The Marco Polo

James Baines, so the story goes, first encountered the Marco Polo when he came upon her early in 1852 moored at the Queen's Dock, Liverpool, with a broom at her masthead that indicated that the ship was for sale and could be had at a cheap price.

Baines was not a wealthy man at the time, but was able to scrape together enough money to buy her at a bargain price and intended to send her out to Australia in response to the booming emigrant gold rush trade.

The Marco Polo was a true oddity of the clipper ship era when she had arrived in Liverpool the second time around, this time 35 days out of Mobile, Alabama, with a load of cotton. Baines had the savvy to realize that there was something unique about this peculiar looking ship described by Basil Lubbock quoting Liverpudlians as being "square as a brick fore and aft, with a bow like a savage bulldog." But looks were deceiving. The story goes that Baines purchased the Marco Polo from Old Paddy McGee, a savvy marine store dealer of Liverpool who had seen her first, bought her for at a cheap price, and sold her to Baines for a good profit. But the ship register does not back this story up and there is just a record of a transfer from shipbuilder James Smith to Baines, Mackay, and Miller.

The Marco Polo had been built at the shipyard of James Smith in Marsh Creek on Courtney Bay, New Brunswick, near St. John, and designed as "a very ordinary wooden ship" according to John Fredrickson, the foreman of the yard. Smith, originally from Northern Ireland, had already built eighteen large ships in New Brunswick and apparently a rivalry existed between Smith and the St. John shipyard of William and Richard Wright. as to who could build the larger ship.

At the time of her building in 1850, her planking frames were blown about the yard during a gale, damaged, and placed in the wrong order with her rebuilding.

Following her February 1851 launching, the Marco Polo was blown over on the far bank of Marsh Creek, where the receding tide left her stranded upon a mud bank for two weeks until much digging and an unusually high tide freed her. The Marco Polo's keel was strained out of shape and she was "hogged" with an upward curve of her keel amidships. This unique feature, it is said, certainly had something to do with her future sailing qualities.

Baines followed his usual hunches and purchased the Marco Polo for his expanding Australian trade. The first thing that he did was to send her over to the Miller, Mackay & Co. shipyard, where she was coppered and hurriedly fitted out in elegant fashion for passenger service in June 1852. Right away, she was placed under the command of Captain James Nicol "Bully" Forbes.

Captain James Nichol Forbes / Great Circle Sailing

Forbes was a remarkable seaman whose career was legendary among seafarers. He was born in Aberdeen in 1821 and left Glasgow for Liverpool in 1839 without so much as a shilling in his pocket, but somehow worked his way up meteorically to take command of indifferent ships that he was able to make very good passages with. One old brig that he commanded made two swift passages to the Argentine and back to Liverpool, where many in the shipping community took notice of his seamanship.

Forbes had gotten some fast passages out of the Cleopatra and Maria, and Baines had no doubts that Forbes would do as well with the Marco Polo, and Baines was rarely wrong when it came to playing his hunches.

Black Ball Captains James Nichol Forbes, Anthony Enright, and Alexander Newlands were among the first captains to learn the particulars of "Great Circle Sailing." That involved the practical use of inexpensive chronometers, as sold and taught by John Towson, who made these ingenious instruments and was the scientific examiner to the Masters and Mates in Liverpool for the Liverpool Marine Board.

Towson called it "Composite Sailing" which was actually a modification of Great Circle Sailing that took into account dangerous regions of navigation, land, and weather which often took a ship off course that led to the frequent necessity to lay down another great circle from the ship's new position to the port of destination. As each new meridian was crossed it was also necessary to periodically change the compass course to agree with the angle of the track with the meridian at that point.

Towson wrote a book of tables that offered practical advise for charting out the course around the earth to Australia that was published in 1847 by the Admiralty.

Vessels bound for Australia before the discovery of gold followed the previous recommended route of the British Admiralty which suggested that they stay to the eastward of Cape St. Roque as much as possible when sailing down the Atlantic to avoid that treacherous place. Then to round the Cape of Good Hope where Cape Town was often a port of call. From there, they would run east staying well north of latitude 40° S all the way to Australia where a 120-day passage was considered good.

Lieutenant Matthew Fontaine Maury's Wind and Current Charts and Sailing Directions and all their collected information from accumulated ships logs did much to enhance the understanding of mariners in their searching out of favorable wind patterns over the different seasons of the year and put them to practical use when plotting out their voyages to Australia once the demand for swifter passages arose.

The ideal Composite Sailing voyage took them closer to Cape St. Roque crossing the equator around longitude 30° W. and from that point to keep running south with a full array of canvas taking full advantage of the S.E. trade winds until they crossed latitude 28° S.

Then as soon as they picked up the winds from the west, start their run to the east to try and cross longitude 20° W. at around latitude 45° S. and go as far south as 55° S. by the time they reached longitude 40° E.

Between longitude 50° E. and longitude 80° E., depending on the season and the weather, the clipper captain was advised to sail for higher latitudes and after crossing longitude 80° E., shape a more northerly course for Tasmania and Australia.

This remarkable feat of seamanship demanded superb skills of navigation that, along with knowledge of the wind and current patterns in all seasons of the year, called for the frequent varying of the course to steer constantly in the direction of the ship's destination.

All this effort was greatly helped out with the use of a Mercator's chart that distorted the shape of the world so that it could be laid out on a table as a chart that transformed the spherical coordinates into plane ones. Spherical maps, or globes were impractical for the charting out of long ocean passages around the world.

Gerardus Mercator was a Flemish Cartographer (1512-1594). The map comes from Mercator's projection that was first used by Mercator in 1569 for a world map. According to the New American Desk Encyclopedia:

The PROJECTION is from a point at the center of the earth through the surface of the globe onto a cylinder that touches the earth around the equator.

The first ship to test out the principles of Composite Sailing with the Mercator's chart was the Constance, under the command of Captain Godfrey, who in 1849 set a record 77-day passage from Plymouth to Adelaide.

The ideal homeward return voyage route from Australia took the vessel on a southeast slant south of New Zealand to the south of latitude 40° S. and sometimes past latitude 50° S., depending on the season, and from there across the Pacific to round Cape Horn at around 57°-58° S., around 100 miles south of Cape Horn, while running the iceberg gauntlet, and from there north up the Atlantic for England.

The Government Emigration Commissioners chartered the Marco Polo's first voyage and she was to sail with officers selected from the best ships sailing out of Liverpool.

Previous to the Marco Polo's departure, there was a banquet aboard as was the custom of the times with James Baines presiding. The first Black Ball déjeuner took place three days before sailing day on July 1, 1852, under an awning on the poop deck with an extravagant luncheon served at tables for eighty invited guests.

Among the guests were Thomas Harrison, who was to become a large shareholder in the Black Ball Line in the future, and James Smith, the Canadian builder of the Marco Polo.

James Baines rose with glass in hand to address the invited guests:

I rise with great diffidence to give you my best thanks for having this day honoured myself and co-owners of the Marco Polo with your company, and I may perhaps be excused in feeling some degree of pride in being one of the principle owners of this, the largest vessel and carrying the greatest number of passengers, ever chartered by the Government or despatched to Australia with passengers. That we shall endeavour to carry out our contracts with the Commissioners with satisfaction to them and the passengers and with credit to ourselves, I think I need not say, in which I am sure we shall be aided to the greatest extent by my friend Captain Forbes and all the officers of the ship, and I am much mistaken if the Marco Polo does not earn for herself such a reputation for speed that when on her return she takes her place as one of the Black Ball Line, she will receive for herself a bumper.

Baines went on to talk about the trading policy of the new Black Ball Line and predicted a bright future for his company and his countrymen who would share in the prosperity brought on by the Australian gold rush.

Rounds of toasts and speeches were then offered up by others attending the déjeuner including Baines' partner, Thomas Miller Mackay, who spoke of the confidence that he had in Captain Forbes in looking after the welfare of the 990 emigrants and crew making the voyage to Australia.

Captain Forbes then addressed the assembled guests remarking on his ship saying that "he judged from the appearance of her sticks and timbers that she would be obliged to go; and that they must not be surprised if they found the Marco Polo in the River Mersey that day six months." His words were prophetic.

More toasts followed and one of the last toasts was to James Smith, the builder of the Marco Polo, who was toasted as "An honest man and an honest builder." Smith spoke of the good quality of Canadian ships and that British and Canadian shipbuilders should be protected from competition from American shipyards.

The Marco Polo at Liverpool

The Illustrated London News printed the following description of the Marco Polo in 1852:

The distinguishing feature of the Marco Polo is the peculiarity of the hull. Her lines fore and aft are beautifully fine, her bearings are brought well down to the bilge; thus, whilst she maked amidships a displacement that will prevent unnecessary "careening," she has an entrance as sharp as a steamboat And a run as clean as can be conceived. Below the draught line her bows are hollow; but above she swells out handsomely, which gives ample space on the topgallant foc's'le-in fact, with a bottom like a yacht, she has above water all the appearance of a frigate.

The Marco Polo is a three-decker, and having been built expressly for the passenger trade is nothing short of capacity and equipment. Her height between decks is 8 feet, and no pains have been spared in her construction to secure thorough ventilation. In strength she could not well be excelled. Her timbering is enormous. Her deck beams are huge balks of pitch-pine. Her timbers are well formed and ponderous. The stem and stern frame are of the choicest material. The hanging and lodging knees are all natural crooks and are fitted to the greatest nicety. The exterior planking and ceiling is narrow and while there has been no lack of timber there has been no profusion of labour.

The length of the Marco Polo from stem to stern (inside measurement) is 185 feet; her beam is 38 feet; her depth of hold from the coamings 30 feet. Her registered tonnage is 1,625, but her burthen will considerably exceed 2,000 tons.

On deck forward of the poop, which is used as a ladies' cabin, is a "home on deck" to be used as a dining saloon. It is ceiled with maple and the pilasters are panelled with richly ornamented and silvered glass-coins of various countries being a novel feature of the decorations. Between each pilaster is a circular aperture about 6 feet in circumference for light and ventilation; over it is placed a sheet of plate glass with a cleverly painted picturesque view of the centre with a frame work of foliage and a scroll in opaque colours and gold. The whole panels are brought out slightly by the rim of perforated zinc, so that not only does light from the ventilator diffuse itself over the whole but air is freely admitted.

The saloon doors are panelled in stained glass bearing figures of commerce and industry from the designs of Mr. Frank Howard. In the centre of the saloon is a table of dumb-waiter made of thick plate glass, which has the advantage of giving light to the dormitories below. The upholstery is in embossed crimson velvet. The berths in separate staterooms are ranged in the 'tween decks are rendered cheerful by circular glass hatch-lights of novel and effective construction.

The figurehead of the Marco Polo was a life-size carving of the famous Venetian traveler who led the way. The Marco Polo sailed from Liverpool on July 4, 1852, a Sunday, on her first voyage to Melbourne with a crowd of 930 emigrants, freight, and mail.

Nearly all the British emigrants aboard were young and of the industrious sort. The single men were berthed forward, married couples amidships and single women aft. All of the Marco Polo's accommodations were vastly superior to the emigrant ships of the past and her ventilation quite adequate.

The crew of the Marco Polo consisted of 30 able-bodied seamen and 30 additional seamen were aboard working their passage to Australia. Many of the young men passengers aboard could be counted upon at any time to "pully-hauly" and haul sails aloft when needed and glad to get the chance to get some exercise and the Marco Polo flew everything aloft except a moonsail so their services were often called upon.

Captain Forbes of the Marco Polo followed Maury's advise from the Wind and Current Charts and Sailing Directions and sailed her down the South Atlantic past Cape St. Roque and at around latitude 30° S. ran her easting down to the southern latitudes following Maury's suggested passage route well to the south of the Cape of Good Hope.

Where he found the "brave new winds" of gale force that blew the Marco Polo around the bottom of the world across the Great Southern Ocean to Australia, and the first Black Ball Liner arrived in Hobson's Bay off Port Phillip Heads on September 18, 1852, at 11 a.m. with a record breaking passage of 68 days, a week ahead of the steamer Australia. Her best four-day run was 1,344 miles, which averaged out at 366 miles per day.

Over the course of the entire outward passage, Forbes showed supreme nautical skill and the log shows that he did not deviate more than five miles off the line of the plotted 3,000 mile run of the charted Great Circle Sailing route as recommended by Towson.

Close to 50 ships were there in the bay unable to sail for their crews had jumped ship and run off to the gold fields. So Forbes at once charged his crew with insubordination and locked them up, releasing them as needed to work the ship while in port, and then when he was ready to sail again for England after 24 days in port.

Tragically, this record setting outward passage was marred by an epidemic of measles that broke out on the crowded ship among the 327 children aboard and 52 of them died, mostly the younger ones under a year old. The two doctors aboard could do little to help for there were no antibiotic drugs in those days. This tragedy led to Parliament passing the Passenger Act that called for improved medical care, hygiene standards, rations, and accommodations for future voyages aboard emigrant passenger ships and from that point on government inspectors were required to inspect all departing ships.

The Marco Polo cleared Melbourne on October 11th for a swift homeward passage around Cape Horn to Liverpool in 76 days, and even with her time spent in port, the Marco Polo had circumnavigated the globe in less than six months. The Marco Polo had encountered fair weather over the course of the entire voyage. She had also been driven hard by "Bully" Forbes who always carried sails in a most daring fashion.

The Marco Polo's arrival on the Mersey the day after Christmas caught the shipping community by surprise as no one had expected her back so soon. The first ones to see her thought that she must have been disabled and turned back.

The often told story goes that a waterman walking up the street encountered James Baines and told him "Sir, the Marco Polo is coming up the river."

"Nonsense, man," was Baines' reply, "the Marco Polo has not arrived out yet." Within the hour Baines was face to face with Captain Forbes at the Salthouse dock. Already, a canvas banner was hanging between her fore and main masts proclaiming in huge black letters "THE FASTEST SHIP IN THE WORLD." The Marco Polo had completed the round voyage in five months, twenty-one days.

On the homeward passage, the Marco Polo had again beaten the steamer Australia by over a week and large amounts of gold in Melbourne were bet on the outcome of this race. The Marco Polo had become the wonder of the age and people from all over England flocked to the Liverpool docks to see this remarkable ship.

Over the course of the voyage, her officers declared that "for hours on end she made 17 knots an hour." Her officers then told the story that when they arrived in Hobson's Bay, the Marco Polo was surrounded by boats and those aboard proceeded to throw small nuggets to the ship's surprised passengers. The Marco Polo had brought back £100,000 in gold dust to Liverpool along with a 340-ounce nugget that had been purchased by the Government of Victoria as a present for Queen Victoria.

Baines and Mackay were quick to capitalize on all this favorable publicity and the Black Ball Line held the limelight from that point on in the British press, much more so then their rivals.

They also tactfully fended off any criticism that came his way concerning the measles epidemic that broke out aboard the Marco Polo on her first outward voyage. The ship's doctors and James Baines & Co. were in time exonerated of any blame over this unfortunate affair.

James Baines was often a target for the satirical Liverpool broadsheet The Porcupine, which made unflattering references to "Jerry Bunce." Other satirical essayists referred to one "Jamie Bubble," in scathing literary attacks against the wild speculations of their subjects in their relentless pursuit of profits, which the essayists concluded led to the detriment of many others. The coverage in the national press such as The Times and the Illustrated London News was generally most favorable and a great source of promotion for the Black Ball Line.

Another avenue of self-promotion that Baines and Mackay dreamed up was to have objects of all kinds inscribed with the Black Ball Line name and badge and these objects included punch bowls, crockery, and silverware as well as knives that were given away freely to shippers as promotional gifts.

It had been a profitable first voyage for the Marco Polo for both passenger fares and freight even after the substantial costs of fitting out the ship and all the other expenses over the course of the voyage were met. The gold rush fever was still on the rise and showed no signs of abating.

The greater carrying capacity of the Marco Polo proved a godsend for the Black Ball Line and the ship had proved that it was now possible to make two profitable round voyages in a year and this fact greatly enhanced the firm's earning potential as long as the Black Ball Line could handle the Herculean task of doing all that was required for successful future sailings of the Marco Polo and for their growing number of ships in the years to come.

There were many essential tasks to see to before each Black Ball Liner sailing by the James Baines & Co. staff and the pace grew more frantic as the sailing date approached.

Each emigrant had to be issued papers and tickets and banker's drafts had to be checked. Luggage had to be weighed, brought aboard and stowed. Food provisions for a three month voyage to feed hundreds of people had to be stored away in the galleys. 1000 tons of cargo at £7 a ton had to be lowered into the ship's hold by an army of dock workers. Stewards had to learn their way around an unfamiliar ship before the passengers came aboard. Then a crew had to be signed up and this usually took place just a few days before sailing and some of the inexperienced crew had to be taught what to do.

The building that was home to the James Baines & Co.'s busy office staff at 6 Cook Street was also home to a half a dozen or so shipping firms and located near South Castle Street, 200 yards from the Pier Head along the Mersey River. Passengers jammed the corridors as a sailing day grew close and the small staff was often overwhelmed and worked long hours to accomplish everything they had to do.

All this activity had to come off like clockwork and everything had to go right the first time with the precision of a theatrical production.

At the Coburg Dock, the Black Ball Line had a depot from where they loaded cargo aboard their ships. Passenger luggage was dropped off at the depot until close to the sailing date.

Due to the shallow dock entrances, the large Black Ball Liners had to wait for a high tide before they could be floated out from the dock over the lock sill and anchored in the river to await the passenger luggage that arrived out at the ship by sailing flat.

Passengers, after passing a medical inspection, departed from the Pier Head floating landing stage aboard a steam tender that ferried them out to the ship.

On sailing day, James Baines or Thomas Mackay, along with a government inspector, would come aboard to make last minute inspections of the passengers and ship at around the same time as a tug would come alongside.

Soon, the ship would weigh anchor and proceed down the Mersey River as the band played and the crew fired off the ship's cannon. Along the Mersey shore the families of the departing passengers cheered and waved their handkerchiefs as those aboard waved their last teary good-byes to their loved ones and England.

Once out in the Irish Sea, Baines or Mackay would depart along with the inspector to return to Liverpool aboard the tug and leave the passengers in the care of the captain from that point on over the long passage to Australia.

Another déjeuner took place on the poop deck of the Marco Polo while moored at the Salthouse Dock, and following the flowery speeches, Forbes jokingly declared: "Last trip I astonished the world with the sailing of this ship. This trip I intend to astonish God Almighty." Forbes then made the second voyage to Melbourne in command of the Marco Polo and did almost as well. He sailed on Sunday, March 13, 1853. This time there were 648 passengers aboard, mostly men of the artisan class, along with £90,000 of specie. Forbes flew everything aloft that he could and the Marco Polo arrived at Melbourne in 76 days.

This second voyage around the world took exactly six months. In less than one year, the Marco Polo had circumnavigated the globe twice, a most remarkable accomplishment. Upon Forbes' return to Liverpool, he turned over command of the Marco Polo to his chief officer Charles McDonnell.

Earlier that year in July, the Sovereign of the Seas had arrived in Liverpool under the command of Lauchlan McKay, with Donald and Mary McKay aboard. This splendid large McKay clipper had made such a favorable impression upon Baines and Mackay that they had immediately chartered her for one voyage to Australia and she sailed for Melbourne under the command of Captain Henry Warner on September 7, 1853, six days before the Marco Polo returned from her second Australian voyage.

Baines and Mackay liked what they saw in the design of the Sovereign of the Seas for future Black Ball Liners. Everything, that is, except for the fact that there was between the main and fore mast only one small deckhouse and large deckhouses would have been preferred for first-class accommodations.

But large lengthy and lofty clippers such as this one with sharp hollow entrance lines, moderate deadrise. and full midsections would do well in the southern latitudes in harnessing the strong winds in the Southern oceans and be capable of sustaining great speeds on passages to Australia.

They could also haul many tons of freight and carry a large number of passengers, and since these were the boom years of the gold rush, Baines and Mackay had no trouble in securing loans from the banks and in a bold move decided to order four large clippers from Donald McKay, along with two smaller ships, regardless of the cost or what others in the Liverpool shipping community thought of this action.

British shippers were aghast at Baines and Mackay's latest move, but some of the Black Ball Line's rivals, particularly the White Star Line, followed suit and would soon charter, then acquire the Red Jacket.

Donald, Lauchlan, and Mary McKay had returned to East Boston in late July and the contracts that Donald McKay took with him would keep him busy for the next two years.

In the meantime, Baines and Mackay with their banks' acquiesce went on to expand their fleet of Black Ball Liners by acquiring a number of Canadian and Welsh vessels of all descriptions and extended their services and sailings to the Australian ports of Adelaide and Sydney.

Baines and Mackay played a delicate game over the coming years by juggling their finances with the banks with the mortgaging of many of their ships and selling others in order to pay for the new ones as well as taking on additional partners.

There was quite a turnover of vessels and some were lost at sea. The Maria foundered off the coast of Brazil in May 1853 on her way home from Australia. Others ships were wrecked or lost to fires.

James Baines & Co. was in a constant state of flux whose fortunes were intricately linked to the prosperity brought on by the boom years of the gold rush and their ability to expand and diversify in seeking out new ways to prosper with their growing fleet to best of their ability. Baines and Mackay did so with all the business savvy they could muster and were successful in meeting the growing demands of the Australian trade in providing all the sailings that the prevailing conditions required.

Over the boom years. many ships were bought and sold. Others were chartered for one or more voyages, but both Baines and Mackay were of the mind that their most important ships from a business and publicity point of view besides the Marco Polo, were the ships that they would acquire from Donald McKay and the focus of this story from this point on will be on the famous Black Ball Quartette.

Next: Launch of the Lightning

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