“Samuel Plimsoll.”
Famous as had been the Aberdeen White Star wooden clippers, the iron ships launched for Thompson in the seventies may almost be said to have eclipsed them. And not least of these magnificent vessels, either in speed, appearance or sea qualities was their third iron ship, the Samuel Plimsoll, named after a man who at that time was receiving broadside after broadside of abuse in shipping circles, yet who to-day is counted one of the greatest, if not the greatest, benefactors of our merchant seamen.
The Samuel Plimsoll was launched in September, 1873, and christened by Mrs. Boaden, wife of Captain Boaden, in the presence of Samuel Plimsoll, Esq. Captain Boaden left the famous Star of Peace in order to take Samuel Plimsoll from the stocks. She came out as a double topgallant yarder and was specially fitted for emigrants.
On her maiden passage she took out 180 emigrants. Leaving Plymouth on 19th November, she had poor winds and very light trades to the line, which was crossed on 11th December in 29° W. The meridian of Greenwich was crossed on 2nd January, 1874, and the Cape meridian four days later. Her best run in the 24 hours was 340 miles, and between the Leeuwin and the S.W. Cape, Tasmania, she was only four days. On the 17th January she overhauled and passed the Alexander Duthie, and finally arrived in Port Jackson on 1st February.
Whilst loading for London she was thus advertised in the Sydney Morning Herald:—
ABERDEEN CLIPPER LINE—For London.
THE SPLENDID NEW CLIPPER SHIP.
SAMUEL PLIMSOLL.
100 A1, 1444 tons. reg. R. Boaden, late of the Star of Peace, commander.
This magnificent vessel has just completed the passage from Plymouth in 73 days, and having a large portion of her cargo stowed on board will leave about 7th April.
As this vessel has lofty ’tween decks and large side ports, she offers a good opportunity for intermediate passengers, of which only a limited number will be taken. Carries an experienced surgeon.
For freight or passage apply to Captain Boaden or to Montefiore, Joseph & Co. Wool received at Talbots.
From the very first Samuel Plimsoll proved herself a very fast ship. Her best performance was 68 days to Sydney from 190 miles W.S.W. of the Bishops, when commanded by Captain Henderson, who had been chief officer on her first two voyages, and left her to command the Wave of Life, Moravian and Thermopylae, eventually returning to her as commander in 1884.
Samuel Plimsoll’s logs show that she revelled in the roaring forties. In 1876, when in 41° S., she ran 2502 miles in eight days, her daily runs being 348, 330, 301, 342, 320, 264, 340, 257. In 1883 she averaged 278 miles in 13 consecutive days, her best being 337. In 1895, when homeward bound, she ran from 49° 50′ S., 179° 05′ W., to 55° 25′ S., 79° 59′ W. in 15 days, 29th November to 12th December, her daily distances being—244, 286, 263, 259, 261, 273, 302, 290, 257, 253, 274, 264, 314, 235, 245—equalling 4020 miles.
The Samuel Plimsoll was in the Sydney trade until 1887; she was then transferred to the Melbourne trade. On her first passage to Melbourne, she left London 2nd March, 1888, dropped her pilot off the Start on 5th March, but was only 270 miles from the Start on the 15th owing to westerly gales; she crossed the equator 5th April, in 26° W., and averaged 218 miles a day from Trinidad to 130° E., her best run being 310 miles. She arrived in Hobson’s Bay on 22nd May, 79 days from the Start. During the whole of her career under the Aberdeen house-flag, her only mishap was the carrying away of a fore topmast: and this freedom from casualties was the case with most of Thompson’s green clippers.
Writing about the increase of sailing ship insurance rates in 1897, Messrs. Thompson remarked:—
Five of our sailing vessels now in the Australian trade, viz., Aristides, Miltiades, Patriarch, Salamis and Samuel Plimsoll are over 20 years of age, but they are in as good condition, by careful looking after and upkeep, as they were upon their first voyage; whilst they have a record that no general average homewards has ever been made on underwriters by any one of them since they were launched 21 to 28 years ago. (A remark which applies with equal truth to all our sailing vessels now running.) According to a reliable statement made up by the largest shippers and consignees of wool carried by our sailing ships during the last two years, we find that the claims thereon made on the underwriters, from inception of risk (which in many cases began in distant parts of the Colonies before shipment) were £149 1s. 7d., which, on 24,807 bales carried, valued at £12 per bale, came only to 1/- per cent. These figures clearly show that age does not affect the efficient carrying of cargo by vessels, built, as ours have been, of superior strength and scantlings, carefully kept up and treated in every way with a view to the safe carrying of valuable cargoes to and from Australia.
On the occasion of her only mishap a tropical squall carried away the bobstay, and down came the fore topmast and main topgallant mast. It happened that a Yankee clipper was in company; this vessel beat up to the dismantled Samuel Plimsoll and sent a boat off with the message that she was bound to Australia and would gladly tranship the passengers and carry them on to their destination. This offer, Captain Simpson, who then commanded the Samuel Plimsoll, declined with thanks, so the American went on her way.
It was all day on until the Aberdeen flyer had fresh masts aloft, and then she settled down to make up the lost time. And nobly she did so, one week’s work in the roaring forties totalling 2300 miles, and she eventually arrived at Melbourne, 82 days out. Some days later the Yankee arrived and her captain at once went to the Samuel Plimsoll’s agents and reported speaking her dismasted in the Atlantic, at the same time he commented on her captain’s foolhardiness in not transhipping his passengers.
“Is it Captain Simpson you are referring to?” asked the agent.
“Yes,” returned the Yankee.
“Wall,” said the agent, imitating the American’s leisurely drawl, “I guess you had better speak to him yourself. He’s in the next room.”
In 1899 the famous old ship caught fire in the Thames and had to be scuttled. After being raised and repaired she was sold to Savill of Billiter St., who ran her until 1902 when she was dismasted and so damaged on the passage out to Port Chalmers that they decided not to repair her. She was subsequently towed to Sydney from New Zealand at the end of a 120-fathom hawser, and later taken round to Western Australia where she was converted into a coal hulk.
And here is a description of her as she lies at her moorings in Fremantle harbour:—
From quay to midstream buoy, and from buoy to quay, she is plucked and hauled. Occasionally she feeds a hungry tramp with coal. Abashed and ashamed of her vile uncleanliness she returns to her midstream moorings where most of her time is spent in idleness and neglect. One looks in vain for the long tapering spars and the beautiful tracery of her rigging. Stunted, unsightly derricks have replaced them. The green-painted hull is now transformed into a dull red, a composition red that cries aloud, not of beauty, but of utility. Regularly with each returning ebb and returning flood of the Swan, she swings to her moorings the composition smeared effigy of Samuel Plimsoll, alternately facing towards river and sea. Marine life has made of her plates a habitation and refuge; her bottom is foul with the dense green growth of years. Her costly fittings, solid brass belaying pins and highly burnished, brass-covered rails and spotless decks, where are they? Coal-gritted baskets, whips and tackles are strewn along the decks: they all proclaim her squalid and servile calling.
Amongst these old hulks, however, she is withal the most dignified looking, the graceful lines of her hull lending her an air of distinction at once apparent even to the layman. As coal hulking goes, she is perhaps the most fortunate of her class. Days pass—weeks—perhaps months, all spent in slothful idleness and neglect, whilst her more unfortunate sister hulks scarcely know a day but what they are not coal feeding some important steam-driven interloper.