The Colonial Clippers

by Basil Lubbock

The Carriers of the Golden Fleece.

IF it was the discovery of gold that founded Australia’s fortune, the Golden Fleece and the Wheat Sheaf have set it upon a rock.

It was the gold fever that swept the great tide of emigration in the direction of the Southern Cross and carried the star of the Liverpool shipowners upon its flood, but that star began to set as soon as the output of alluvial gold began to diminish, as soon, indeed, as the great soft-wood clippers of the Black Ball and White Star began to grow water-soaked and strained, for their prosperity may be said to have ended with the sixties and had scarcely a longer run than the classification of their ships. But the percentage of emigrants landed by these ships, who stuck for any time to the elusive hunt for gold, was very small; and the greater number of the gold seeking emigrants eventually settled and worked on the homesteads and great runs of the interior, with the natural result that there was a large and steady increase in the output of wool, hides, tallow, wheat and other land products.

The huge Liverpool emigrant ships, however, were not fitted for the economical transport of these products to their central market in London. They were too big for one thing, for, in those early days, wool and tallow dribbled into the big ports in small amounts; also the repair bills of these soft-wood clippers were an ever increasing item to put against their freight receipts.

Thus it came about that the wonderful American-built ships dropped out of the running. But their London rivals, the beautiful British-built hard-wood ships of half their size, having no heavy repair bills, being splendidly built of that imperishable wood teak, and being able to fill up their small holds quickly, continued to carry passengers outward and wool homeward until supplanted in their turn by the magnificent iron clippers of the Clyde, Liverpool and Aberdeen.

The London Wool Sales.

These were the days when great races home from Australia took place—not only did ship race against ship, but it was the aim and object of every skipper to get his ship home in time for the first wool sales in London. And in the wool trade, unlike the custom in the tea trade, the fastest ships were loaded last—the pride of place—that of being the last ship to leave an Australasian port for the London wool sales being reserved for that which was considered the fastest ship in the trade.

In the eighties, when the tea trade was entirely in the hands of the steamers, this pride of place in Sydney was always kept for Willis’ famous clipper, Cutty Sark, no other ship, either wood or iron built, being able to rival her passages both out and home in the wool trade.

The London wool sales took place in January, February and March, and the lists of the first sales were closed as soon as a sufficient number of cargoes had arrived or been reported in the Channel. Thus it was the aim of every skipper to get reported as soon as possible after reaching the Channel, as the cargoes of ships reported in the Channel by noon on the opening day of the sales were included in the sale lists. Whereas if a captain missed the sales, his cargo would have to be warehoused for perhaps two or three months until the next sales, thus involving extra expenses such as warehouse charges, loss of interest, etc., not to speak of the possibility of a fall in the price of wool.

In those days signal stations were not as numerous on our coasts as they are now, and so wool clippers on arriving in the Channel kept a specially sharp look-out for fishing smacks or pilot cutters to take their reports on shore. Occasionally the captains of the late-starting, crack ships were promised substantial cheques if they caught the sales and truly it was money well earned.

The Lost Art of the Stevedore.

In the present days of steam, steel and water ballast, stevedoring is no longer the fine art which it used to be in the days of masts and yards, clipper keels and oak frames.

As every sailor knows, no two ships are alike, even when built from the same moulds; and though this is the case with every water-borne vessel, it is specially noticeable with that almost living thing—the sailing ship. Not only does every sailing ship have its own character as regards its stability, but its character often changes with age, etc., and no tables can give the exact way in which its cargo should be loaded as regards weights and trim. The hand books on the subject give rough, general rules, but the captain of a ship, from his own first hand knowledge of his ship’s peculiarities, would always give careful instructions to the stevedore as to how he wanted the weights of the cargo placed or distributed.

So first of all the old time stevedore had to load his ship in accordance with her own particular character and the wishes of her captain. Next he had to be an expert packer, especially with a wooden ship with a hold cut up by big oak frames and knees. No space was wasted. There is an old story told of a stevedore loading the little Tasmanian barque Harriet McGregor, who sang out to his mate on the wharf, “Sling us down a box of pickles, Bill!” Then the stevedore had all sorts of goods in a general cargo, some of which could not be stowed near each other, such as soda, which melts at sea and destroys cottons, etc. Also washed wool, leather, flour or wheat would be damaged if stowed with tallow and greasy wool. Other goods could only be stowed in the hatches, such as cases of glass, whilst wine and spirits had to be stowed aft to be out of the way of the crew.

Instances have been known also of ships coming home from Australia with their iron masts packed full of bullocks’ horns, shank and knuckle bones, which were more generally used for broken stowage.

An amusing case with regard to bullocks’ horns and knuckle bones happened on one of Carmichael’s ships, through the mate signing the bills of lading without examining them. He signed for so many horns, so many shank bones and so many knuckle bones loose. On arrival in London the consignee sent a lighter for the horns, and intimated that he wanted the shank bones delivered entirely separate from the knuckle bones. Carmichael’s got out of it by some very plain speaking, the mate’s receipts proving that a fraud had been attempted.

Bags of pearl shell were generally used in Sydney to fill up cargo near the hatches; and I find in July, 1868, that the Jerusalem, (Captain Largie) shipped 9 tons of mother-of-pearl shell at Melbourne in small casks and 3-foot cases.

Below are specimens of early cargoes home from Australia in the sixties, with port charges, pilotage dues, etc.

The ship Omar Pasha, Captain Thomas Henry, belonging to Messrs. G. Thompson, Sons & Co., of Aberdeen, took in at Melbourne, in October, 1864:—

3550	bales of wool,
80	casks of tallow,
14,000	hides,
20	tons spelter,
4000	ounces of gold

and 12 cabin passengers. With the above she drew 19 ft. aft and 18 ft. 9 in. forward, her best trim at sea. The ballast of stones, spelter and hides was estimated at 430 tons. The wool was screwed in; and the dunnage, stones and horns, was 12 inches thick in the bottom and 15 inches in the bilges. Port charges were 1s. per ton; pilotage in £28 18s. 6d.; out £28 18s. 6d.

The ship Transatlantic, Captain Philip, belonging to Messrs. G. Thompson, Junr., & Co., of London, took in at Sydney, June, 1864:—

1360	bales of wool,
135	casks of tallow,
5300	hides,
300	bags and 40 cases Kauri gum,
50	tons of iron bark timber.

She had no ballast. Dunnage wood in the bottom 9 inches, bilges 12 inches, one treenail between the wool and the sides. So laden, she drew 14½ ft. aft, 14 ft. forward. Her best sea trim was 6 inches by the stern. Port charges at Sydney, customs entry and shipping office £4 4s.; pilotage out 4d. per ton; the same in.

The ship Queen of Nations, Captain Thomas Mitchell, belonging to Messrs. G. Thompson & Co., left Sydney on 21st September, 1865, loaded with:—

484	bales of wool,
44	bales of cotton,
1037	casks of cocoanut oil,
219	casks of tallow,
2602	ingots and plates of copper,
62	tons of gum,
9452	hides.

For ballast she had 30 tons of kentledge; dunnage, treenails and bones, 12 inches in the bottom, 18 in the bilges and 6 in the sides. The hides were laid from two beams abaft the foremast to the mizen mast; oil on the hides, with a tier of tallow between; the wool, cotton, gum, etc., in the ’tween decks. Her best trim was 9 inches by the stern. So laden she drew 18 ft. forward and 18½ ft. aft. Pilotage in £14 2s.; out £14 2s.

The Murray, under the command of Captain J. Legoe, belonging to Anderson’s Orient Line, left Adelaide in December, 1863, loaded with:—

3182	bales of wool,
19,522	ingots of copper,
1590	bags of silver lead ore,
473	bags of copper ore,
35	boxes silver lead ore,
15	bales of leather,
277	calf skins,
1150	horns,
16	cases and 10 casks of wine.

She had a full complement of passengers, who occupied 250 tons of cargo space. So laden she drew 15½ ft. forward and 16 ft. 2 in. aft, her best draught for sailing being 15 ft. forward and 15 ft. 8 in. aft. Port charges, harbour dues and light and tonnage dues £28 11s. 6d.; pilotage in and out £17.

Screwing Wool.

As every sailorman knows, wool is screwed into a ship’s hold like cotton; and a good captain in the old days would see that his ship was jammed so tight with bales that one would think her seams would open—indeed wood and composite ships always used to have their decks and topsides well caulked before loading wool. As showing how much the amount of wool loaded depended upon the captain, Captain Woodget used to get 1000 bales more into the Cutty Sark than his predecessor. He made a habit of spending most of the day in the ship’s hold and thought nothing of having a tier or half longer pulled down and restowed if he was not satisfied with the number of bales got in.

You can dunnage casks o’ tallow; you can handle hides an’ horn;

You can carry frozen mutton; you can lumber sacks o’ corn;

But the queerest kind o’ cargo that you’ve got to haul and pull

Is Australia’s “staple product”—is her God-abandoned wool.

For it’s greasy an’ it’s stinkin’, an’ them awkward, ugly bales

Must be jammed as close as herrings in a ship afore she sails.

For it’s twist the screw and turn it,

And the bit you get you earn it;

You can take the tip from me, sir, that it’s anything but play

When you’re layin’ on the screw,

When you’re draggin’ on the screw,

In the summer, under hatches, in the middle o’ the day.

So sings the Australian sailor’s poet Brady.

In the sixties the bales of wool were pressed on shore by hydraulic power, then lashed with manila or New Zealand hemp, or hoop iron, at the ship’s expense. The bales were generally pressed on their flats, but sometimes, for the sake of stowage, on their ends, when they were called “dumps.” They had to be stowed immediately after being pressed, as if left for any time, especially in the sun, the wool would swell and carry away the lashings. There were from 8 to 12 lashings for each package of Sydney wool, which were called single dumps, doubles, trebles and fourbles, according to the number lashed together, trebles being the most common.

The actual loading of a wool cargo was a slowish process, and sometimes attended with danger to the stowers if great care was not used, as wool bales have great elasticity. A description of the uses of screws, sampson posts, trunk planks, toms, shores, etc., would, I fear, be so technical as to be wearisome.

One of the chief dangers in a wool cargo is spontaneous combustion. This caused the end of several fine ships, such as the Fiery Star and the new Orient liner Aurora. Spontaneous combustion was likely to happen if the bales were wet or damp, either when loaded or through contact with other damp cargo, dunnage, ballast or even sweating water tanks. Often enough the wool got a wetting on its way to the ship, and though possibly afterwards sun-dried on the outside of the bales, so that to all appearances it was perfectly dry, was really damp inside and very inflammable. Some Australian wool growers contended that the practice of clipping sheep in the morning when the fleeces were heavy with dew was a cause of spontaneous combustion.

Wool, of course, being a very light cargo, requires stiffening, but hides, tallow, etc., were generally used as deadweight, also copper ore. A ship with a wool cargo was reckoned to require two-thirds of the ballast necessary when in ballast only. Wool freights in the early days were 1d. per lb., and gradually fell to a farthing per lb.—this was for washed wool: the freight for greasy wool, which had not been cleaned and was therefore heavier than washed wool, being about 25% less.