The history of steam navigation

by John Kennedy

Mr. Ebenezer Pike, J.P. (late Chairman Cork Steamship Co.).

The Ocean was a steamer of 300 tons, her principal dimensions being 154 by 22 by 15. She was built on the Mersey in 1836, and in 1838 made a record passage from Liverpool to Cork in 23 hours. She was intended for the general Coasting Service of the St. George Co., and had the honour of acting as tender to her more famous sister-ship the Sirius, on the occasion of the latter’s historic voyage to New York. Six years later when she had become the property of the Cork Steamship Co., she rendered valuable service to the Steampacket Vanguard, belonging to the Dublin and Glasgow Steam Packet Co. During a gale on the 14th December, 1844, the Vanguard, inward bound with a valuable cargo and a number of passengers, was forced on to the rocks about a quarter of a mile inside of Roche’s Point Lighthouse. This occurred about 4 a.m., and soon afterwards the Ocean, inwards from Bristol to Cork, passed the spot. The Vanguard’s signals of distress were noticed, and the Captain of the Ocean (Caldbeck), in spite of the heavy sea that was running, at once launched his boats, and succeeded in rescuing the Vanguard’s passengers. The steamer was afterwards towed off the rocks and taken to Passage for repairs. The Ocean continued in the service of the Cork Steamship Co. until 1853, when she was purchased by the Chester and Holyhead Railway Co. The remaining steamer transferred from the St. George Co., was the famous Sirius. The Sirius was built in 1837 by Menzies & Co., Perth, and engined by J. Wingate & Co., Glasgow; and cost £27,000. Her length was 208 feet, her breadth 25 feet, and her depth 18 feet. She had two masts and one funnel, and a dog figure-head, holding between the fore-paws a star, representing the dog-star Sirius, after which the vessel was named. On the occasion of her memorable voyage to New York, she sailed from London on the 28th March, 1838, under the command of Lieut. Richard Roberts, R.N., and called at Cork Harbour to coal and to embark the mails and passengers. The Ocean arrived from Liverpool on the 3rd April with mails and passengers to be transferred to the Sirius. Next morning at 10 o’clock the Sirius got under way, being accompanied as far as the entrance to the harbour by the Ocean. There, a brief stoppage was made while the Ocean went alongside the Sirius to bring off a number of ladies and gentlemen who had been permitted to accompany their friends thus far, the steamers exchanged salutes, and then the Sirius continued her course, being watched with keen interest until she disappeared beneath the horizon. She arrived at New York at 10 p.m. on the 22nd April, and thus brought to a successful termination the first voyage ever made by a passenger steamer from Europe to America. She made two Trans-Atlantic voyages, and afterwards returned to the Home and Continental Services. When she became the property of the Cork Steamship Co. she was employed in the Glasgow, Dublin and Cork Service, in which she continued until 1847. On the evening of the 15th June of that year, she sailed from Dublin to Cork with a general cargo, and forty passengers. All went well until 4 a.m. on the 16th, when she encountered a dense fog, and went on the rocks in Ballycotton Bay. Twelve passengers and two seamen were unfortunately drowned by the capsizing of a boat which had been launched, but the rest of the passengers and crew were saved by means of a rope which was passed from the ship to the shore. The vessel itself went to pieces on the 22nd June.

Sirius P. S. Cork Steamship Co.

Nearly all the steamers retained by the new management were sold to various owners within a few years from the reconstruction of the Company, and new and more powerful vessels substituted for them. The first of these, the Nimrod, was the first iron steamship owned in Cork. She was built by Thomas Vernon & Son, Liverpool, to Mr. Pike’s order in 1843, and was 177 feet long, 25 feet beam, and 16 feet deep. Her tonnage was 583 tons, and she had two masts, a clipper bow, and a huntsman (Nimrod) figurehead.

The Ajax, a vessel of about 600 tons, was added in 1845, and the Preussischer Adler, of 563 tons, also built in 1845, was purchased by the Company. The latter steamer was designed as an armed yacht for the late King of Prussia. She was built at Liverpool, and cost £32,000. She was a broad-beamed paddle-boat, having a beam of 28 feet, her length being 185 feet, and her depth 17 feet. She was rigged as a two masted schooner, with a cutwater, an eagle figurehead. The Company, after purchase, added to her length, and for this purpose placed her in the Rushbrook Dry Dock, Cork, belonging to the Channel Dry Docks and Engineering Co.; the Preussischer Adler being the first steamer to enter this dock. As originally designed her paddle-boxes were so constructed as to be capable of being turned down over her sides, in order that two large swivel guns which she carried on deck, might have a free range all round.

She remained in the service of the Company until 1884, when she was broken up in London.

In 1846 Messrs. R. and J. Lecky, of Cork, built a small screw steamer to the order of the Cork Steamship Co. She was named the Blarney, and was only 118 feet long, 19 feet broad, and 11 feet deep. Notwithstanding her diminutive size, she ran for a number of years between Liverpool and Havre, and was eventually sold to a Liverpool firm in 1854. It is noteworthy that the Blarney was the first cross-channel steamer built in Cork by R. & J. Lecky, and was the first screw steamer built for the Cork Steamship Co.

The year 1850 saw the Cork Steamship Co. involved in the most serious struggle which probably ever occurred in the coasting steamship trade. It began by the City of Dublin Co., at the solicitation of the Waterford and Kilkenny Railway Co., running opposition steamers to Waterford. The City of Dublin Co., in addition to their Liverpool and Dublin Service, had maintained for many years a regular service of steamers between Liverpool and Belfast. Mr. Joseph Malcomson (Waterford Steamship Co.) was a Director of the Cork Steamship Co., and his firm had a large financial interest in that Company. It was, therefore, to be expected that these two Companies would form staunch allies in any struggle, the more so, when the City of Dublin Co., in conjunction with the British and Irish Steampacket Co., extended the opposition to Cork. The Cork and Waterford Steamship Companies carried the war into their opponents’ territory. They put a steamer on the station between London and the South and East of Ireland once a week, between Liverpool and Belfast twice a week, and between Liverpool and Dublin, daily. The City of Dublin Co. offered to make contracts with merchants in Cork and Waterford, undertaking to carry their traffic freight free for three months, in response to which the Waterford Co. threatened to place two steamers on the Holyhead and Dublin station in conjunction with the Chester and Holyhead Railway Co.

The struggle between the various companies was fiercely maintained for over twelve months, until in April, 1851, upon the suggestion of Mr. Malcomson, an interview took place between a Director of the City of Dublin Steam Packet Co. and himself (as representing the Cork and Waterford Companies), at which meeting the companies concerned arrived at an amicable basis of settlement.