THE MERSEY - Early Migrant Ship
Click on an image to enlarge.
1850: New Brunswick, Canada.
On the north shore of the Bay of Fundy, at the mouth of the St
John River, the City of St John grew. This city became a focal
point of early ship building and this historical trace is reflected
in the Arms of the City today:
With
this growth became a flourishing ship-building industry as good
building timber was widely and cheaply available.Furthermore it
was the demand for lumber in England that ships at this time were
sought. New Brunswick developed an exceptional reputation for ship
building and it is no surprise that one of the most famous ships
of this period was built here; the Marco Polo.Built in
1851, of wood, she came from James Smith’s shipyard in St
John. 
Our Mersey,
lesser known, was also built in New Brunswick of wood but in which
shipyard remains a mystery.
As a comparative guide to the size of the Mersey our Edwin Fox, similar to the picture right, now lying at Picton, South Island, and currently under restoration, was of 836 tons built in 1853: 157 feet in length; beam 29 feet 8 inches; draft 21 feet 6 inches. The dimensions of the Mersey however, are not known.
The Mersey was originally built as a full-rigged ship i.e. square-rigged on all three masts as seen above, then reduced at some time to a barque with the mizzen, the rear mast, set with only fore-and-aft sails, the principal one being the gaff-rigged spanker.
Basil Lubbock, who once served before the
mast, writing in April 1936, said: “The barque rig, as
against the ship rig, had certain well-known advantages. The
chief of these was economy of running. The barque required
fewer hands, less spars, less canvas and less rope, and the
difference in speed between the two rigs, especially up to
1,200 tons, was only slightly in favour of the ship rig, and
that by no means in every case.
‘It was also a well-known fact that some vessels sailed
better when stripped of their after-canvas and many a ship,
after being reduced to a barque in order to save expense, was
found to sail better than she did before the loss of her after
yards.
‘The reason for this strange anomaly will be plain enough
to all seamen. Many a heavily-rigged clipper ship griped terribly
when under all sail, with the result, first, that she became
very hard to steer and needed extra good helmsmen to keep her
from sailing a serpentine course; and, secondly, a knot or
more of speed would be knocked off her log slate by the drag
of the hard-over rudder.
‘Many well-known first-class ships were badly balanced owing to the
placing of their masts being slightly incorrect, and this defect
in balance was often rectified by the removal of the yards from the mizzen. I
know of very few instances of three-mast barques which steered badly, and it
was the easy steering of the barque rig which always made that type very popular
with foremast hands.”
The Mersey was built for the progressive Welsh family firm founded by Richard Davies born in Anglesey, 1778. Also locally the business was developed at Menai Bridge, on the Isle of Anglesey, North Wales.
Above Menai Bridge is portrayed in a Staffordshire
stoneware plate of 1840s.
The bridge itself was built between 1819
and 1826 by Telford the span of which was designed 100 feet above
low water to allow the masts of the sailing ships to clear. Below
is an etching of the bridge in 1841. From these scenes it will
be appreciated just how relevant the sailing ship was to commerce
at this time.
When the Mersey was added to The Davies Fleet, the family’s operation had expanded globally principally in the timber and guano trades. Once built the Mersey was then loaded with timber for her maiden voyage to Wales.
We do not know who designed the Mersey but it is clear that it was built to serve principally the Atlantic Trade as at 850 tons it was really on the small side to engage in trade to New Zealand; shipowners preferred their Australasian vessels to exceed 1000 tons in order to negotiate the heavy seas of Cape Horn. Captain Arthur H Clark writing in 1910 observed that: “ships slowly increased in tonnage, but did not much exceed 1000 tons until 1846 when the New World, of 1404 tons, was built by Donald McKay, followed by the Guy Mannering, of 1419 tons, and the Albert Gallatin, of 1435 tons, built by William H Webb, New York, in 1849, these three vessels being the largest afloat at that period.” So our Mersey was of medium size.
1851: Mersey was bought and on-sold after only two known passages. One was out of Dublin Harbour arriving 23rd June 1852 at New York with an Earl Jones as passenger. Outward voyages not only would have carried migrants to America but also Welsh roofing slates. Passages were also made to New Orleans, round Cape Horn to Callao in Peru to load guano and back to England.
1853: Mersey changed hands to William Bennett & Co. shipowner of London. William began his business in 1814 and was a pioneering shipowner in commercial deep-water sailing ships.
1860: Arthur Willis, Gann and Co of London acquired the Mersey. A case of litigation in London reflects that they were owners of the vessel at this time. Arthur Willis promoted the then fledgling colony of New Zealand and widely encouraged emigration. His company sent several small ships annually to New Zealand in the earliest years of the colony. Early advertisements in New Zealand are included at the foot of this article. He published both a Guide to New Zealand and maps of potential land claim areas. A successful shipowner, Arthur Willis was also an established representative of Lloyds and member of the London Society of Shipowners. Above all, and most importantly he was a Founding Director of the New Zealand Company of 1839. A descendant of Arthur’s, namely a John Willis, a master mariner in his own right as well as shipowner, commissioned the building of the famous Cutty Sark in 1868. Willis Gann & Co invited such distinguished persons as Julius Haast(1822-1887) to New Zealand to encourage exploration. Haast Pass and the adjacent district of South West Fiordland bears his name to this day.
An enterprising clerk in the employ of Willis, Gann & Co, namely Walter Saville, stepped out at this time and started his own company with an equally minded Robert Shaw to form the Shaw Savill Line which, in conjunction with the Albion Line had, by the end of this decade, a virtual monopoly on the England to New Zealand passenger ships.
1861:
8th February: Mersey departed Portsmouth for London.Then recorded at 812 tons.
16thFebruary: Under Captain Duncan Smith sailed from Graves
End, London.
24th February: Off Isle of Wight and discharged pilot.
28th March: Reached The Line (Equator).
28th May: Passed south of Tasmania.
7th June: Cape Maria at noon.
11th June: Arrived Auckland - passage of
105 days.
On board were 34 passengers in cabins and 71 others in steerage.
The
shipbroker’s agents in Auckland were Brown & Campbell.
William Brown was a lawyer and Doctor Logan Campbell initially
came as a surgeon on the sailing ships to Australia. Both were
visionaries; together they built and moved into the first wooden
home in Auckland. William became the 2nd Superintendent of the
Auckland Province but was recalled by the family to Scotland while
Logan was ultimately knighted for his extensive contribution to
Auckland; he was not only a major benefactor of the City but also
earned the respected honour as the ‘Father of Auckland’ -
portrait to right:
29th July: Mersey sailed to Great Barrier Island to land machinery. Consigned was: 6 drums; 3 bundles; 67 bars of iron; 2 steam boilers; 4 parts of iron chimney; 1 case block & chains; 5000 fire bricks. Delivery was successful. These items were to support the construction of a steam sawmill.
1st August: After unloading all the sawmill equipment Mersey is then known to have relocated to Kaipara Harbour where it took on a full charter of kauri for England. Kauri was being cut as far north as Dargaville in these days and being transported overland to Kaipara Harbour. Negotiating the dangerous sand bar on the narrow entrance to the harbour must have been a real challenge!
The picture right is a water colour dated September 1862 by a G.F.Allen and is a view from Port Fitzroy of the adjacent hills from the top of which good views of Auckland can be achieved on clear days. The ‘blobs’ represent kauri trees most of which were then between 4 and 5 feet in diameter. As early as 1794, kauri was in demand for sailing ship masts and spars.
10th
December; litigation at the Court of Queen’s Bench,
Guildhall, London in the case between the Great Barrier Land, Harbour & Mining
Co Ltd (1857 – 1868) plaintiffs, and Willis, Gann & Co,
defendants. Mr Lush QC and Mr Pollock appeared for the plaintiffs;
Mr Sargeant Shee and Mr Honeyman were counsel for the defendants.
The consignment of 2 boilers, each weighing 8-10 tons, some funnels
and 5000 bricks for Port Fitzroy were prior assessed at £300/-.
When the boilers were delivered at the East India Docks they were
found to exceed the stipulated dimensions and the deck of the Mersey had
to be cut away to allow them into the hold; the funnels also required
separate stowage. Willis, Gann & Co, perhaps naturally and
to be expected, increased the freight charge from £300/-
to £398.9s.6d. The Directors of the Great Barrier Co paid
the £98.9s.6d under protest and brought the legal action
for recovery. The case occupied all day and ended in a verdict
for the plaintiffs! Clearly, business was tough!
1862:
1st June: departed London.
25th September: arrived Lyttelton.
1865:
8th May: the sawmill was still up and running when the Governor
General, Sir George Grey visited Albert J Allom J.P., then General
Manager of the Great Barrier mining company. Allom in his youth
was a frequent companion of Edward Gibbon Wakefield, the founder
of New Zealand. Sir George travelled from his residence on Kawau
Island to Port Fitzroy on the steam assisted sailing ship H.M.S.
Brisk under Captain Hope, right:
1870: Recorded in the Mercantile Navy List & Maritime Directory as being in the ownership of a Samuel Brown, 71 Tyne Street, South Shields, Northumberland. Little is known of Brown but at this time wooden vessels were being quickly superseded by the much larger iron 3 and 4 mast sailing ships and barques. This year was really the end of the wooden ship. Many concluded their lives as hulks and storage barges; an ignominious end to great deep-water sailing ships.
Compiled by:
Wing Commander Roland R PARSONS, FRGS,psc. Formerlyof the RNZAF & RAFO,
28A Duthie Street, Wellington 6012
Acknowledgements:
Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington.
Auckland Museum.
Robert Cadwalader – The Davies Fleet
Mrs Jane Small (descendant of the Morrow family – passengers
on the Mersey) of Shannon.
p If you have notes on The Auckland or any other vessels and would like to be considered for inclusion in this website, please e-mail.