The Star of India
Originally
named the Euterpe and built by Stephens of Dundee, she was launched
in 1861 at 1045 tons.
The Chileans who purchased her renamed her "The Star
of India" and this is the name familiar to New ZealandiImmigrants
who sailed on her two trips to the new colony under charter to
the Shaw Saville Line.
In 1874 one of the male immigrants so effected by rough seas, grabbed his child and jumped overboard in fit of dementia. Both father and child were lost. On this voyage out to Lyttleton she carried some 300 passengers made up of a mixed bag - English, Irish, Scots, Swedish, Danes, Germans, a few Russians and Poles. Everyone suffered from the rough sea conditions near the Bay of Biscay but thereafter shipboard life settled down to a routine with the men playing pitch-penny on the deck and the women going about their sewing. It was said to be a lonely passage with no sight of land until St Paul's Rocks in the South Atlantic.
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A ship on fire was sighted, she was the Isabella Kerr, the Stars
captain Holloway, some crew and the ships doctor assisted her crew
to bring the fire under control and passed over some much needed
food supplies. It was later learnt that the Isabella never made
Calcutta - the fire broke out again and she burnt down to the water
line in the Indian ocean, with her crew being rescued by a tea
clipper.
It is reported
that when the Star of India docked at Lyttleton and the time came
for landing, a number of the women shed tears as they bade farewell
to their home of many weeks and gave thanks for the ship which brought
them safely to a new land where they hoped to better themselves.
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