The Balclutha was built for the deep-water trade at a time when steel was replacing iron and wood in ship construction. Her maiden voyage took her from Cardiff to San Francisco, and she spent her first years carrying California wheat around Cape Horn to European ports. The Cape Horn passage was the most dangerous commercial sea route in the world: 40-foot swells, freezing temperatures, and winds that could shred sails. Ships that survived earned reputations; ships that did not earned graves. The Balclutha survived seventeen Cape Horn roundings, a testament to her construction and her crews.

After the grain trade, the Balclutha entered the Pacific lumber trade, carrying timber between West Coast ports. She was then purchased by the Alaska Packers Association and renamed Star of Alaska, serving as a combined transport and floating processing facility for the salmon fishery. Fishermen and cannery workers sailed north to Alaska each spring and returned south each fall, the ship serving as their home, workplace, and transport. This third career lasted until the early 1930s, when the ship was retired and sold to a showman who renamed her Pacific Queen and charged admission for visitors.

The San Francisco Maritime Museum acquired the ship in 1954, restored her original name, and began the long process of returning her to her 1886 appearance. The Balclutha is open to visitors — currently at her temporary berth at Mare Island while Hyde Street Pier is rebuilt — her decks, cargo hold, and crew quarters accessible for exploration. Climbing below decks, visitors can feel the cramped quarters where sailors lived during months-long voyages. Standing on the main deck, looking up at the three masts and the rigging that once carried acres of canvas, the scale of what these ships accomplished becomes tangible. The Balclutha is not a replica or a reconstruction -- she is the real thing, a steel ship that actually sailed around Cape Horn.