The Halcione was specially built for the New Zealand trade with ⅞ iron plates backed with 3 feet of cement, her saloon was insulated with charcoal, and she had 200 tons of cement stiffening. She was built by Steele, of Greenock, and was lost in 1895 in Fitzroy Bay near Pincarrow Heads, outside Wellington.
The Euterpe was sold to the Chileans, and for some years was to be seen in the South Pacific rigged as a barque. Then the Alaska Packers bought her and renamed her Star of India. I believe she is still afloat.
The Himalaya was also sold to the Alaska Packers Co., and renamed Star of Peru.
The Soukar was sold to the Spaniards and registered at Barcelona under the name of Humberto. She has been broken up.
The Glenlora went to the Scandinavians and was still afloat at the outbreak of the Great War. The Hudson is also a Scandinavian barque at the present time.
The Merope was burnt whilst homeward bound, being off the Plate at the time. Another well-known early Shaw, Savill emigrant ship to be burnt at sea was the Caribou, of 1160 tons; she was a wood ship and her cargo of coal caught fire in the year 1869. The Shaw, Savill ships were rather unlucky with fires and collisions, their worst disaster being, of course, the loss of the Cospatrick, Dunbar’s old frigate-built ship, which they bought in 1873 for £10,000. The tragedy happened on her second voyage under Shaw, Savill’s house-flag.
The Loss of the “Cospatrick.”
The Cospatrick sailed from London for Auckland on the 11th September, 1874, with general cargo, 429 passengers and a crew of 44 men under Captain Elmslie.
Tuesday, 17th November, found the ship to the south’ard of the Cape, the wind being very light from the nor’west. And here is the tragedy as it was given by Henry Macdonald, the second mate, one of the three survivors. He stated that after keeping the first watch, he had not been long below when he was aroused by the cry of “Fire!” Without stopping to dress, he rushed on deck and found that dense clouds of smoke were pouring up from the fore peak, a fire having broken out in the bosun’s locker, which was full of oakum, rope, varnish and paint.