"Vega" in Dundee Harbour - Ref: WC1102
The "Vega" was a truly important ship, having circumnavigated Europe and Asia, making the North-East passage under the command of the Swedish geologist, mineralogist, geographer and explorer, Baron Adolf Erik Nordenskjold (1832-1901).
The vessel was added to the Dundee shipping register in 1903, with a gross tonnage of 357. On 31st May that year (a mere two months after Alexander Wilson took this photograph in the Earl Grey Dock at Dundee Harbour), she was lost in the Greenland ice.
Captain Cooney was in charge of the "Vega" for the voyage. He was unable to free her, and she sank quite quickly. The 44 crew members loaded biscuits and beef into the life boats and made for the Danish settlement at Uppernavik, 150 miles away.
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.