Part of the
Acorn Archive
Hearts of Oak
Captain J L Vivian Millett
The Ships – Page 1
Temperley Vessels on which
he saw service
Feature under the Temperley Ships section of the Site
SS GUILDFORD, SS BROOKFIELD,
SS BRACADAILE, SS PEMBRIDGE,
SS WEYBRIDGE
Other Vessels on which he saw service
TINTERN ABBEY
British
Sailing Ship – A Barque, sister to the WHITE ROSE.
Signal
Letters NPFM; Official Number 69628
Master
in 1881, Captain F C Wale
Master
in 1883 Captain P.B. Stephenson
Owners
CF Ellis (later H Ellis & Sons); Registered London
L 196.8ft; B 40.2ft; D 24.5ft
Built
July 1874 Valin, Quebec.
At
times, Chartered to Shaw Savill & Co.
Tonnage:
1,373 grt; 1,228 under deck; 1,373 nrt
Poop 104
tons; Forecastle 14 tons.
Her most notorious journey occurred before
JL Vivian Millett had occasion to suffer her.
She left
Gravesend Docks London on 8th January 1875, arriving at Lyttelton Canterbury,
New Zealand, 116 days later on 3rd May 1875.
She had encountered a severe storm in the Bay of
Biscay, having her starboard lifeboat
washed away. Her master was Captain P Stevens. She carried 309 assisted passage
passengers. 18 people had died on the journey, mostly young children. She also
carried English garden birds ( gold finches, starlings, blackbirds, partridges
etc ) for the Acclimatisation Society, 80% survived.
THE TWEED ( ex PUNJAUB )
“Willis’ Wonder”
In a Class by herself; grace, speed, beauty combined.
Her sister ship was the ASSAYE. They were laid down in
1852.
Originally a paddle steamer of 1,745 tons.
She survived, unscathed, a severe cyclone that hit
Bombay 1st November 1854,
and left on her maiden voyage 9th January
1855.
She carried the 10th Hussars and their
horses to Suez for the Battle of Sebastopol. Then took part in the Persian war.
On 22 May 1857 she was involved with the Indian Mutiny; where Midshipman Arthur
Mayo was awarded the Victoria Cross, and the crew and Lt Lewis were awarded high
commendation.
When the Indian Navy was merged with the Royal Navy,
both ASSAYE and PUNJAUB were sent to Britain for conversion into screw
steamers.
“Old John” Willis bought them both, and promptly sold
on the ASSAYE for as much as he had paid for the two ships.
Stripping THE TWEED down, he converted her into a
sailing ship.
Master 1862-1877 : Captain William Stuart
Master 1877-1881 : Captain Bryce
Master 1881-5 : J M Whyte
Master 1885–1888 : Captain E Moore ( ex Cutty Sark )
Owners : J Willis & Son; London
1646 tons; 250ft x 39.6ft x 25ft depth to keel.
Her hull was metalled in January 1878
THE TWEED was built by Cursetjee Rustomjee to the
designs of Oliver Lang
and was launched at the Bombay Dockyard on 21st
April 1854 for the Indian Marine ( later of the East India Company ).
I quote Captain Vivian Millett ....
THE TWEED - One of the peculiarities about her was that
the definite article was an integral part of her name, she was the last of the
East India Company's frigates. She was built at Bombay in 1852 as the PUNJAUB,
a paddle-wheel frigate; she was of selected Moulmein teak all through, and it
was said that twenty thousand pounds' worth of copper bolts were used in her
construction.
She had wedge-shaped bows and a square stern, with
windows and imitation quarter-galleries highly decorated with gilt gingerbread
work, and absolutely no sheer. After an eventful career as a steamship, which
has been written about so much that I don't propose to go into detail about it
here, she was sold in 1862 to Captain Willis, the old Indian Marine having been
merged into the Royal Navy. It is said that Captain Willis recouped himself for
his outlay by the sale of her engines. I joined her in the East India Docks one
day in May, 1882, together with nine other apprentices. She was commanded by
the well-known "Gentleman"
White, so called owing to the fact that he never appeared on deck in any
weather unless clad in a double-breasted reefer suit, white shirt, and starched
collar. In European ports he never went ashore without a top hat.
He was a man of about sixty, with a very squeaky voice.
He kept himself very much aloof from his officers.
Captain Millett also describe the loss of THE TWEED
That was the last I saw of THE TWEED.
Four years afterwards she was totally dismasted off the
Cape, when on a voyage from Trincomalee to New York, and was picked up and
towed into Algoa Bay by one of Donald Currie's coasting steamers. Shortly after
she anchored a south-easterly gale sprang up, and thirteen sailing ships were
driven ashore. THE TWEED's anchors
dragging, she got into shoal water and bumped her stern post out. She was afterwards condemned and broken
up, and her frames were used as arches for the roof of a church then being
built in Port Elizabeth.
THE TWEED was damaged in July, 1888 ( on a voyage from
China ) in the approaches of the Cape of Good Hope.
She was towed into Algoa Bay by SS VENICE,
In August that year she was condemned and,
indeed, her timbers became the roof of a Port Elizabeth
Church.
This is the same "old TWEED" that Joseph
Conrad describes in "Mirror of the Sea"
John Lester Vivian Millett was
transferred to the
CUTTY SARK 1883
There is much information already available on this
Classic Ship.
But, in brief
She was designed by Hercules Linton to the order of
John Willis.
She was to be modelled on the lines of THE TWEED.
Built 1869 Scott & Linton, Dumbarton, Scotland.
But, whilst under construction, the shipyard became
bankrupt
and she was quickly finished by neighbours Denby Bros.
212ft 5ins x 36ft x 21ft
963 grt; 921 nrt
She was sold off in 1895,
became the FEREIRRA, then MARIO DO AMBARRO.
Purchased by Captain Wilfred Dowman in 1922.
She stayed at Falmouth until 1938.
Mr Dowman’s widow kindly gave the ship to the
Thames Nautical Training College
and she now stands at Greenwich, London UK.
Master 1869-1872 : Captain George Moodie
Master 1872-3 : Captain F Moore
Master 1873-8 : Captain W Tiptaft
Master 1878-1880 : Captain J Wallace
Master 1880-82 : Captain Bruce
Master 1882-85 : Captain E Moore
Master 1885 : Captain Richard Woodget
SS GAMBIER
Howard Smith & Co. coasting steamer, S.S. GAMBIER,
a small double-funnel passenger boat,
formerly owned by Alfred Holt & Co.
Official
Number 68090
Signal
Letters NKFD
British
Screw Schooner
1,578
tons; 280.1ft x 31.9ft x 23.9ft
Registered
Melbourne
Built
March 1874 Dumbarton, by J & R Swan, UK
155 nhp;
compound engines; 10 knots
For W.
Howard Smith & Sons
Master :
R Brown
The steamship
GAMBIER was in Port Phillip Bay bound to Melbourne when, in the early morning
of August 28th, 1891, she met the steamship EASBY, in ballast, outward bound
for Newcastle, NSW. The vessels collided near the entrance to the West Channel,
near Pope’s Eye, the EASBY striking the GAMBIER amidships on the port side. The
passengers on the GAMBIER were asleep below, the time being about 1 a.m. Boats
were launched but with such haste that the tackles were fouled and one boat
capsized, drowning nearly all its occupants. There was short time available for
the saving of life as within ten minutes the GAMBIER had foundered, with only
her topmasts above water. A few of the passengers and crew clung to these and
were afterwards taken off by the EASBY. Six of the crew and 20 passengers were
drowned. The survivors, including the captain who was taken down when the
vessel sank but managed to swim to the surface, were brought to Melbourne by
the EASBY. She lies at a depth of 12 metres, scattered over a wide area, as she
had to be destroyed with explosives, to clear the Channel.
SS EASBY
later was lost, in 1907.
Iron
steamship (collier) 1489 tons.
Built 1873
Stockton, UK.
250.7ft x
32ft x 21.4 ft
She struck
the Skerries Reef, 12 miles east of Point Hicks; subsequently beached, wrecked,
in the harbour on the northern side of Gabo Island, 16th
April 1907. Captain Wallace and the crew of 25 escaped.
SS ERA
S.S. ERA, a
collier employed between Newcastle and Melbourne, and considered by all the
officers the most desirable ship of the fleet
1,550
grt; 299.2ft x 38.5ft
Built
1888 by E. Withy & Co, West Hartlepool
Owners
W. Howard Smith & Sons, Melbourne.
1st
May 1918 Torpedoed or mined, and sunk 18 miles from Cape Tenes, Algeria, on
passage Bougie to Glasgow with iron ore.
SS WASTWATER
Official
Number 95891
Signal
Letters LCJM
Owners W
Hall, Melbourne
British
Screw Steel Ship
2,862
grt; 320ft x 40.1ft x 21.6ft
Single
screw; 250hp
Built
1889; E. Withy & Co, West Hartlepool; Yard Nr 159
For
Huddart, Parker & Co, Melbourne.
1893
Wastwater SS Co (Sandy, Simpson & Co), Newcastle.
1907 N.
Filinis, Syra, Greece renamed FILINIS.
1915
Vaglianatos, Syra renamed DIONYSIOS VAGLIANATOS.
1916
Imperial Russian Navy requisition, renamed RIZE as Black Sea transport.
1919
Renamed INKERMAN.
1922
National Navigation Co of Egypt, Alexandria renamed COSTI.
1927
Seized by USSR at Odessa
Renamed KRASNAYA KUBAN - Soviet Naval
Transport.
1947
Hulked.
[Starke
/ Schell registers]
Raymond
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