—G. J. Brady.
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.