Omega – Entering Independencia Bay

The four-masted barque Omega enters Independencia Bay in northern Peru, where she will load a cargo of guano.

Guano is a rich fertiliser, composed of bird droppings, deposited over thousands of years on uninhabited islands along the Peruvian coast. These islands were in the path of the sea-life rich Humboldt Current that sweeps north along the West Coast of South America, making these islands a perfect breeding ground for countless numbers of sea-birds.

Guano plus saltpetre – a mineral fertiliser mined further south along the coast of Chile – was one of the cargoes that kept sailing ships in business until the 1930s.

Sailing ships flocked to ports from southern Chile to northern Peru, with cargoes of coal, coke, cement and general cargo and charters to load guano or saltpetre for the return journey.

Steamships were not attracted to this region as the fuel (coal) required for their return journeys was very expensive, since it was all imported – a large proportion coming from Newcastle NSW.

Omega was built by Russell & Co. of Greenock in 1887 for Gillison & Chadwick of Liverpool, who named her Drumcliff.  Built as a 4-masted ship she was later re-rigged as a 4-masted barque. She led the life of a typical tramping sailer until 1898, when she was sold to a German company (Hamburger Reederie A.G.) who renamed her Omega.

She continued world-tramping, loading cargoes in all the famous sailing ship ports around the world and found herself in Callao when World War II broke out. She was interned and at war’s end and was given to Peru as reparations. Under the management of Administradoro del Guano, she commenced her new employment of transporting bagged guano from the offshore islands to the mainland.

Guano cargoes were detested by seamen. Its strong ammonia fumes permeated every corner of the ship, making life on board difficult. Ships loaded with guano could be smelt when entering port. Seamen have told me it made their noses bleed and the fumes blistered paintwork.

Omega must have served her owners well, providing low cost transport and warehousing while being given minimum maintenance. To reduce labour she was stripped of her royal yards and when her mainsail fell apart it was never replaced.

It was in this environment that Omega hung on to life, courageously stretching the age of sail to mid-1958. Her end came when she took water into the hull when approaching Huacho and sank with 3000 tons of guano in her belly.

Maybe the Sea-Gods believed her name, Omega (the last letter in the Greek alphabet), was reason enough to let her survive and to claim the title of being the last sailing ship in trade.