Lady of St Kilda

Lady of St Kilda was a schooner which served from 1834 before being shipwrecked at Tahiti after sailing from Sydney sometime shortly after 1843.

Lady of St Kilda was built in Dartmouth, Devon, England to carry fruit from the Mediterranean to London.

The ship is of cultural importance to St Kilda, Victoria, Australia and the former municipality City of St Kilda (now Port Phillip) which was named after it.

Lady of St Kilda was originally named by its first owner Sir Thomas Dyke Acland (a member of a prominent British political family) for the island of St Kilda in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland to commemorate a visit to the island by his wife, Lydia, in 1810

In July 1842, the Lady of St Kilda sailed for Canton.

Legacy

Lady of St Kilda mural on the railway overpass over the main shopping strip on Carlisle Street, Balaclava

Lady of St Kilda sculpture at St Kilda main beach (now removed)

Memorial plaque to first Crown land sale in St Kilda to Lieut James Ross Lawrence, Captain of the schooner Lady of St Kilda.

The ship's legacy includes the naming of the town (and later city) St Kilda by the former ship master Lieutenant James Ross Lawrence.

One of the town's main streets, Acland Street, was named after the former owner Sir Thomas Dyke Acland.

There is a mural of the Lady of St Kilda on the Sandringham Railway Line overpass at Balaclava, Victoria commissioned by the City of Port Phillip.

Despite its huge popularity, a 2006 art installation depicting a mock shipwreck at St Kilda Main Beach was later disassembled by the City of Port Phillip because of public safety concerns despite calls to keep it.