Homepage
Login
Profile
BookClubs
dmBox
Read Ebook: The Colonial Clippers by Lubbock Basil
Font size:
Background color:
Text color:
Add to tbrJar First Page Next Page Prev Page
Ebook has 1033 lines and 227123 words, and 21 pages
Passages to Australia in 1881 301
Passages to Australia in 1882 and 1883 324
Passages to Australia in 1884 328
Passages to Australia in 1885 334
Perforated Sails 337
Hine's Clipper Barques 339
Iron Barques of Walker and Trinder, Anderson 341
Occasional Visitors in Australian Waters 344
Shaw, Savill & Co. 348
End of Some of Shaw, Savill's Earlier Ships 350
Patrick Henderson's Albion Shipping Company 354
Albion Shipping Company, 1869 Ships 362
Origin of the Albion House-flag 365
New Zealand Shipping Company 365
Robert Duncan's Six Beautiful Sister Ships 376
Outsiders in the New Zealand Trade 386
,, B--Later American-built Passenger Ships to Australia 410
,, C--Iron Wool Clippers 411
,, E--List of Clipper Ships Still Afloat and Trading at the Outbreak of War, August, 1914 416
,, F--The Wool Fleet, 1876-1890 417
Plate of House-Flags 32
Plate of House-Flags 128
Mr. Thomas Carmichael, of A. & J. Carmichael 200
Captain Pattman 301
PLANS.
THE COLONIAL CLIPPERS.
THE EMIGRANT SHIPS.
Those splendid ships, each with her grace, her glory, Her memory of old song or comrade's story, Still in my mind the image of life's need, Beauty in hardest action, beauty indeed. "They built great ships and sailed them" sounds most brave, Whatever arts we have or fail to have; I touch my country's mind, I come to grips With half her purpose thinking of these ships.
The Power of Gold.
From time immemorial the progress of the world, in colonization, in the Sciences , and in the Arts owes its advance to the adventurous spirit of the pioneer. Particularly is this the case in the opening up of new countries and in the improvements in ship transport to those countries.
Kipling has sung the song of the pioneer and has laid stress on the pioneer spirit, but he has not touched on that great magnet which has ever drawn the pioneer on and dragged civilisation in his wake--the magnet of gold. Gold and its glamour has been the cause, one can almost say, of all the tragedy and all the evil in this world, but also of nearly all its good and all its progress.
It was the discovery of gold which opened up the fair States of Western America and brought about the building of the wonderful American clipper. In the same way the great Dominions of Australia and New Zealand owe their present state of progress and prosperity to that shining yellow metal; and without its driving power there would have been no history of the great Liverpool emigrant ships to record.
Emigrant Ships to Australia in the Forties.
Before the discovery of gold in Australia, the trade of that Colony was at a low ebb, suffering from want of enterprise and financial depression; whilst the emigrant ships running from Liverpool and other British ports, owing to the want of healthy competition, were of a very poor description. The horrors of the long five-months passage for the miserable landsmen cooped-up in low, ill-ventilated and over-crowded 'tween decks, were fit to be compared with those of the convict ship. The few vessels with humane owners and kindly captains were in a class by themselves. These, indeed, thought of the health and comfort of the wretched emigrants and did not content themselves with merely keeping within the letter of the Government regulations, which might more fitly have been framed for traffic in Hell.
For first class passengers the splendid Blackwall frigates of Green, Money Wigram and Duncan Dunbar, and the beautiful little clippers of the Aberdeen White Star Line, provided excellent accommodation and a comfortable and safe, if not a particularly fast, passage. But the ordinary steerage passenger had to content himself as a rule with a ship that was little better than a hermetically sealed box: one as deep as it was long, with clumsy square bows and stern, with ill-cut ill-set sails--its standing rigging of hemp a mass of long splices; and with a promenade deck no longer than the traditional two steps and overboard.
These Colonial wagons were navigated by rum-soaked, illiterate, bear-like officers, who could not work out the ordinary meridian observation with any degree of accuracy, and either trusted to dead reckoning or a blackboard held up by a passing ship for their longitude; whilst they were worked by the typically slow-footed, ever-grousing Merchant Jack of the past two centuries.
Report on Steerage Conditions in 1844.
Nearly everyone has read of the horror of the convict ships, but the following report of steerage conditions in 1844 plainly shows that in many respects the emigrant's lot was every bit as hard and revolting: "It was scarcely possible to induce the passengers to sweep the decks after their meals or to be decent in respect to the common wants of nature; in many cases, in bad weather, they would not go on deck, their health suffered so much that their strength was gone, and they had not the power to help themselves. Hence the between decks were like a loathsome dungeon. When hatchways were opened, under which the people were stowed, the steam rose and the stench was like that from a pen of pigs. The few beds they had were in a dreadful state, for the straw, once wet with sea water, soon rotted, besides which they used the between decks for all sorts of filthy purposes. Whenever vessels put back from distress, all these miseries and sufferings were exhibited in the most aggravated form. In one case it appeared that, the vessel having experienced rough weather, the people were unable to go on deck and cook their provisions: the strongest maintained the upper hand over the weakest, and it was even said that there were women who died of starvation. At that time the passengers were expected to cook for themselves and from their being unable to do this the greatest suffering arose. It was naturally at the commencement of the voyage that this system produced its worst effects, for the first days were those in which the people suffered most from sea-sickness and under the prostration of body thereby induced were wholly incapacitated from cooking. Thus though provisions might be abundant enough, the passengers would be half-starved."
This terrible report was given before a Parliamentary Committee.
A Shipping Notice of 1845.
It does not even mention the overcrowding which took place, owing to the smallness of the ships, which can well be realised by the following shipping notice taken from a Liverpool newspaper of January, 1845.
NEW SOUTH WALES.
Will be despatched immediately:--
For PORT PHILLIP and SYDNEY, New South Wales. The splendid first-class English-built ship "ROSSENDALE," EDWARD DAVIDS GOULDING, Commander.
A1 at Lloyd's, 296 tons per register, coppered and copper fastened, and well known as a remarkably fast sailer. This vessel has spacious and elegant accommodation for passengers, replete with every convenience and presents a first rate opportunity.
For terms of freight and passage apply to
MESSRS. FAIRFIELD, SHALLCROSS & CO.
The Discovery of Gold in Australia.
However, on the discovery of gold in 1851, the Colonial trade leapt out of its stagnation and squalor and at one bound became one of the most important in all the world's Mercantile Marine. And when the gold fever drew a stream of ignorant English, Scotch and Irish peasants to Australia, men, women and children, most of whom had never seen a ship before they embarked and who were as helpless and shiftless as babes aboard, it was seen that something must be done to improve the conditions on the emigrant ships. Government regulations were made more strict and inspectors appointed; but the time had passed when they were needed--competition now automatically improved the emigrant ships from stern to stem.
The discovery of alluvial gold in Australia was mainly brought about by the great Californian strike of 1849. That strike upset the theories of geologists and set every man on the world's frontiers searching for the elusive metal. The first authentic discovery in the Colonies was made near Clunes, in March, 1850, but it was not until September, 1851, that gold began to be found in such astounding quantities that large fortunes were rocked out in a few weeks.
The first licenses for diggers were issued in September, 1851; and the effect on the ports of Melbourne and Geelong was immediate--wages began to rise to fabulous heights, as did the common necessaries of life, even to wood and water. Shearers, harvesters and bushmen were soon almost unobtainable, and the very squatters themselves left their herds and flocks and rushed to the goldfields. The police and custom-house officials followed them, and in their turn were followed by the professional men of the towns--the doctors, lawyers and even clergymen. And as has ever been the case, sailors, running from their ships, were ever in the forefront of the stampede.
Add to tbrJar First Page Next Page Prev Page