I am researching for my school's 100th anniversary and this image of a ship has been in the 2nd floor window of our school longer than any staff or former alumni can remember. I have spent quite a bit of time searching online myself but I know little about ships so I have come up empty handed. I am hoping that if I could at least identify the ship, perhaps I could figure out the connection and peice out part of the story of why it is there.
Other information that may be of use: This is a school in Winnipeg, Manitoba in the Old Kildonan/East Kildonan area of the city. Most of the well known settlers in the area started setting up homesteads in the 1880 and were from England or the Ukraine.
I thought perhaps it might have something to do with Garnet Joseph Wosleley, since he is the school's namesake, but none of my research into him shows any ships like this one.
The school was almost certainly named after General Sir Garnet Wolseley simply because he died in 1913; such honors were common. Wolseley was a great soldier of Empire, although the Queen disliked him personally, but he was not a naval officer of any kind.
What in particular makes you think the ship is a particular vessel and not a piece of flourish? [edit: that is, what have you turned up so far about its origin, if anything?] Putting one into a building constructed (presumably) around 1915 seems odd, because the vessel would be honestly anachronistic at that point. It may well call back to something abstract much earlier, perhaps the theme of settlement or the like. Nothing about its appearance is particularly distinctive, although it lacks any clear sign of armament. It's at least an abstract form to be sure.