“ROYAL DANE.”
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A curious incident happened anent the Mistress of the Seas; a passenger brought an action against the ship because he was ducked during the ceremony of crossing the line and the captain was fined £100.
The Sunda was a very fine fast ship, and made some fine passages under the famous Bully Bragg.
Black Ballers in the Queensland Emigrant Trade.
Besides some smaller Nova Scotia built ships such as the Conway, Wansfell, Utopia and David MacIver, some of the best of the later Black Ballers were engaged in the Queensland emigration trade in the late sixties and early seventies.
The Flying Cloud and the Sunda once had a great race out to Moreton Bay, in which the Sunda beat the Flying Cloud by 18 miles in a 4-day run which averaged 16 knots; this was the voyage in which Flying Cloud’s boat was capsized between Brisbane and the anchorage, the second mate and all in her being drowned.
In 1870 I find the following passages to Queensland:
Young Australia, Captain James Cooper, 241 passengers left London, 17th May—arrived Brisbane 25th August—100 days out.
Flying Cloud, Captain Owen, 385 passengers left Liverpool, 4th June—arrived Hervey’s Bay 30th August—87 days out.
Royal Dane, Captain D. R. Bolt, 497 passengers left London, 30th July—arrived Rockhampton 19th November—112 days out.
“Sunda” and “Empress of the Seas” Carry Sheep to New Zealand.
In the early days of the gold excitement, the emigrant ships rushed out and home, but in the sixties we find them making short intermediate passages; for instance, the Sunda and Empress of the Seas one year transported thousands of sheep from Australia to New Zealand, each ship making two trips between Port Phillip and Port Chalmers, with several thousands of sheep on board each trip.
The Gold Rush to Gabriel’s Gully in 1862.
In 1862 several ships were hurried across with diggers from Melbourne to Port Chalmers for the gold rush to Gabriel’s Gully. Money ran like water in Port Chalmers in those days, and as usual the gold miners were a pretty uproarious crowd. The Lightning, which was commanded at that date by Captain Tom Robertson, the marine painter, made a special trip with 900 diggers on board, and they gave Captain Robertson so much trouble that he put into the Bluff and landed a number of them there. The Blue Jacket, also, took a load of this troublesome cargo.
After Life and End of the Liverpool Emigrant Clippers.
A favourite round in the latter days of the Liverpool soft-wood clippers was from Melbourne across to Auckland and from there over to the Chincas to load guano. From this the survivors gradually descended to the Quebec timber trade. By the early seventies I find Marco Polo, Red Jacket, Ben Nevis, and other well-known ships already staggering to and fro across the Atlantic between the Mersey and the St. Lawrence, whilst in June, 1874, the Flying Cloud got ashore on the New Brunswick coast, when making for St. John’s, and was so strained that she was compelled to discharge her cargo and go on the slip for repairs. Here misfortune again overcame the grand old ship, for she took fire and was so gutted that she was sold for breaking up.
It is curious how many of the old American-built soft-wood ships were destroyed by fire, their number including the James Baines, Lightning, Empress of the Seas No. 1, Blue Jacket No. 1, Ocean Chief, Fiery Star, and second Sovereign of the Seas.
The Burning of “Lightning”.
The Lightning was burnt on 31st October, 1869, whilst alongside the pier at Geelong loading wool, and she already had 4000 bales of wool on board when the fire was discovered at 1.30 in the morning in her fore hold. From the first the ship seemed to be doomed, and it was feared that the wharf might catch fire. She had an anchor out ahead, and an attempt was made to heave her clear of the pier, but the flames soon drove the crew from the windlass; however, on the mooring lines being cast off, she drifted clear, and swung to her anchor, the whole fore part of the ship being now in flames. The foremast, which was an iron one, melted in its step owing to the heat and soon went over the side. An attempt was made to scuttle her by the desperate means of bombarding her from two 32-pounders, and to a modern gunner the result was astounding to say the least of it, for at only 300 yards range most of the rounds missed the Lightning altogether, whilst the few that hit her did more harm than good by giving the wind access to the fire and thereby increasing its fury. After burning all day, the famous old ship sank at sundown.