The Balclutha was built in 1886 in Glasgow, Scotland by Charles Cornell & Company for Robert McMillan of Dumbarton on the Clyde. Her name, so derived from the Gaelic for Dumbarton ( Bal: town; Clutha: Clyde ). At 256 feet this three-masted full rigged barque was a typical British Cape Horner. Her maiden voyage was around Cape Horn to San Francisco. She rounded the Horn no less than 17 times carrying coal and manufactured goods from Britain, nitrates from Chile, rice from Rangoon and wool from New Zealand. Solidly built and seaworthy this steel hulled ship represented the last of centuries of deep sea trade under sail.

Owned by the Alaska Packers Association in the early 1900's she was renamed Star of Alaska. She sailed each year between San Francisco and Alaska from 1906 until 1930 when the fisheries were at an end. Later sold to Frank Kissinger, a movie maker from Los Angeles, she was renamed Pacific Queen and used in several movies as a pirate ship. During the Second World War she was laid to rest on a mud berth near Sausalito.

Left in a state of utter neglect for years she was rescued from decay by the San Francisco Bay area community in 1954, and has been restored as a memorial to the men and times of the grand days of sail. Karl Kortum, the director of the San Francisco Maritime Museum ( now called the National Maritime Museum in San Francisco) was at the forefront of the maritime heritage movement that saved Balclutha.

Given back her original name and restored to her original appearance Balclutha is now designated a National Historic Landmark and is open to the public daily as part of the San Francisco Maritime National Historic Park. In addition to tours, the vessel hosts a variety of maritime history programs aboard as well as special events such as the Park's annual Sea Music Concert series, and maritime-related theater productions.