“Lutterworth” and “Lady Jocelyn.”
Besides the ships specially built for them, Shaw, Savill occasionally bought a ship; of these probably the best known were the Lutterworth and Lady Jocelyn.
The Lutterworth was a fast little iron barque of 883 tons, built by Denton, of Hartlepool, in 1868. Shaw, Savill & Co. sold her eventually to Turnbull & Co., of Lyttelton, N.Z. Whilst on a passage from Timaru to Kaipara in ballast, she was dismasted and abandoned in Cook Straits. She was, however, picked up as a derelict and towed into Wellington, where she was converted into a coal hulk.
The Lady Jocelyn was one of those early auxiliary steamers, which always seem to have had long and adventurous careers. She was originally the Brazil, owned by the General Screw Steamship Company, and was built as far back as 1852 by Mare, of London, her measurements being—2138 tons; 254 feet length, 39 feet beam, 24.9 feet depth. Of iron construction, she had a spar deck above her two decks, and no expense was spared in her construction.
As an auxiliary steamer, like most of her kind, she proved to be a money-eater, and when after a few years the company went into liquidation she was bought by Shaw, Savill and put into their emigrant trade as a sailing ship. Then as passengers began to desert the clipper for steam, freezing machinery was put aboard her. Finally Shaw, Savill laid her up in the West India Docks, and used her as a frozen meat store ship, for which owing to her size and the freezing machinery aboard she was well adapted.
Years passed and still she remained the most familiar object in the West India Dock, right up to the present date, during which time she has served a variety of purposes, such as store ship for the Shipping Federation and a home for strike breakers.