Modest gold brooch reveals story of SS Citrine's maiden voyage

A modest gold brooch turned out to be a maritime keepsake with a precise date etched into its back: “SS Citrine, April 21 1894, Elizabeth McIntyre Anderson, from William Robertson.” The piece surfaced at a WeBuyVintage road show, but its value sits in the story it carries, not the price tag attached to it.

The brooch was presented on April 21, 1894, the day the SS Citrine made her maiden voyage. Elizabeth McIntyre Anderson is believed to have been the first person to board the ship, and the gift from William Robertson fixed that moment in metal. Its design leaves little doubt about the vessel it commemorated: rope-like sides, a life ring at the center and a citrine stone set into the brooch as a visual nod to the ship’s name.

The Citrine came out of Dundee, built by W. B. Thompson & Co., then registered in Glasgow as her home port. She was one of the gemstone-named vessels in Robertson’s “Gem Line,” a shipping business he began in 1852 with the barge Ellen. From that first barge, Robertson built a fleet that became one of Britain’s largest coastal bulk shipping operations, reaching almost forty vessels by 1900.

That wider shipping empire gives the brooch a sharper edge. It is not only an attractive object from the late Victorian period. It is also a traceable artifact from a company that linked Dundee shipbuilding, Glasgow commerce and a naming tradition that ran through Gem, Ruby, Pearl and Jasper before expanding to sea-going steamers.

The Citrine’s final chapter came on March 17, 1931, when she struck rocks at Bradda Head near Port Erin on the Isle of Man during fog and rough weather. Contemporary accounts said the vessel was badly holed, filled and sank before a boat could be launched. The death toll was recorded in different ways, with reports at the time putting the number at ten lives lost and later retellings describing nine crew members dying.

William Robertson’s business later became part of larger shipping ownership in the 1970s, but the brooch survives as a small, readable relic of that world. Its maritime motifs, named owner and exact date make it one of those rare secondhand finds that carries a whole voyage inside it.