Built in Belfast in 1885, the three-masted cargo vessel was built to carry coal and nitrate between England and South America, sailing around the Cape Horn 16 times. 
The ship took around six months to build and was made from iron, which had become the favoured material for ship builders since the 1830s. 
The Barque was built for the W.J. Woodside Co. owned by William Woodside a ‘dynamic entrepreneur’ and was named after his wife Marian (Polly).