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The Era of the Clipper Ships
The Era of the Clipper Ships / Bibliography / Maritime Links / Home / McKay Clan / Directory / Introduction / Tradewinds Maritime Book Review
Published by Avid Publications, Garth Boulevard Bebington, Wirral, Mercyside, UK CH63 5LS ISBN 1 902964 00 4 / Copyrighted by H.F. Starkey 1999 Edited, typeset and cover design by William David Roberts MA, Avid Publications. ______________________________________________________________________________ Reviewed by Donald Gunn Ross III
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The tragic wreck of the iron clipper Tayleur on her maiden voyage from Liverpool to Australia in 1854 certainly ranks among the worst maritime disasters in British history. At last there is a gripping telling of the tale in the recently published book: Iron Clipper 'Tayleur'~The White Star Line's 'First Titanic', by H.F. Starkey, and published by Avid Publications. ____________________________
____________________________ With the turning of the pages, the tale of this doomed voyage comes alive and the reader is, indeed, transported back to those exciting early days of the Australian Gold Rush and the bustling port of Liverpool, the major port of embarkation for the many people wishing to emigrate to Australia, this far away land of opportunity, and to improve the quality of their lives. And in the case of those departing on the iron clipper Tayleur, to have all their hopes and dreams, and many of them their very lives, dashed upon the rocky shore of Lambay Island in the Irish Sea. A mere forty-eight hours following their departure from Liverpool. But in order to understand this hasty departure and sinking of this most remarkable iron clipper ship, the largest to be built at that time, without so much as a sea trial before her first voyage, the reader has to grasp the true meaning of "The Maddest Pursuit," the state of delirium brought on by the gold fever in 1851, of which Thomas Carlyle observed and the author quotes in the first paragraph of Chapter one: "Of all the pursuits any people ever took up, gold digging was the maddest and the stupidest." ___________________________
Mid-Victorian propaganda encouraging the poor to emigrate to a better life in the colonies. _________________________ Each new word of gold strikes from the land down under with daily newspaper reports spurred the frenzy on as the British people from all walks of life, as well as numerous European emigrants, thronged to Liverpool to book passage aboard emigrant ships, many of them Canadian and American ships, bound for Melbourne, Victoria, and New South Wales, to, hopefully, a better life with fewer of the hardships of their lives that they would soon leave behind in the U.K. and elsewhere. The British government encouraged this large-scale exodus for this would relieve over population problems at home while creating a colonial empire abroad and encourage trade. Many citizens were most eager to strike out for the gold fields, or to find other well-paying work in Australia. _____________________________
Emigrant Ships in Melbourne in 1850. ___________________________ But first they had to all make the perilous three-month voyage by ship half way around the world and put their trust in a captain, officers, and crew to get them there. Somehow in the rush to get there, things did not go the way they were planned to go with the maiden voyage of the Tayleur and she was doomed almost from the start where she was launched from Bank Quey, at Warrington. The most unlikely of places for a ship of this size to be built because of the narrow and shallow nature of the upper river and the seeming impossibility of such a large ship to make it down the river to the deep water of the estuary. The mere fact that the Tayleur made it down the river following her enthusiastic launching on 4 October 1853 was quite an accomplishment, as well as a splendid spectacle for the thousands of people who gathered for the launch. ____________________________
The Warrington Regatta in early Victorian times. __________________________ The author paints vivid word pictures of the Mersey River and Warrington along the upper reaches of the river twenty miles east of deep water, and its commercial history, where for a brief period it became a major center where large metal ships could be built. And this new shipbuilding technology had swiftly developed in light of the Australian Gold Rush, as well as the sobering fact that England's forests were swiftly disappearing due to the insatiable timber demands of her shipbuilding community who by then were forced to look elsewhere as the demand for large sailing ships grew. In the meantime, the shipping companies, most notably the White Star Line and the Black Ball Line, hastily acquired American and Canadian ships to quickly fill the emigration demands for they had no way of knowing just how long the gold strikes were going to last. Large clippers were the ideal ships to transport the emigrants and everything else that they would need in the land down under, and the bustling port of Liverpool thrived from all this activity. For British shipbuilders, iron ships were the wave of the future, although there were still a few problems that needed to be worked out. Most notably that of solving the problem of getting accurate compass readings aboard an iron ship. _____________________________
Charles Tayleur, founder of the Vulcan Engineering Works and partner in the Bank Quey foundry, Warrington. ____________________________
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A mid-Victorian poster advertising White Star Line sailings to Australia. ____________________________ The frenzy for ever larger swift sailing ships undoubtedly had much to do with the decision by the Liverpool firm of Charles Moore and Company to build a giant iron clipper, designed by William Rennie, and named after Charles Tayleur, the wealthy founder and owner of the world famous Vulcan locomotive works, and a prominent wealthy entrepreneur. The foundry was a profitable venture, and by the early 1850s the railway connections with Warrington were at last completed and this spelled out commercial success for the future, or in the words of one of the local newspapers, "The Bank Quay Foundry Company is well-known outside Great Britain and a tide is now floating Warrington into a sea of enterprise and giving us a chance with the commercial cities of the world." The exact specifics of which are gone into great detail in this book. ______________________________
____________________________ Throughout the building of the Tayleur, the commercial press of Warrington touted up all the commercial advantages of this new iron shipbuilding technologies that admittedly still had a few problems to work out, although the problems concerning disordered compasses were never mentioned by the local press. Still, there was much for the local press to rave about concerning the building of this remarkable ship, or in the words of the author, "It was claimed that the Tayleur was the mightiest merchant sailing ship ever built." Encouraging press reports made the newspapers daily; each one expanding upon the last the many virtues of this giant iron clipper rapidly taking shape at the Bank Quay Foundry that promised to be superior in every way. "It is expected that she will be very stiff under canvas and a very swift sailer," in the words of one local newspaper. But little did they know that such lofty predictions would soon be dashed upon the rocky shores of Lambay Island, and that the Tayleur's early performance at sea, in hindsight, would be considered less than stellar. _____________________________
The old lighthouse and keeper's cottage at Hale Head. _____________________________ But stellar was, indeed, the best word to describe the effort to get the Tayleur down the Mersey River following her 4th October 1853 launching which attracted thousands of spectators along the riverbanks. The author goes into great detail with vivid descriptions of the launching and slow methodical journey of this giant iron clipper from Warrington down the river paying great tribute to the many skills of all concerned along the river, all the while paying close attention to the tides, as enthusiastic crowds hailed the giant clipper as she passed them by, with her high masts dwarfing the buildings and the crowds around them. The rain did little to dampen the carnival atmosphere that prevailed along the riverbanks and miraculously the Tayleur made it all the way down the river from Warrington to Liverpool without a scratch and her builders delivered her to her new owners, the White Star Line, whose directors promptly advertised in the local press. ____________________________
Tall ships in Waterloo Dock, Liverpool. _____________________________ "This truly splendid vessel and the largest merchantman ever built in England will undoubtedly prove to be the fastest of the Australian fleet as she has been constructed expressly with the object of attaining the very highest rate of speed. Her vast dimensions enable the owners to provide passenger accommodation not to be met with in any vessel afloat. Through ventilation has been secured and, by any means of ports of which she has one every seven feet, is perfectly lighted in every part. The undersigned have, therefore, no hesitation, in affirming that the Tayleur presents advantages as a passenger conveyance superior to any ship hitherto dispatched to the Australian colonies." But the very nature of the cut-throat competition between the White Star Line and her various rivals, particularly with the Black Ball Line, did much to spur on the frenzy to get the Tayleur off to sea on her first voyage as fast as possible and soon the giant clipper was undergoing further renovations with elaborate fittings and her rigging hastily attended to and begun while she was tied up to the Bramley-Moore dock. The question of sea trials did not even come up for they were unknown in those days. Still, it would take all of three and a half months to prepare the ship for her maiden voyage to make her ready for sea. Then there was the still the matter of the compasses to sort out. Meanwhile, word of the Black Ball Line's splendid record voyage of the Marco Polo had recently made its way through the Liverpool community which had the effect of challenging the White Star Line to come up with a faster ship with which to claim the laurels as to owning the fastest ship of the Australian Gold Rush fleet, and the newspapers of the day played it up as such. British citizens from all over the United Kingdom were continuously encouraged to pull up their stakes to escape their former lives of misery and poverty and join the throngs of foreign emigrants as they clamored to book passage on the Tayleur, the latest, as well as newest and very different from the others, to enter the passenger trade sailing sweepstakes to Australia. Glowing newspaper accounts of the elaborate preparations taking place aboard the Tayleur, all under the strictest scrutiny, filled the pages every day as they sang her praises. In early January she was moved over to her loading berth at Salthouse Dock where the loading of passenger luggage and cargo began, and soon she became a "floating warehouse," " a large miscellany of all the products of the 'Workshop of the World.'" ___________________________
Liverpool warehouses. ____________________________
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All this loading commenced in the presence of the dark, dour, brooding figurehead of Charles Tayleur, as opposed to the usual figureheads of mystical sea creatures and the like. The author catches all this bustling Liverpool dockside action in grand detail. Along with a fitting quote from Herman Melville, "Of all the seaports of the world, Liverpool perhaps abounds in the variety of land sharks, land rats, and other vermin which makes the hapless mariner their prey, Landlords, bar-keepers, clothiers, crimps and boarding house loungers and land sharks devour him limb from limb." ______________________________
______________________________ The newly arriving emigrants were above all repeatedly warned by the shipping companies to beware of the "emigrant runners" they encountered upon arrival. There were so many things that had to be attended to as the sailing day approached. Even Melville was impressed with the bustling scene surrounding the loading of the Tayleur so vividly described here on the pages. Of the Tayleur's passengers, just over half of them were from the British Isles, the rest from Continental Europe and Scandinavia. There were six classes of passenger accommodation aboard the ship. The author continues in great detail with vivid descriptions of life aboard an emigrant ship and the final frenzy of activity going on right up to the point of departure and beyond. ______________________________
______________________________ The Tayleur's departure was unusual in that her lofty masts reached up over 150 feet in the air dwarfing all around her, and dozens of seamen in some of the neighboring ships climbed high up in the rigging to watch the giant clipper Tayleur depart the Mersy in tow, intent to watch her make her way towards the open sea. ______________________________
______________________________ The emigrant passengers come to life on the pages as the reader soon finds himself as a fellow passenger observing all that was going on aboard the departing ship and the receding Liverpool waterside as the emigrants get their last fleeting looks at home. ______________________________
______________________________ Sixty miles out to sea, seven miles north of the Skerries off Anglesey, the tug, Victory, slipped her tow, and upon the departure of a few clerks and other visitors aboard the Tayleur, the Victory departed back to Liverpool and the Tayleur soon hoisted her sails for the first time to catch the brisk prevailing winds and stormy weather and it was said that she soon raced off at extraordinary speed. Sadly to her ultimate doom. Problems were spotted early on when Captain Noble experienced difficulty with the handling of the ship and she was difficult to control. Keen-eyed observers among the passengers also took notice of her early problems as far as the seaworthiness of the Tayleur was concerned. That, along with the matter of the crew, which left something to be desired, for many of them did not understand English and certainly had little sailing experience and early on showed themselves to be incapable of a sailor's tasks aloft. The keen-eyed observers, all sailors, were quick to sum things up, along with the fact that there weren't enough capable hands aboard, and that the ship was headed for disaster if the ship did not turn back for Liverpool, or some other nearby port. The captain chosen to make the voyage, John Noble, was said to be a competent one, but he was presented with an untried ship of a new design and while the stormy weather provided the opportunity of putting her through her sea trials he began to notice other serious problems with the handling of the ship, especially in the heavy weather, when the ship did not obey the helm, and the fact that the rudder was too small. Certain sail combinations just didn't work. Problems with the new rigging also plagued the crew. All the compasses aboard the iron ship showed considerable compass deviation and this fact troubled everyone. In reality, they were lost in the Irish Sea, and a certain sense of anxiety swept through the ranks of passengers who by then were trying to urge the captain to change his tack as some of the keen-eyed observers knew that they must be near the Irish coast on the Tayleur's current tack, and if the ship did not change her tack soon she was headed for disaster. But the captain had a stubborn streak and did not like to be told how to sail his ship and was of the stern opinion that there was still time enough for him to sort the problems out.as he let the canvas fly against the better judgement of some of the passengers. But by then it was too late as the urgent cry of "Land-ho" came from the look-out aloft as the winds changed direction and picked up. The Tayleur refused to respond to the helm and the giant clipper could not escape the looming disaster of the breakers lurking off her starboard bow as the doomed ship drifted towards the Lambay Island rocks at a terrifying speed. The horrifying aftermath of this fateful tack are duly recorded here on the pages of Chapter Seven: The Cataclysm. It is one of the most chilling accounts of disaster at sea that I have ever read and the author provides many different views of the event by airing the many eye witness vivid accounts of the tragedy and does a very thorough job of it with the telling of this gripping finale. The reader feels that he, too, has gone up on the rocks of Lambay Island. This reviewer dares not even try to paraphrase his way through the pages from this point on. Instead, I urge maritime history enthusisasts to get a copy of this book to read the final chapters, the aftermath, and inquiry, and by then the reader will understand the fateful consequences and true meaning of "the maddest pursuit" and why the British consider the Tayleur to be the White Star Line's 'First Titanic.' _____________________________
The wreck of the Tayleur on the Lambey Island rocks. ______________________________ Buy this book ______________________________ |
