Helenslee
The Helenslee, a ship of 790 tons,
was another of Shaw Savill's early ships which made several voyages to Auckland and Otago
with immigrants. She never made any fast passages, but on her second visit to the colony
[this voyage] she arrived at Auckland after a fairly good run of 100 days from Glasgow.
This was he best work, the last voyage to Auckland occupying 145 days. On the passage out
to Auckland in 1864 she had favourable winds almost from the start, but Captain Brown and
the passengers had an anxious time when passing through icebergs on November 18, when in
latitude 46deg 25min south, longitude 41deg 30min east. The bergs extended for several
miles, and were from 80ft to 100ft high. The Helenslee encountered a series of gales in
1872 when bound for Auckland in command of Captain Cleary. The ship sailed from London on
the 11th January, and beat into the Downs on the 16th in the face of a severe gale, where
she anchored and was riding with 90 fathoms of chain. Three days later she made she made
another start, but before she had got far a sudden squall came unexpectedly and split
several sails. This was followed by another terrific gale from WSW, and Captain Cleary
considered it advisable on the 27th to put back to Portland for repairs. These were
effected, and the ship made another start, but ten days later, when in the Bay of Biscay,
another terrific gale broke upon the ship, accompanied by a very high and broken sea. The
vessel was severely strained, and shipped large quantities of water, which fell on deck in
masses of tons weight at a time. On the 30th Aprilanother fearful gale struck the ship on
her starboard quarter, accompanied by a heavy sea, which broke on board and stove in the
port side of the deckhouse. This necessitated the intermediate passengers being removed to
the cabin for safety. On the 18th May ill-luck still followed the ship. A terrific
hurricane sprang up from the ENE, accompanied by a dangerous and fearfully high sea, which
filled the decks and cabin with water and carried away several sails. One of the ships
sudden lurches hove the steersman over the wheel and he was seriously injured. After a
spell of moderate weather during the next week the Helenslee struck another storm on the
16th May, when several more sails were split and the decks filled with water. During the
night a tremendous sea struck the ship clean amidships and smashed in the topgallant rail
and doing much damage to the decks. Bad weather continued until the ship reached port on
June 5th, 145 days from Gravesend. Captain Cleary stated the voyage had been the most
trying and anxious one he had ever experienced.
White Wings - Sir Henry Brett
Our sincere thanks to Bruce Goodman for this passenger list.
Name | Age | County | Occupation | |
First Cabin | ||||
Jones | Rev Mr | |||
Lang | Mr | |||
Lee | Mr | |||
Orchard | Mr | |||
Miss | ||||
Master | ||||
Master | ||||
Stevens | Mr | |||
Second Cabin | ||||
Armstrong | Mr | |||
Barker | Mr | |||
Brown | Miss | |||
Chisney | Miss | |||
Davie | Mrs | |||
Henderson | Mr | |||
Howell | Mr | |||
Lloyd | Mr | |||
Copyright Denise & Peter
2004
Reference:
The Daily Southern Cross June 6th 1872