A Manx flag signed by a cross section of the Ramsey community to mark the 150th anniversary of the launch of the Star of India from Ramsey shipyard is now in the maritime museum in San Diego, where the ship, the world’s oldest active sailing vessel, is now based.
Ramsey Town Commissioners’ officers Margaid Bird and Paul Boulton took the flag with them when they went on holiday to the US and travelled to San Diego to present the flag to the museum’s director, Jim Davis.
While still in the US Ms Bird emailed her colleagues at Ramsey town hall to say: ‘Jim was very happy to receive the flag and also to learn that the people of Ramsey were so taken up with the Star of India’s 150th anniversary…I think we may be bringing back a flag signed by the crew.’
The photograph of the couple was taken by Carl Scragg, a Star of India volunteer member who, earlier this year, visited Ramsey and the shipyard from where the ship, originally named Euterpe then renamed Star of India in 1906, was launched on November 14th 1863.
Pictured: Ramsey Town Commissioners’ officers Margaid Bird and Paul Boulton in front of the Star of India, moored in San Diego’s maritime museum, with a Manx flag signed by the people of Ramsey.
