HYDASPES (1846)
The British bark HYDASPES was built at New Brunswick in 1846. 504/595 tons (old/new measurement). Measurements (1863): 126.6 x 29.5 x 19.6 ft, length x beam x depth of hold. The annual volumes of Lloyd's Register of Shipping for 1846/47-1864/65 give the following additional information on the HYDASPES:
Master: 1846/47-1851/52 - Grebow 1851/52-1853/54 - Steward 1854/55-1856/57 - W. Reid 1857/58-1861/62 - D. Tod 1861/62 - G. Irvin 1861/62-1864/65 - Irwin Owner: 1846/47-1853/54 - Younghusband 1854/55-1864/65 - Jones & Co. Port of Registry: Liverpool Port of Survey: 1846/47-1851/52 - Liverpool 1851/52-1852/53 - London 1853/54 - [not given] 1854/55-1856/57 - Bristol 1857/58 - Shields 1858/59 - London 1859/60 - Liverpool 1860/61-1861/62 - London 1861/62-1864/65 - Liverpool Destined Voyage: 1846/47-1851/52 - Calcutta 1851/52-1852/53 - Adelaide 1853/54 - [not given] 1854/55-1857/58 - South America 1858/59 - Africa 1859/60 - India 1860/61 - [not given] 1861/62-1864/65 - India
The entry in Lloyd's Register for 1864/65 is posted "wrecked".
[27 May 1999]
The steamship HYDASPES (Official No. 25,134) was built for by C. L. Mare & Co, Blackwall, London, in 1852, and was first registered at London on 17 January 1853 to the General Screw Steam Shipping Co, which ran a monthly mail service from Plymouth to Calcutta via St. Vincent, Ascension, St. Helena, Cape Town, Mauritius, Ceylon, and Madras. 1,361/1,871 tons (exclusive of engine room/gross); 246.5 x 37.3 feet x 25.3 (length x breadth x depth of hold); screw propulsion.
Owner: 1853-1857 - General Screw Steam Navigating Co 1857-1859 - R. W. Crawford & others 1859-1860 - T. Howard 1860-1861 - W. M. Holmes & another 1861-1865 - East India & London Shipping Co 1865-1867 - Capt. R. W. Pelly, RN, & another 1867-1868 - Capt. R. W. Pelly
In 1856, the HYDASPES was readmeasured at 1,726/2,249 tons; 300 hp. When the HYDASPES was registered to the East India & London Shipping Co in 1861, her measurements were given as: 1,655/2,095 tons; 263 x 38.7 x 26.1 feet; 300 hp.
In 1868, the HYDASPES was purchased by Park, Bros., who removed her engines and converted her into a sailing ship. The annual volumes of Lloyd's Register of Shipping for 1868/69-1880/81 give the following information:
Tonnage: 2,093/2,093/1,501 (net/gross/under deck) Measurements: 263 x 38.7 x 25 feet (length x beam x depth of hold), "spar decked" (2 decks and spar deck), 4 bulkheads Master: E[dwin] S. Babot Owner: Park, Bros. Port of registry: London Port of survey: London Destined Voyage (through 1873/74): 1868/69-1870/71 - New Zealand 1871/72-1872/73 - [not given] 1873/74 - New Zealand
The HYDASPES spent her career as a sailing vessel in the Australia/New Zealand trade, often chartered to Shaw, Savill, although on her final voyage she was chartered to Holder Bros. Sir Henry Brett, White Wings, Vol. 1: Fifty years of sail in the New Zealand trade, 1850 to 1900 (Auckland: Brett, 1924), pp. 64-65, prints a precis of 6 voyages from England to New Zealand ports, 1868-1878. A cursory search of the internet provides the following Australia/New Zealand arrival dates for the HYDASPES:
30 Sep 1869 - | Lyttelton, from London 04 Jul 1869. Copies of a diary of this voyage by Emma Hodder are held by the Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, MS Pps 1192; Canterbury Public Library, Canterbury, New Zealand, ZMS 81; and (including extracts from the captain's log) Hocken Library, University of Otago, Misc MS 0565. Another diary of this voyage, by the Rev. Robert Taylor, is held by the Canterbury Museum Archives. |
Aug 1870 - | Melbourne |
19 Oct 1873 - | Auckland, from London 27 Jul 1873. |
06 Nov 1874 - | Auckland, from Gravesend 11 Aug 1874. |
01 Sep 1876 - | Adelaide. Papers concerning this voyage are held by the State Records of South Australia, GRG 35/48/1876. |
09 Nov 1878 - | Lyttelton, from Plymouth, 10 Aug 1878. |
On 17 July 1880, the HYDASPES, Capt. Babot, bound from London for Melbourne with 40 passengers (plus 3 stowaways) and a crew of 47, in tow of the tug NAPOLEON, Capt. William Houghton, sank off Dungeness, after colliding in a fog with the steamship CENTURION, Capt. George Mitchell, from Almira, Spain, for London with a cargo of ivory and esparto grass, and a crew of 27; all the passengers and crew were saved by the tug and the CENTURION.
Sources: Return of Registered Steam Vessels of U.K., Parliamentary Papers, House of Commons, 1854 (141) lx.224; 1854-55 (473) xlvi.303; 1857 Session 2 (87) xxxix.67; 1857-58 (488), lii.88; 1860 (449) lx.449; 1861 (371) lviii.279; 1862 (319) liv.796; 1866 (381) lxv.427; 1867-68 (429) lxiii.30; Lloyd's Register of Shipping, 1868/69-1880/81; Times (London), 19 July 1880, p. 14a; 20 July 1880, p. 10d; 7 August 1880, p. 4e; 12 August 1880, p. 4c; 13 August 1880, p. 4e; 14 August 1880, p. 4c. The Illustrated London News, vol. 66 (1875), p. 552, prints an engraving of the HYDASPES, and Brett, op. cit., p. 95, prints a picture of the ship under sail.
[29 May 1999]