Aigburth running down the Channel in full Sail

The iron full-rigger Aigburth was built to the order of R.W. Leyland & Co. of Liverpool by R. Williamson & Son at Workington in 1882. Named, like all the other vessels in the Leyland fleet, after a Liverpool suburb, Aigburth was registered at 1,838 tons and measured 266½in. in length with a 39 foot beam. After over twenty years of reliable service under the Leyland flag, she was on passage from Newcastle, New South Wales, to Surabaya, Java, with a cargo of coal when she struck a reef on Umboi Island, New Guinea, and became a total loss. All twenty-four of her crew were picked up by a German steamer and landed at Brisbane.