HERO 985 gross tons, 851 net. Lbd:224'3" x 29'2" x 15'7". Iron steamship of 2 cylinders producing 150 horsepower. Built by C & W Earle, Hull England for unknown owners in 1861 as a passenger vessel. Sold 1862 to J Baines & Co. Blackball line, Liverpool. November 1863 sold to T J Sumner, J Benn & R Bright and registered at Melbourne. 1865 chartered by the Queensland Government for a mail run from Brisbane to Batavia, linking with the English mail steamers at that port. 1866 she ran the newcastle - melbourne coal trade. 1873 she was used on the Auckland - Sydney - Melbourne passenger service, extending that itinery to Fiji by 1878. 1880 sold to Union Steamship Co of New Zealand. June 1886 sold to Mitchell, Tyler, O'Connor & Irwin, of Sydney. March 1891 sold to Noumea interests ( O L Montifiore ) and hulked. 1901 the hulk was driven ashore, permanently on Kaouauva, New Caledonia
GREAT BRITAIN 3,270 gross tons, 2,982 net. Lbd: 322' x 51' x 32'. Iron screw steamer, Built 1843 by Patterson, Bristol for the Great Western Steamship Company on a design by the renown engineer I K Brunel and initially designed as a screw steamer. When completed she was ‘ the most beautiful ship afloat’. Operated initially on the Atlantic run, the first iron vessel to do so. In September 1846, ran ashore in Dundrum Bay, Ireland and lay there all winter until towed off. Sold to Gibbs, Bright & Co (Liverpool and Australian Line) also known as Bright Bros. & Co., Melbourne. After a rig change to be of 2 funnels and four masts in 1852, ran in the Melbourne - London trade for twenty- one years. 1853 at Liverpool she underwent further modifications to be of one funnel and three masts. Sold circa 1881. In 1882 she was converted to a sailing ship 1886 after sustaining serious damage, she was hulked, towed to Sparrow Cove at Port Stanley, Falkland Islands, 1927. Since - The hulk of the Great Britain was towed to England from the Falkland Islands for restoration in Bristol, where she may be seen
LADY DARLING 649 gross tons, 528 net. Lbd: 189'4" x 27'8" x 16'5". Iron steamship built by W H Potter & Co., Liverpool. Three-masted and of 2 cylinder engine producing 100 horsepower. Owned by T & H Bright, registered at Liverpool. February 1866 owned by C E Bright registered Melbourne (read: Bright Bros & Co., Melbourne) who announced her as a passenger vessel on the Melbourne - Sydney - Newcastle route. Transferred back to Liverpool in 1869 where she underwent lengthening in 1870 revealing tonnage as 895 gross and 722 net. Her dimensions read: 239'6" x 28'1" x 16'4". Returned to Australian shores 1874, purchased by this concern that year and January 1875 officially owned by James Paterson & E Newbiggin (James Paterson & Co). Since her refitting it seems she became a cargo vessel, collier only, carrying coal from Newcastle to Melbourne. November 11 1880 wrecked of Cape Dromedary, New South Wales
ROYAL CHARTER 2,719 gross tons. Lbd: 235' x 41'5" x 22'5". Iron auxiliary steamship, built on the River Dee, south of Liverpool 1854. Owned by Gibbs Bright & Company. After a disasterous start to her career with several mishaps, reached Melbourne in the excellent time of just under sixty days. Her speed and splendid accommodation attracted great interest and she soon became one of the most popular ships to visit Australia. On 26 August 1859 under Captain Taylor, she left Melbourne for Liverpool with 500 passengers and crew, 68,397 ounces of gold and £48,000 in sovereigns. After a record run of fifty-five days she reached Queenstown, Ireland where thirteen passengers disembarked and eleven riggers from another ship joined her. Passengers requested she call at Holyhead to allow them to see the giant Great Eastern, at that time the largest ship in the world, and this delay was to prove fatal. As she left Holyhead rough weather was working up and when off Point Lynas (north Anglesey, Wales), hurricane force winds and giant seas forced her towards the rocky coast as she searched in vain for a pilot. For a while she used the engines to help her anchors hold her while the masts were cut away, but the cables parted, the rigging from her fallen masts tangled around her propeller shaft, and just before dawn on 25 October she went ashore in Moelfre Bay on the east coast of Anglesey, Wales. Only 27 men managed to reach shore before huge waves dumped the ship across rocks, breaking her in two and drowning 459 persons, including her master. A four sided memorial stone pedestal stands in the tiny church of Lianallgo in Angelsey, north-west Wales. Two months after the tragedy Charles Dickens visited Moelfre and adapted a story of the wreck for a tale in the Uncommercial Traveller. As John Lewis of Bristol who was the purser on the Royal Charter was lost with all his records, the exact number of persons on board was never known. Divers were sent down to recover bodies and the gold, in bags and iron chests, estimated to be about half a million sterling. Much was recovered. Some specie still remains on the treacherous wrecksite
GAZELLE 79 gross tons, 47 net. Lbd: 82' x 15'2" x 7'8". Iron steamship built by John Horn, Waterford England in 1852 and rebuilt by Anderson & Grubbs at Lytellton new Zealand during 1867. From the onset she was owned by A G Robinson of Melbourne although registered in London. In 1854 she was employed as a ferry so to speak operating between Williamstown and Melbourne, no great distance in any locals' eyes. (Especially mine). Also owned during that year of 1854 since A G Robinson by F E Liardet under whom the ferry service most likely took effect. A street in Melbourne carries the Liardet surname. 1856 saw ownership of M L Goodwin, registered Launceston Tasmania. He employed her on the passenger trade between Launceston and Georgetown until 1860 when sold to Lilly and Robinson, both of the Western districts of Victoria. Likely serviced the coastal ports south- west of Victoria to Melbourne, as was their domain until September 1861 when sold to J T Cockshott, Melbourne. From February 1862 until April 1879 she worked the New Zealand coastal trade under unknown New Zealand ownership. During that time she was rebuilt as per above. April 1879 owned by R Bright, of Melbourne and so registered there. One month later owned by W J Wischer and in March 1884 owned by H F Walker. Spending her last ten years plying the coast of Victoria under the ownership of the last three mentioned, she eventually sank at Apollo Bay Victoria on 25th February 1888
|
