangladesh with another cargo of jute for the city's mills. Alexander Wilson was, in fact, the manager of a calender, or finishing plant.
Alexander Wilson who took this photograph, was a supervisor in a Dundee jute mill for over 20 years. He bequeathed much of his collection and £50, to cover the costs involved, to the Free Library Committee of Dundee in 1923.