A Biography of the Clipper Ship “Conway” (1851 – 1875)

Why the Conway?

My great, great, great, grandfather, William Spurrier was a seaman who was probably born in London in 1779 but who arrived in Greenock, Scotland as a young man and married a local girl, Catherine McDonald, in 1804.  The Spurriers had a known family of 10 children, including three boys, William (1812), Thomas (1816) and Richard (1819).  In the early years of the 19^th century, Greenock was the most important port on the Clyde, because it had access to deep water at a time when the dredging of a deep channel to Glasgow had not yet been accomplished.  It is not surprising that the three Spurrier brothers should have become seamen and they all sailed to Australia and New Zealand in the early years (1840s – 1850s) of the transport of emigrants to these new colonies.

Thomas Spurrier’s Masters’ Certificate of Service, dated 31^st December 1850, shows that he first went to sea in 1831 at the age of about 14 as an apprentice seaman and that he had served for 19 years in the British Merchant Service in foreign trade.  In 1854 he sailed in a clipper ship, the Conway, from Liverpool for Geelong, Victoria, as first mate and on the return journey to London.  He also appears to have sailed on the Conway as second mate on the return leg of her next journey to Australia, to Hobart in 1855.  In researching the ship’s history for the purpose of understanding more about the life of Thomas Spurrier, it became clear that the Conway had an incident-packed existence between 1851 and 1875, when she was finally caught out by old age, poor maintenance and bad weather.  The story of the Conway is worth telling in its own right, but also gives a good insight into the golden age of sail.

Clipper Ships and the construction of the Conway

Clipper ships were square-rigged sailing ships, designed for speed, with long, narrow hulls and a large sail area. These features compromised on bulk cargo capacity.  Clippers were built mostly in American and British shipyards, between about 1843 and about 1870.  They plied their trade across all the oceans of the world carrying both cargo and passengers.  Demand for the rapid delivery of tea from China initiated the clipper era in the 1840s and further stimulus to the clipper trade was given by the Californian gold rush, which started in 1848 (New York to San Francisco) and the Australian gold rush beginning in 1851 (Britain to Melbourne).  The demand for new clippers was essentially ended by the completion of the Suez Canal in 1869, which allowed steam ships to compete effectively with sail over long distances for the first time.   However, the progressively aging clipper fleet continued to sail the seas for another two decades.  In that late phase of the clipper era these ships were mostly used for the transport of emigrants from Britain to Australia and New Zealand.

During the Napoleonic Wars (1803 – 1815) Britain’s traditional source of imported timber, the Baltic, was shut off and this led to the development of alternative sources, particularly on the east coast of what is now Canada, in New Brunswick and Quebec.  By 1851 St John, New Brunswick, was third largest city in British North America.  Because of the abundance of local timber, lumber export and shipbuilding developed as its main industries.  Of the many shipbuilders who developed there, the firm of Owens and Duncan was one of the largest.  St John also became an entry point for immigrants, especially from Scotland and Ireland.  Timber ships often carried poor emigrants on the journey to Canada.

By the 1840s there was a boom in shipbuilding in St John.  However, most ships constructed there were not for local use but for export.  Some ships were owned by local merchants and were involved in a triangular trade, such as timber to Great Britain, manufactured goods to the West Indies and rum and molasses back to Canada.  Some ships were commissioned from abroad but often, in those boom times for shipping, ships were built in St John speculatively, loaded with timber and sent to the Clyde or the Mersey for the master to sell the cargo and often also the ship.  In the 1840s Liverpool took more St John ships than any other port and by 1849 Liverpool was the destination for more than 50% of newly-built St John vessels.

The Conway was built by Owens and Duncan at St John in 1851.  It is not clear why she was given this name, but one possibility is that she was named after Conway, a township on the west side of the St John river.    She was one of the last two ships built by the Owens and Duncan firm.  Her construction was of local materials, hackmatack (American larch), pine, oak and birch.  She had two decks, a poop and three masts.  She was ship-rigged, with a square stern and curved build and she had a wooden frame.  The length of the ship was 168 ft, her breadth amidships 34 ft and the depth of her hold was nearly 33 ft. Conway’s registered weight was 1195 tons.  Sadly, no photograph has been found of the Conway.  In 1868 Conway was converted to a barque rig ( mizzen mast re-rigged fore-and-aft).  This arrangement required fewer seamen but was not as fast as a fully-rigged ship.  It was typical of a general cargo ship, where economical operation was important.

1851 – 1852 Timber, Cotton and Emigration to North America

It is not clear if Conway was commissioned or built speculatively but she arrived in Liverpool under Captain Marshall on 28^th July 1851, probably carrying a cargo of timber.  Within a month advertisements began to appear in a variety of Irish newspapers, such as the Cork Examiner and the Farmer’s Gazette and Journal of Practical Horticulture, advertising passages to New York, Philadelphia and Boston on “Harnden & Co’s present line of packet ships from Liverpool”.  Harnden & Co was a firm of American shipping agents which had branches in both America and Liverpool.  Advertisements placed by a Dublin agent, Roche Brothers, also offered free steamship passages from that city to Liverpool.  Conway was one of the ships slated for New York, under Captain Marshall.  Some of the advertisements described the New York-bound ships (Colombia, Beejapore and Harriett, in addition to Conway) as “Black Ball Line”.  Was Conway commissioned from Owens and Duncan by the original Black Ball Line, which was American?  Or, was Captain Marshall sent over to sell a speculatively-built ship and then retained as master by her new owner?  The initial ownership of Conway remains unclear.  The full name of Captain Marshall has not yet been determined but there was a Captain James Marshall sailing out of St John at the time and Captain Charles H Marshall took control of the American Black Ball Line in 1836.  Conway was not registered at Lloyds until 1853, so it is likely that her ownership was initially in foreign hands.

By 8^th October 1851 advertisements were indicating that Conway would sail from Liverpool for Queenstown, the port for Cork, on Friday 12^th October.  She actually sailed the following day and arrived at Queenstown on 18^th October.  In addition to passengers, she was reported to be carrying a cargo of salt.  The decision to call at Cork may have been a commercial necessity to fill the 400 emigrant berths that the ship contained.  New York was the main destination for the approximately one million Irish people who emigrated in the aftermath of the Potato Famine of 1845 – 1852.  Heavy advertising in the Cork area continued and the ship lingered in Queenstown harbour, while various inducements were offered to tempt additional passengers, such as reduced fares and the fact that a Catholic clergyman would be making the passage and could offer spiritual support.  Conway finally sailed for New York on 3 November, arriving there on Sunday 28^th December.  From New York, Conway returned to St John, New Brunswick, presumably to pick up another cargo of timber, though her cargo on the final leg of this triangular trade is not directly known.   

Conway, again under Captain Marshall, sailed from St John on 22^nd February, 1852, bound for Greenock on the Clyde, where she arrived via, the North Channel, on 5^th April.   This second round trip across the North Atlantic seems to have followed a similar strategy to the first one.  On this occasion 419 passengers were embarked at Greenock for New York.  The North British Mail described most of the passengers as “Scotch and are of the better class of tradesmen”.   Among the emigrants were three sets of wives and families travelling to join husbands who had preceded them to California and made good in the gold rush of 1848 -.  The journey to New York took a tedious 7 weeks, about twice as long as the passengers could reasonably have expected. 

One group of passengers was the Paton family from Galston in Ayreshire, which travelled on to Michigan after landing.  Young John Paton, who was later to be instrumental in the founding of the Jehovah’s Witnesses, recorded his impressions of the voyage in his autobiography.  He noted being seasick in an early storm, fooling about swinging on ropes out over the ocean, being becalmed for long periods and seeing whales, porpoises, gulls and two icebergs.  Sometime after the sighting of the icebergs, the passengers heard a great crash and many of them were instantly convinced that the ship had collided with a ‘berg, which led to much wailing and praying.  The true explanation was equally scary.  Sailors had been handling a heavy boom aloft but it had slipped from their hands and crashed to the deck.  On the way down it hit a woman a glancing, but not fatal, blow on the head before penetrating the deck planks.  The arrival of the ship in New York on 26th or 27th June impressed grandfather Paton who observed “It's worth while comin' a' the w'y to see't."

Conway sailed on to Quebec, reaching that city on 21^st August, 1852, where it is presumed she took on a further cargo of timber.  She cleared for Liverpool on the 18^th September and the ship, under Captain Marshall, arrived at Liverpool on 26^th October.  On her next voyage Conway was not contracted to carry emigrants on her westward leg across the Atlantic but, as was typical of ships plying their trade between Liverpool and Canada, she did not travel there during the winter months, when the St Lawrence Seaway would be inaccessible.  Instead she sailed for New Orleans on 22nd December, perhaps to pick up a cargo of cotton, since Liverpool was the main port for the importation of raw material for the Lancashire cotton industry.  

1852 – Conway’s First Wrecking

Conway’s departure for New Orleans took her into the path of two violent storms in the Irish Sea on Saturday, 26^th and Sunday, 27^th December, 1852.  The Liverpool Mercury described the effects of these storms in the city as follows: “…two terrific hurricanes were experienced in this town and vicinity and which as regards their violence and disastrous consequences to life and property exceed any similar visitations which have occurred since the year 1839”.  At 4.00am on Saturday morning the SW wind was gusting to 70mph and this was followed by winds as bad or worse on Sunday evening.  The wind continued to rage for 8 hours.  Conway put back to the Mersey on Christmas Day and anchored off the port to ride out the storm, along with many other vessels, dipping their bows in the surf with water cascading along the decks.  Waves were crashing against the Liverpool sea walls and the high tide, which was 6 feet higher than anticipated almost filled the docks.  Many Liverpudlians came out to marvel at this spectacle. 

The bed of the Mersey does not have good holding ground and, about the top of high water, both the Conway and the barque, Elizabeth, began dragging their anchors under the onslaught of the SW gale. The crews of both vessels cut away their masts in an attempt to avoid being cast up on the shore, but to no avail.  Conway ended up against the sea wall at the north end of the then new docks in Bootle Bay.  Subsequently, she was variously reported as having 7 feet and 12 feet of water in her holds and she filled with each tide.  It was anticipated that both Conway and the Elizabeth would become total wrecks.  The Conway’s crew of 23 were all rescued by a lifeboat from the Magazine on Sunday 27th and landed on the beach at Bootle. Contrary to expectations, Conway did not become an irredeemable ruin.  She was sealed, pumped out, floated off and towed into the recently completed Sandon Basin of Liverpool’s North Docks the following Wednesday, 30^th December.

1853 – Conway joins the (Liverpool) Black Ball Line

To understand the next twist in the convoluted story of the Conway, it is necessary to introduce one of the most notable and powerful personalities on the Liverpool shipping scene in the 1850s: James Baines.  James was born in Liverpool in 1823.  His first known job was in the office of his shipbroker uncle, Richard Baines.  The role of the shipbroker was to link up the shipper of goods with the ship owner who had a ship to fill.   This initiated James into a highly successful career in the shipping industry as a self-made ship owner and manager.  Early on, he made several attempts to become a ship owner by buying vessels on credit and then immediately selling on shares and also mortgaging his own holding.  After a number of failures he became established as a ship master in 1849, when he bought shares in a number of ships including the Deborah, which was commanded by Captain James Liston (of whom more later).  In 1851 James Baines in partnership with Thomas Mackay established his own line of packets specialising in the carriage of emigrants to Australia.  There was a great demand for passages to that country following the discovery of gold at Ballarat .  Many people sought to join the gold rush before the reserves of the precious metal were exhausted.

James Baines was a natural entrepreneur who had great drive and presence.  He could be charming and generous but he was also ruthless, even underhand, in his business dealings.  This was shown most blatantly when he named his line of packets the “Black Ball” Line, shamelessly copying the name and even the flag of the long-established American shipping line of the same name.  Today this would be called “passing off”.  Because of the demand for passages to Australia, Baines needed to obtain sufficient ships in a hurry.  His first large ship was the Marco Polo.  She had been built speculatively in St John, New Brunswick and sailed to Liverpool with a cargo of timber, seeking a buyer for both the cargo and the ship.  She did not sell after her first voyage but on her second visit to Liverpool in 1852 she was bought for the Black Ball Line by Baines and Mackay and set out for Australia the same year.  In 1851 and 1852, as part of his portfolio of commercial activities, James Baines was manager of the Liverpool office of Harnden & Co, the American shipping agents which had handled the initial crossing from Liverpool to New York, via Queenstown, of the Conway in 1851.  James Baines would thus have been familiar with the specification of the Conway.

At the end of 1852, when the dismasted and holed Conway was towed into the Sandon Basin, James Baines must have realised that here was an opportunity to buy a nearly-new ship constructed by a reputable builder, probably at a knock-down price.  Conway’s design was ideal for the emigration trade to Australia.  She was sold for use by the Black Ball Line early in 1853 and James Liston was appointed as her master.  This was Liston’s first command of a three-masted, fully square-rigged vessel.  Shares in the ship were actually owned by Baines, Miller, Mackay and Harrison.  Of the 129 ships which sailed to Australia under the Black Ball flag, only 6 sailed on 3 or more voyages and one of these stalwarts was the Conway, which sailed 4 times in Black Ball colours.  In the middle of March 1853 the Black Ball line of packets was advertising a future passage by the Conway to Port Melbourne (for Melbourne) and Port Phillip (for Geelong, 50 miles SW of Melbourne), but without an estimated date for departure. Conway was quickly repaired.  In addition to making her watertight, re-masting and re-rigging, Conway’s hull was now sheathed in felt and yellow metal.  Yellow metal was an alloy of copper (60%) and zinc(40%) with a trace of iron which was used to inhibit fouling and deter the Teredo worm (actually a bivalve mollusc), which destructively bores into ships’ timbers. 

Conway sailed for New York on the 25^th April, then travelled on to Quebec before returning to Liverpool on 23^rd September, 1853.  This triangular trading pattern was very similar to that undertaken by Conway on her first voyage out of Liverpool in 1851.  On this occasion, she may have taken a cargo of emigrants to New York, though no advertisement has been found which indicates this was so and brought back a load of timber from Quebec.

Emigration to Australia - Introduction

Emigration from Great Britain and Ireland to the USA and the British colonies was a growing phenomenon during the 19^th century.  Of almost 300,000 emigrants in 1849 73.5% went to the USA, 13.9% went to Canada and 10.8% went to Australia and New Zealand.  Most emigrants left from Liverpool (52%) and London, with very little direct emigration from Scotland and Ireland.  Until the 1860s most emigrants travelled in sailing ships.  The majority of emigrants were from the poorer classes and made the journey in steerage, only ~3% travelling as 1^st or 2^nd class cabin passengers.  The Colonial Land and Emigration Commission was established in 1840 to manage land sales in British colonies and to use some of the money realised to regulate colonial emigration. Emigration to the USA did not benefit from the oversight of the Emigration Commission.  Eleven officers were selected (all Navy men) and stationed at the main emigration ports, Liverpool, London, Bristol, Greenock, Leith, Dublin, Cork, Belfast, Limerick, Sligo and Londonderry.  The officers were responsible for administering the requirements of the Passenger Acts by chartering ships, selecting emigrants for free passages and appointing surgeons to travel on emigrant ships and regulate the provision of food and other conditions on board.  The Emigration Officer for Liverpool was thus a very important person to the shipmasters offering vessels for the emigration trade.  Between 1853 and 1858 the post was filled by Captain Charles Schomberg RN, who hailed from an august naval family.  Schomberg had a staff of 13 and supervised the embarkation of almost 790,000 passengers in more than 2000 ships during his period of office.  So many emigrants left from Liverpool that a special Emigration Depot had to be built on the Birkenhead side of the Mersey.  James Baines sought to have a good relationship with Schomberg, bearing in mind his role in selecting ships for the transport of emigrants and in supervising their care on the journey.  A large clipper commissioned by Baines from Alexander Hall, the Aberdeen shipbuilder in 1854 was named “Schomberg” after Liverpool’s Emigration Commissioner, probably to flatter his ego.

Conway’s 1854 journey to Geelong

From 22 November 1853 a blizzard of advertisements appeared in newspapers throughout the length and breadth of Britain and Ireland for a passage by the Conway from Liverpool to Melbourne, the date of departure being slated for 20^th December.  Other vessels and passages were also listed and the general description of the vessels and their capabilities was as follows.  “These celebrated ships are all first class and have made the fastest passages on record.  They carry experienced surgeons and their ‘tween decks are lofty and well ventilated throughout.  Provisions and water are provided for 20 weeks under Government inspection.  Passengers’ baggage is put on board free of expense.  Cash orders issued on Australia from £1 and upwards, and parcels forwarded.  Apply to the owners James Baines & Co, 6 Cook-street, Liverpool”.  Between 22 November and the end of December, 103 newspaper advertisements were detected in four waves, apparently targeting the same list of titles in the same order. The newspapers were located throughout England, Wales, Ireland and Scotland, including those based in big cities and those in rural areas.  London-based newspapers were conspicuously absent.  Scottish and Irish newspapers, on the other hand, were overrepresented.  These statistics probably reflect both the anticipated and the actual recruitment of emigrants by the Black Ball management from different parts of the nation.

It is easy to understand why the Conway’s voyage to New York in 1851 should have been advertised widely, since the Emigration Commissioners were not involved with the recruitment or supervision of emigrants to the USA.  What is not so easy to understand is why some of Conway’s passages to Australia should have been widely advertised (Geelong in 1854 and Hobart in 1855), while others (Sydney 1856, Melbourne 1858, Brisbane 1862) were not.  Perhaps in 1854 and 1855 the shipowner had some latitude to recruit passengers, while in 1856 and afterwards all recruitment was done by the Emigration Commissioners?

About the beginning of December 1853, James Baines & Co dispatched a steamer and 5 lighters, capable of handling 1000 tons of cargo at a time, to Melbourne.  This provision was probably related to the fact that large ships had to anchor some way off Melbourne and the Black Ball line needed to ensure that its passengers with their luggage and associated freight reached the city without delay after arrival.

At the end of November, 1853, Conway was lying in the Sandon Basin, probably undergoing adaptation and general sprucing up prior to the journey to Melbourne under the auspices of and subject to the inspection of the Emigration Commissioners.  On 29^th of that month Joseph Irving, a painter, fell into the Conway’s hold and was so severely injured that he died.  It appears that the unfortunate Irving was part of a painting gang employed between decks to put the last touches to the Conway before her planned departure.

Most emigrants were from the poorer classes in British society and travelled in the cheapest accommodation, called steerage.  This was arranged like a communal dormitory with bunk beds down the sides of the ship and a long table down the middle.  In Conway, rations for an adult for a week were 3 ½ lbs of biscuit or bread, 6oz salt beef, 1 1/2lbs salt pork,  1 1/2lbs tinned meat, 2lbs 10oz flour, 8oz raisins, 6oz suet, 3 pints peas, 8oz rice, 1 1/2lbs potatoes, 4oz butter,  1lb 9oz oatmeal, 6oz treacle, 12oz sugar, small amounts of tea, coffee, salt, pepper, mustard, pickles and 21 quarts of water. 

A  Terrible Storm and an Outbreak of Cholera

On Monday 16^th January 1864 Conway left the great float and anchored in the Mersey having taken on board 382 passengers and a cargo of general merchandise.  She carried a crew of 50 seamen and officers.  Her destination was now fixed for Geelong and she was expected to depart the following day.  Geelong lies on Corio Bay about 50 miles south west of Melbourne.  Its initial growth was largely due to the discovery of gold at Ballarat, which lies inland from Geelong.  Conway did not actually leave until 6pm on Thursday, 19^th January. The delay appears to have been due to the late arrival of three Irish families who had been stranded in Dublin and had lived in miserable conditions, with little food, on the docks for three days.  By the time they joined the Conway they were exhausted.  Sadly, their circumstances were about to take a decided turn for the worse.  The following day, Friday 20^th, at 4pm Conway dropped her pilot off Port Lynas, which lies on the north coast of Anglesey and Captain Liston set course for the southern entrance to the Irish Sea.  Soon after the pilot left the ship the weather deteriorated rapidly and by 10pm Conway was sailing under double-reefed topsails.  The fierce winds continued all the following day, Saturday 21^st and Liston found that he was unable to make any headway against the SW gale.  He therefore decided to turn and run before the wind, making for the northerly channel to the Atlantic.  For three nights (Friday to Monday) the passengers dared not undress themselves for fear of sinking.  One of their number, Mrs Jean Stones, gave birth to a daughter in the midst of the gale.  (The child was later, on 14^th February, christened “Anna Conway Liston Stones”.  One week previously, on Tuesday 7^th February, another passenger gave birth, this time to a boy.  He too was named “Conway”). 

On Sunday 22^nd  February, 1854, the wind veered suddenly to NNW, the direction that Conway needed to travel to leave the Irish Sea and on Monday 23^rd  the plunging of the Conway into the heavy seas caused her to lose her jibboom and two new jibs, which, along with the mainsails, fell into the sea with a great crash.  All the sailors stripped in order to be prepared to swim for their lives and 117 passengers were locked up in one cabin, some praying, others screaming and some in fits. The conditions for the passengers were abominable.  Seasickness was rife and, the ultimate tragedy, cholera had broken out on Sunday 22^nd, appearing first amongst the three Irish families who were late joining the ship.  In addition, diarrhoea from other causes was rampant.  The passengers were in a state of panic and misery.  James Liston decided to make for the Clyde to effect repairs to his battered ship.   By Tuesday 24^th he had reached Gourock Bay at the entrance to the Clyde, where he joined the Martin Luther, also from Liverpool and the Trojan of Port Glasgow.  Conway dropped anchor and rode out the storm until Friday 27th.

Conway was not the only ship in serious trouble as a result of the gales.  The Canadian Steam Navigation Company’s steamer Charity sailed from Liverpool on 16^th January.  By Friday 20^th January, she had reached the Atlantic by the northern entrance when she was struck by an enormous sea which swept her from stem to stern, smashing all 6 of her lifeboats, cascading water into her engine room releasing clouds of steam and smoke into the vessel, sweeping one seaman overboard, breaking the rudder from the tiller and causing her cargo to shift.  Captain Paton could not get the Charity brought before the wind and she wallowed for the next 14 hours.  She eventually reached the Tail of the Bank anchorage off Greenock in the Clyde on the afternoon of Saturday 21^st.  There was a crowd of other vessels there also seeking shelter from the extreme weather.

The Tayleur, a newly-built iron ship of 2000 tons register on her maiden voyage to Melbourne with 579 people on board, left the Mersey under tow at 12.00 noon on Thursday 19^th January, a few hours before the Conway.  She experienced very severe weather on Friday and Saturday morning and had two sails blown away.  In the murky weather she got too close to Lambay Island, near Dublin, on a lee shore, when she failed to respond to the rudder and was blown onto land.  Some passengers and crew managed to jump or swim across to the rocks but the Tayleur quickly sank.   Of the 579 on board, 296 were saved and, tragically, 283 drowned. 

On Thursday, 26^th January James Baines & Co, was active in the relief effort for the Tayleur survivors. The company wrote to their Dublin agent concerning the disaster to the Tayleur.  “Two of our ships, the Indian Queen with 320 and the Conway with 382 government passengers, sailed the same day as she did, but nothing has been heard of them since they sailed, we presume they have got safe away.”  So, at that time, the company was apparently unaware of the dire situation in which their ship, the Conway found herself.    There had been two deaths, a child, who had been buried at sea and an adult (probably Mrs Isabella Thomson), who had been rowed ashore for burial at Gourock.  It is likely that Captain Liston took the opportunity, on the visit to Gourock, to contact the owners in Liverpool with information on Conway’s crisis.  The authorities in Gourock would also have become aware of the situation, because of the burial.  On Friday 27^th January, Captain Keele, the Emigration Officer at Greenock received a letter informing him that there were cases of cholera on board the Conway off Gourock.  The information had apparently come from Liverpool (from the Conway’s owners?) via Glasgow.  Keele immediately set out to visit the ship in the company of two doctors acting as consultants, Dr Fraser, the Medical Inspector at Glasgow and Dr Morton, the Medical Officer at the Board of Health and they reached Conway on Saturday, 28^th  to find a situation that was rapidly getting out of control.  Captain Keele was shocked to discover that in the midst of this disaster the Conway’s surgeon, Dr Byrne, appointed by the Emigration Commissioners to travel on the ship to look after the health and welfare of the emigrants, was suffering from delerium tremens and had been incapable of assisting the passengers in their time of need.  Byrne was immediately dismissed and Keele sought out a new appointee as surgeon on the Conway.

Tensions in Greenock

Dr Gavin, the Medical Inspector for the Board of Health in Glasgow had been sent for by the Greenock authorities on Saturday, 28^th January but was not immediately available.  He eventually arrived in Greenock at 10.30pm and had a long meeting with the medical and parochial authorities. Dr Gavin wanted Conway to be brought to Greenock, the nearest port with facilities to handle the emergency and the healthy passengers moved on shore. He enquired about the availability of suitable buildings.  No suitable accommodation seemed to be available and, in any case, the Conway was beyond the bounds of Greenock’s jurisdiction.  The view of the Greenock authorities was that Conway should be towed to somewhere isolated, such as the Gareloch, Loch Long or the old quarantine station on the Holy Loch, all on the other side of the Clyde, a significant distance from Greenock!    While Dr Gavin and the authorities were in consultation Captain Keele arrived from the ship and reported that there had been three further deaths and that the bodies had been brought on shore and interred at the cemetery.  The authorities were entirely focussed on avoiding the risk of the highly contagious cholera spreading into their town, whereas Dr Gavin was seeking the best possible circumstances in which to treat the sick and eliminate the further spread of the disease amongst the passengers and crew of the Conway.

The Greenock authorities consulted with the Sheriff and the Collector of Customs and resolved to cut off all communication with the stricken ship.  Orders were given to the police to hail all boats which approached the harbours, for the purpose of ascertaining whether they came from the Conway and policemen were stationed at various points along the shore to prevent passengers and crew from Conway reaching the town. They believed that Conway was not their problem and the appearance of Conway off the port would cause great alarm.

To understand the response of the Greenock authorities it is important to realise that in those pre-antibiotic days in the mid-19^th century cholera was a remarkable common disease in the crowded conditions of many British towns and cities.  Cholera is an infection of the small intestine by the bacterium Vibrio cholerae.  It results in the production of copious watery diarrhoea and can rapidly lead to death if the patient is not rehydrated and their electrolyte balance restored.  It is estimated that in 1832 half of those who caught cholera died of the disease.  Infection is caused by contamination of food or drink by the faeces of an infected person, including excreta from people who are infected but have no symptoms.  Greenock with its “narrow undrained streets, pestiferous lanes and closely built houses” was no stranger to cholera and it had a hospital for the isolation of cholera sufferers.  There had been a major outbreak in 1832 and, only 5 years previously, in 1849, a cholera outbreak in the town was so severe that, at its height, it was killing one person every two hours. But passengers on board ship, especially when locked in the close confines of steerage for days during storms, would have experienced the ideal conditions for the spread of the disease.    A stand-off between the civic and medical authorities briefly ensued but the medical men quickly brought some big guns into play.

On the following day, Sunday, 29^th, Dr Gavin informed the Board of Health in Glasgow of the cholera outbreak and the resistance of the Greenock authorities to allowing the ship to dock there and to accepting its passengers and crew on shore.  He sought its instructions.  Captain Keele wrote to the chairman of the Greenock Parochial Board asking him to open the Cholera Hospital.  His request was declined on the basis that Conway did not lie within the parish boundaries and was thus beyond their authority to act.  It suggested the provision of hospital ships as an alternative.  Dr Auld, the Medical Officer of Quarantine, wrote to the Greenock Magistrates requesting separate accommodation for the healthy passengers and pointing out the official authority for his request.  The Magistrates met on Sunday evening and said they would only act on the request if directed to do so by Government, but if that were the case they would give full cooperation.  Captain Keele and Dr Gavin visited Conway again on Sunday.  Since their visit the previous day there had been two further deaths, including Isabella White, whose mother had died previously.  Additionally, four people were in a state of collapse.  There had now been 7 deaths in total, including one seaman.

Monday 30^th January brought some relief to the passengers and crew of the Conway.  A steamer took a supply of medicine, blankets and firebricks out to the ship.  The Rev Gordon, a Catholic clergyman also travelled on the steamer to render spiritual help to the sick passengers.  Disease continued to spread amongst both passengers and crew. Two children and the boatswain died during the day.  At 3pm there were 20 cases of cholera, with 4 in a state of collapse and 37 cases of diarrhoea.  The Greenock authorities now realised that they would have to give in to the pressure being exerted on them to admit Conway and her human cargo.  The local newspaper commented that it suspected that the authorities had not much choice in the matter.  To their credit, the authorities now made rapid preparations for the ship’s arrival   The Greenock Master of Works, Mr Allison, set about converting a former sail loft at the West Quay for the accommodation of the healthy.  It was divided into four apartments, the one at the south end for 120 single females, the middle two apartments for married couples (89), children and infants (124) and at the northern end the 40 unmarried male passengers were placed.  The apartments all had beds and toilets attached and cooking facilities were placed in the yard.  A police cordon was arrayed around the building to prevent communication between the passengers and the general public.   Preparations were also made at the Cholera Hospital for the admission of the sick, with the provision of additional beds and furnishings.  The initial failure of the Greenock Authorities to act had, however, been passed up to the Home Office and a letter from Lord Palmerston, the Home Secretary, quoting from a communication by Captain Keele, telling him that the Greenock authorities had not at first rendered him all the assistance that he thought he was entitled to receive, arrived in Greenock on Wednesday, 1^st February.  However, the Greenock Authorities, having already caved in, immediately responded by telegraph hotly denying the charge of non-cooperation.  The biggest of big guns had, in the end, not been necessary.

It proved impossible to find a steamer capable of towing the Conway from Gourock Bay to Greenock so, on Tuesday 31^st January, a request was made to the Admiralty to use HMS Vulture, a steam paddle frigate of 1960 tons.  The Admiralty reply was that a request could be made to the captain of any available Royal Navy vessel, provided the costs were met.  It is not clear how Conway eventually reached Greenock but she had arrived off the port by Wednesday,1^st March  Two dead adults and 3 dead children were then landed, making 11 deaths in total.

The Sacking of Captain Liston and the arrival of Captain Duguid

By this time James Baines & Co had sent a representative, Captain Dixon, to Greenock.  He must have discovered that Captain Liston, after arriving off Gourock on Tuesday 22^nd January, had inexplicably failed to report the outbreak of cholera on board Conway until about Friday, 25^th, thus delaying the mobilisation of help for the ship.  Liston was dismissed, though the exact date of his departure is not presently known.  It is claimed by Michael Stammers in his book “The Passage Makers” that Liston’s removal from command followed complaints by some passengers to the owners.  The judgement of Captain Liston was certainly called into question indirectly by the Greenock Advertiser.  This Black Ball captain thus found that his reputation was only as good as his last voyage, as the famous James Nicol Forbes, who lost the Black Baller, Schomberg, on her maiden voyage in 1855 and Captain Pole were also to discover.  None of the three appears to have had another major Black Ball command after being held responsible in some measure for a crisis.  It is not known if first mate, Thomas Spurrier was put in temporary command of Conway after Liston’s dismissal, but the seriousness of the situation clearly demanded the presence of a proven leader.  That person was to be Captain William Henry Duguid.

William Duguid was born in 1824 in Devonport.  After serving as mate on the China (1851) and the Actaeon (1851-52), he was made commander of the Fleetwood in 1852 at the age of 28, before becoming master of the Lady Falkland in 1853.  The Fleetwood and the Lady Falkland, which operated out of Liverpool, were both owned by Rankin, Gilmour & Co.  This company was a major timber importer from Canada but developed a sideline in importing cotton from the southern USA, to make full use of its ships in winter.   The Lady Falkland, under the command of Captain Duguid, arrived at Quebec from Belfast to pick up a cargo of timber on 6^th September 1853.  The ship cleared on 28^th September and arrived in Liverpool on 31^st October.  On 2^nd December the Lady Falkland was reported to be loading at Liverpool for Apalachicola, with Duguid named as her master.  Apalachicola lies on the Gulf of Mexico coast of Florida, close to the cotton-growing region of the southern United States.  However, when the Lady Falkland cleared for Apalachicola on 12^th December, Duguid had been succeeded as master by Captain Pearson.  It is likely that the cause of this change was that William Henry Duguid had moved from the employment of Rankin, Gilmour & Co to that of James Baines & Co.  It is not known why Duguid was recruited by the Black Ball Line but one intriguing possibility is that he was being lined up to captain the Schomberg, which would be launched in early 1855.   This ship was expected to achieve fast passages.  When the Schomberg was first advertised for passages to Australia in June 1854, Duguid was named as her captain, though his name was quickly replaced by that of Captain James Forbes.  If this had been the Black Ball plan it was quickly overtaken by the unfolding events in Greenock in February 1854.  Clearly, James Baines judged that William Duguid was the man to sort out the Conway crisis.  The precise date on which William Duguid took command is not known but he was certainly on board by Wednesday, 15^th February.

Cholera brought under control

The Greenock Parochial Board held its regular monthly meeting on the evening of Friday 3^rd March under its chairman Hugh Ritchie.  Ritchie assured the Board that local and parochial authorities had made every reasonable attempt to prevent the Conway’s passengers from arriving in Greenock but the Government had ensured that the Conway was towed within Greenock’s boundaries, compelling their cooperation.  Hugh Ritchie had personally come under intense pressure from the General Board of Health in London and from Dr Gavin, who “laid before him the instructions by which, as chairman of the parochial board he would be required to act in the untoward circumstances in which the Conway had arrived and enjoined him at his peril not to neglect compliance therewith.”  The Parochial Board were concerned at the additional costs that they were incurring but they received assurances from both the Conway’s owner and Dr Gavin that their extra outlays would be reimbursed.

Most of the Conway’s passengers had been landed by Friday 3^rd March.  Six ill passengers remained on board and 40 had been moved to the Cholera Hospital.  The passengers who were well had taken up residence in the West Quay sail loft.  On the following day the remaining 6 sick passengers were removed to the hospital.  The first signs then began to emerge that the strategy for containing the disease was working.  Of those in the hospital, only two had cholera, two were in a state of collapse and 14 had diarrhoea, the remainder was progressing favourably.  Captain Brotchie of the Seamen’s Chapel attended the healthy passengers every evening to conduct worship.  Release from the foul confines of the ship had an immediate effect on morale and demeanour and “their evenings are spent in dancing and merriment.”  Over the following week the statistics on sick passengers showed that the formerly rampant ill-health among the passengers was rapidly declining. By Monday 6^th February there was only one case of cholera and 8 of diarrhoea and these cases had reduced to none of cholera and 3 of diarrhoea by Friday 10^th.  The following Monday, 13^th February there was but a single case of diarrhoea in the hospital and by the next day this case too had been cleared up. 

The Conway was entirely cleaned out and all bedding in use on board was burnt.  The ship was then scraped and fumigated with disinfecting fluid and then washed over with hot lime. Preparations were made for the re-embarkation of the passengers and the resumption of their interrupted journey to the antipodes.  There was a phased return of passengers to the Conway, starting with the single women and the cured patients on Tuesday 14^th February.  The rest of the passengers were to have been allowed back on board the next day but this was cancelled when cholera apparently broke out again.  Those on board the Conway were disembarked.  Blame for this new outbreak was directed at the new ship’s surgeon, who had not followed the advice of his medical colleagues and suffered dismissal.

Captain Brotchie of the Seamen’s Chapel had been unremitting in his attention to the emotional and spiritual needs of the passengers from the moment they arrived in Greenock.  He spent many hours amongst them, visiting the sick on board ship and in the Cholera Hospital and conducting religious services in the West Quay sail loft and on the Conway.  As the Conway’s departure approached, the grateful passengers subscribed to the purchase of a desk to show their appreciation for Brotchie’s work.  This was presented by Mr Chant, the Government Emigration Agent at Liverpool (who appeared to have been sent to Greenock to help manage the situation), on behalf of the passengers.  The ceremony took place on the deck of the Conway on Wednesday, 8^th March.  Subsequently there was a delay in sailing until the new surgeon superintendent arrived.  Conway finally welcomed her third doctor to hold this position on the voyage, when Dr Blunt came aboard early on Sunday morning, 12^th March.  Conway immediately departed for Geelong, though she only got as far as Gourock Bay on her first day, due to headwinds.

Mutiny on the Conway

The return of cholera on Wednesday, 15^th February was unnerving for the crew who had lost the boatswain to the disease.  Some of them mutinied, though they returned to accepting orders later the same day.  It is not clear if there was truly a recurrence of the dread disease.  On Thursday, 16^th February the Cholera Hospital reported three cases of diarrhoea and all other patients convalescent.  Possibly there had been a false alarm.  Re-embarkation was resumed on Thursday, continued on Friday and by Monday 20^th February everyone was back on board, save one possible cholera patient who was recovering in the hospital.  But the emergency proved not yet to be finally ended.  On Friday 24^th February another passenger was brought ashore apparently showing the symptoms of cholera. 

When Captain Duguid took command of Conway he must have been determined to stamp his authority on the crew, if he was to get the situation under control.  The temporary mutiny on Wednesday 15^th February could not be treated lightly, if he was to secure the obedience of his men and the respect of his officers.  In the Greenock Sheriff Court on Wednesday 21^st February, before Sheriff Marshall, Captain Duguid preferred a charge against the third mate, carpenter, sailmaker and 8 seamen to the effect that these men had combined amongst themselves and with others of the crew to disobey and had actually disobeyed his commands, contrary to Section 78 of the Mercantile Marine Act, 1830.  However, the prosecution case quickly unravelled.  Mr Neil, defending the crew, had three objections to the charges, the second of which proved to be crucial. The crew had signed on in Liverpool to sail to Geelong under Captain Liston as master, but Liston had been dismissed and his name had been deleted on the ship’s articles and replaced with that of Captain Duguid.  This may have seemed reasonable to Duguid as a practical seafarer used to getting things done, but legally it was without effect because the crew were not a party to the change.  The sheriff immediately dismissed the case, leaving Captain Duguid with egg on his face.  It is not clear if any or all (as claimed by Michael Stammers in “The Passage Makers”) of the crew left the ship and were replaced in the short period of 3 days, or if they continued on the voyage to Geelong.

The Impact of the Conway Incident

The total death toll amongst Conway’s passengers and crew is difficult to determine with precision but probably amounted to 14 passengers and one crew member, which is really quite a modest total, given the circumstances.  The passengers were on board for 13 days between leaving Liverpool and landing at Greenock.  During that time they endured 5 days of confinement in increasingly unhygienic conditions while the storm raged.  The death rate for passengers and crew was about 3.5%.  What was the impact of the Conway incident on the town of Greenock?  The Greenock Advertiser’s  assessment in the middle of February, when the outbreak was well under control and the departure of the Conway was anticipated, was “….the vessel will soon leave the port where her arrival caused great dismay but fortunately produced no disastrous consequences”.  There were 17 deaths in all in Greenock in the month of February 1854 due to cholera.  Of the total, 11 cases were members of Conway’s passengers and crew. The other six cholera deaths were spread over 5 different locations, including the gaol, but such a sporadic pattern was not unusual for this town.  It is difficult to know if many, or even any, of the deaths were due to the presence of the Conway’s sick passengers in the Cholera Hospital, but the suspicion is that it was few or none.  At their statutory annual meeting in February 1855, Hugh Ritchie presented the annual report of the Parochial Board.  The report both assumed that cholera had spread into the community from Conway, “and in its consequences throwing bereaved widows and children on the Board to increase future expenditure” and also admitted that the effect had been slight, “….your Committee cannot fail to recognise  in this visitation the great kindness of the Almighty, in only slightly affecting the community by this dreadful scourge”  On the other hand there had certainly been a modest financial imposition on the town, due to the need to adapt accommodation for the Conway’s passengers, sick and well.  Another impact was on the marine community.  Vessels outwards bound from Greenock had some difficulty in obtaining clean bills of health and some customs officers requested to be relieved from duty at the West Quay, such was the fear of the disease in the population at large.  

Although an undertaking had been given by Captain Keele that Greenock’s additional expenditure on the Conway would be met, no reimbursement had occurred by the end of May 1854.  In frustration Hugh Ritchie, Chairman of Greenock Parochial Board, wrote to the Emigration Board in London. To his relief, an immediate response was received confirming that Captain Keele had been instructed to settle Greenock’s account.  In fact the additional expenditure by the Greenock Parochial Board only amounted to £200 out of a budget of £9000, < 2%.  The Greenock Authorities had argued, with justification, throughout the Conway incident that they were being expected to provide resources locally to deal with a matter which should really be the responsibility of national government.  This issue raised its head again in July 1854 long after Conway’s departure from the town.  Captain Keele had written to the Greenock Town Clerk requesting that the town prepare a contingency plan, including the preparation of suitable accommodation, in case an event such as the Conway incident should recur.  This caused indignation amongst the baillies.  They pointed out that Conway was registered in Liverpool and such a provision was for the benefit of the whole country.  However, Captain Keele warned them that the Government would do nothing.

A wrangle over responsibility for other additional costs associated with the Conway cholera incident arose between James Baines and the Emigration Commissioners in July 1854.  Baines tried to claim an additional £3,168 for the detention of Conway for 52 days in total (this time period seems to commence with her arrival at Gourock).  The lawyer acting for Baines put the blame for the incident on the Emigration Commissioners because they had appointed the drunkard surgeon superintendent, Dr Byrne.  The Commissioners took a very different view.  They withheld £1000 from the first half of the payment stipulated in the charter party because firstly, the Conway had failed to sail on time and secondly, when the ship put into Greenock, the Commissioners paid the cost of all the emigrants’ food which should properly have been at the expense of James Baines & Co.  They also justified their appointment of Dr Byrne on the grounds that he had performed well for them on other contracts.   It is likely that some compromise was reached but the exact outcome of the dispute, which rumbled on for three years, is not known.

Journey to Geelong resumed

In spite of the inauspicious start to Conway’s journey from Liverpool to Port Phillip, the voyage resumed on 18^th March, 1854 from Greenock and took a relatively fast 83 days to reach the destination.  Interestingly, 420 emigrants started the journey in Greenock, made up of 306 adults and 114 infants and children.  Bearing in mind that Conway left Liverpool with 382 passengers and that in Greenock some passengers left the ship to return to England by train, in addition to those who died in the cholera outbreak, there must have been a significant recruitment of new passengers.  Not all passengers arrived at their destination.  Over and above the probable 14 deaths from cholera between Liverpool and Greenock, as well as at Greenock, it was reported that there were 9 deaths and 4 births on the journey from Greenock to Geelong, not an unusual occurrence.   

Conway anchored off Port Henry on Saturday 17^th June, 1854 and was put in quarantine, under the supervision of Captain Duguid, his officers and the surgeon, Dr Blunt (referred to as “Dr Burke” in the Australian press), as a precautionary measure.  The passengers and crew were not long detained and a notice appeared in the local newspaper informing the community that the emigrants on the Conway would be available for hire from the following Thursday, 22^nd June.  The end of the voyage also meant that the shipping company would be paid by the Emigration Commissioners, £6,655 for the surviving immigrants and £37 for those who died.  Gratuities were also due to the surgeon superintendent, officers and constable, £435 in total.

Geelong and the Gold Rush

Geelong takes its name from the local aboriginal word for “land” or “cliffs”.  The area was first surveyed in 1838 and initially the town’s importance was associated with the production of wool.  Geelong lies on Corio Bay and Port Geelong began in 1853 with the creation of a shipping channel.  However, great change occurred, starting in 1851, when gold was discovered at Ballarat, which lies inland from Geelong and the gold rush rapidly developed.  Geelong was the nearest port to the gold workings and many aspiring miners entered Australia through Geelong.  At that time, more than 200 clipper ships could often be seen lying in Port Phillip Bay. 

The gold rush caused problems for the masters of clippers delivering their human cargo of emigrants to Geelong and Melbourne.  Crew members often jumped ship to try their luck in the diggings, leaving ships stranded, often for weeks, while a desperate search was made for replacements.  Inflated wages frequently had to be paid as an inducement to sign on for the return journey to Britain.  Other crew members were recruited from low dives and were not infrequently brought aboard drugged or drunk.  William Swan, an apprentice from the Conway appears to have deserted on 4^th July.  He was brought before the Police Court in Geelong but no one turned up from the ship to substantiate the charge of desertion.  As a result he was discharged on an undertaking that he would go back on board.  However, Conway must have lost about 18 crew members in Geelong, because the Victoria Labour Market and Shipping Office advertised for “18 seamen for Conway to East Indies” on 11^th July.

Cargo on the return trip to Britain often included gold dust.  Thus, a motley crew made up with low life caused anxieties for many a captain.  The Medway returned to Britain with 4 tons of gold packed in boxes stowed under the births of the saloon and the first class passengers were provided with weapons to support the officers in deterring and, if necessary, fighting any crew members with designs on the precious metal.  A brass canon loaded with grapeshot was fixed in the after part of the ship and trained on the crew quarters in the forecastle.  Only officers and stewards were allowed in the rear part of the ship.

The Geelong Emigrants

Emigrants travelling out to Australia frequently joined friends or family who had already made the transition.  Newspaper advertisements were often the means by which the incomers found their contacts.  The following, typical, notices appeared in The Argus in mid-July, 1854:  “Ship Conway.  John Keith, Aberdeen, will find John Wright in Johnston Street, opposite the Rochester Castle, Collingwood.  And: “Ship Conway.  Mary Ann Lee who came out from Liverpool in the Conway you will find your brother James Orme by applying at Guan and Dundas’s Store, Flinders Lane”.  The Conway carried a diverse cargo, in addition to the 420 emigrants, including such items as wood, coal, turpentine, iron, spades, pails, harrows, saddlery, seeds, plaster of Paris, a cart, butter, beer, bacon and cheese.  Clearly many immigrants were expecting even basic items to be unavailable in this new country.

A substantial number of single females travelled out on the Conway in segregated accommodation, to protect them from the attentions of single male passengers and members of the crew.  They must have found the arrangements to their satisfaction because on arrival at Geelong they placed the following statement in the Geelong Advertiser and Intelligencer.  “To Captain Duguid.  Of the Black Ball Line Clipper Ship Conway.  Sir We (the single females on board the ship Conway) by which happily (indecipherable) voyage have great pleasure in returning you thanks for your exertions and perseverance in bringing us safely to our destined port and for the extreme and special manner in which you have treated us since we left England and though now we have come to the land of prosperity we shall ever remember with gratitude the happy days we spent on board the good ship Conway.  We now conclude with our best wishes for your welfare and trust that you may have a safe and speedy voyage home and remain yours respectfully (signed) Jane McLelland on behalf of 120 fellow single Female Passengers.  Geelong June 20th 1854”.

1854 – 1855.  Conway’s return via Calcutta

For Captain Duguid the arrival in Geelong brought little time to relax.  He had responsibility for the safe discharge of both passengers and cargo, for paying accounts on behalf of the company, for searching out new business and for preparing the vessel for the journey back to Britain.  Many of the clippers of the Black Ball Line made the return journey to the UK by continuing across the Pacific Ocean, rounding Cape Horn and returning to Liverpool up the Atlantic.  There were few passengers wishing to make the journey from Australia to Great Britain and though the ships brought back gold and wool, the return journey was not as profitable as the outward voyage.  Conway did not follow this pattern on her four round trips to Australia for the Black Ball Line, as she travelled back via India, appearing to seek commercial opportunities wherever they could be found. Conway sailed from Geelong on 21^st July 1854, reportedly (in Lloyd's List) bound for Guam, though she eventually sailed to Calcutta in India.  Guam is the largest of the Marianas Islands and lies in the western Pacific about 2000 Km east of the Philippines.  Conway appears to have called at Melbourne before travelling through the Torres straights, in company with ships Chandernagore, Montgomery and Janet Mitchell, to arrive at Galle, Ceylon on 12^th September.  Conway cannot have travelled to Guam.  To do so, she would not have taken this route and, in any case, there would not have been sufficient time.  From Galle she travelled on to Calcutta, reportedly reaching Sagar (Sangor) at the mouth of the Hooghly River on 20^th October, though Lloyd's List reported that she had reached Calcutta by 22nd September.  Calcutta stands on the Hooghli.

At this time large parts of India were administered by the East India Company, which even established its own armies.  This joint stock company had been created to develop trade with the East Indies, though its main areas of operation were in India and China.  The EIC was highly successful and at one time it accounted for more than 50% of world trade, particularly in such commodities as cotton, salt petre (an essential component of gunpowder), tea and opium (which found its way in large quantities to China).  It is obvious why James Baines & Co and Captain Duguid should seek commercial opportunities in Calcutta, which was the centre of the EIC’s operations on the east side of India.

Conway was reported as sailing from Calcutta for London on both 17^th November and 5^th December, 1854.  This may be accounted for by a minor accident that befell her.  As she was passing down the Hooghli she was “ran foul of” by another vessel, touched the ground and lost her anchors.  She was surveyed and found to have sustained no damage, so she proceeded for London, but this incident must have caused some delay.  The fact that Conway was heading back to London, rather than Liverpool, from where she would start her next voyage, suggests that she was carrying wool, or gold, or both.  Liverpool lacked a wool market and London and the Bank of England was the obvious destination for gold dust.  Conway arrived off Falmouth on 24th March 1855, called at Gravesend on 30th and reached the London Custom House the following day.

Three newspapers reported (perhaps only one report copied?), when Conway was nearing Britain, that she had come from Callao (the port of Peru’s capital, Lima) and Calcutta, but there are reasons to doubt that she could have travelled from Calcutta via Callao to London.  Firstly, ships calling at Callao were very likely to be collecting a cargo of guano (seabird excreta), which was an excellent fertiliser, but caused a pervasive and persistent stink on board.  The Emigration Commissioners were very reluctant to consider using guano boats for the carriage of emigrants for this reason, but Conway was used several times more in this role.  Secondly, the distance from Calcutta to London, via Callao was 22,260 nautical miles, passing around Cape Horn.  On her journey out from Greenock to Geelong, Conway had averaged 6.15 knots, a fairly fast passage.  Had she kept up this average travelling back to London via Callao, she would have taken 151 days plus loading time in Callao.  The journey back to London actually took 115 days. If the route had been across the Indian Ocean and round the Cape of Good Hope, her average speed would have been 4.18 knots.  Thirdly, no reports have been discovered of Conway sailing from Calcutta for Callao, or of Conway actually being at Callao.  Another clipper, the Conway Castle, did engage in the guano trade about this time, which may have caused some confusion with ship identities.

Conway and the Crimean War

The Crimean War started in October 1853, when the Ottoman Empire declared war on Russia.  However, the Ottomans quickly suffered a major defeat, allowing the Russians to take control of the Crimean Peninsula and thus exert control over the Black Sea.  This rise in Russian power brought Britain and France into the war on the side of the Ottomans and the Russian threat was neutralised after the capture of Sevastopol.  There was a great need for the British forces in the Crimea to be resupplied with horses and Mr Lindsay, MP, who was very critical of the Admiralty’s tardiness in arranging transport for the animals, made his own proposal to use a fleet of clippers for that purpose.  Conway was one of the vessels mentioned.  It was reckoned that Conway could carry 170 horses.  However, it was never a concrete proposal and nothing came of the idea.

Conway’s 1855 voyage to Hobart Town

Starting at the end of October 1854, advertisements appeared in a wide range of British newspapers announcing that James Baines & Co had made arrangements with the Government of Van Diemen’s Land (now Tasmania) “for the conveyance of the entire emigration to that colony under the bounty system have determined on establishing a line of their Clipper Ships direct to Hobart-Town and Launceton”.  Conway was one of the ships due to travel, at a date to be announced.  At that time, Conway would have been at Calcutta and her date of availability uncertain.  The total number of advertisements detected between 27^th October and 18^th November, 1854 was 71 spread over 42 titles.  The advertisements did not obviously go out in waves and seemed on this occasion to be more targeted.  Many newspapers only received a single advertisement but the Northern Whig (Belfast) received 5.  No advertisements were found in Welsh or London newspapers and Ireland and Scotland were again over-represented.

Conway ended her last voyage in London but her next voyage was due to start in Liverpool.  Although no record has been found of the transition of Conway between the two ports, it is likely that she was towed by steamer.  Lloyd's List reported that on 4th June Conway was off Liverpool.  On 15^th June 1855, James Baines & Co announced in the Liverpool Mercury that the Conway, under Captain Duguid, had entered dock in Liverpool to load for Australia (she had actually entered out on the 11th).  Black Ball advertisements offered passages at 16 gns for the journey to Hobart Town.  Emigrants started to converge on Liverpool.  Twelve families from Paisley, in total 58 individuals, left the town on Monday 2^nd July to travel to Liverpool by train.  They had been granted emigration bounty tickets by the Executive Council of Van Dieman’s Land.  Conway sailed for Hobart Town with 453 passengers, all travelling under bounty regulations, on Thursday 12^th July.  Typical of emigrant ships to Australia, Conway’s cargo included rosin, coal, tar, pitch, pig iron, salt, soap, a substantial amount of machinery and manufactured goods and food items, including butter, hams and bacon, ale and rum.  After rounding the Cape of Good Hope (which suggests Conway did not sail a great circle route) she encountered “thick and heavy weather”. She arrived at Hobart on 14^th October after a passage of 94 days.  Early in the voyage measles broke out and more than 50 cases were recorded, resulting in the deaths of two children.  There were in total 13 deaths (mostly involving infants) and one birth on the passage.

Conway anchored off Hobart before being towed to the New Quay by the steamer Venus.  The newly-arrived immigrants were soon made available for hire.  While many of them were from labouring or farm labouring background, there were also significant numbers of craftsmen such as masons, blacksmiths and carpenters.  The Argus gave the national breakdown of the immigrants as 243 English, 149 Scotch and 51 Irish.  About 50 immigrants travelled by the steamer Fenella to Launceton on the other side of the island, some of them bound for employment in the Mersey Coal Works. 

On a long passage tensions between individuals, both passengers and crew had the potential to break out in open hostility and even violence on some small provocation.  John Sullivan, a passenger, complained to the police on arrival in Hobart that another passenger, Julia Hart had assaulted his wife, Ellen, by throwing a vessel of boiling tea or coffee over her, severely scalding the left side of her face, shoulder, breast and neck, before hitting her on the face with the vessel that had contained the beverage and attempting to pull her hair out.  The incident had occurred on 16^th October, shortly before arrival in Hobart.  Apparently the altercation had been sparked when Hart overheard the Sullivans’ daughter complain about her son, Jemmy. The outcome of the case is currently not known.  The absence of female company on a long voyage also led to conflict.  Michael Nulty, a passenger on Conway, had gone to visit a female at a Mr Risby’s house in Hobart a few days after landing and became involved in an altercation.  He was brought up before the police magistrate but discharged as the fight was not considered to be sufficiently serious.

Love also blossomed during the Conway’s passage from Liverpool.  On 22^nd October, 8 days after Conway’s arrival in Hobart, two marriages were conducted.  The first involved two Welsh passengers, Rowland Davies and Rachel Evans and the second was between George Smith, one of the Conway’s officers and passenger Alice Smith of London.

Crew Troubles in Hobart Town

On arrival, Captain Duguid had to deal with a variety of crew issues.  Two seamen, Jeffrey Walsh and Thomas Harrison jumped ship in Hobart but were soon apprehended.  They pleaded guilty to desertion but said in mitigation that, while they were happy with Captain Duguid’s conduct, they had been provoked by the boatswain, who was in the habit of swearing at them, allegedly using the terms, reported in those coy times as “Sons of bs” and “Sons of ws”.  We can only guess at the epithets employed!  Were Walsh and Harrison rather sensitive souls?  Most sailors, one suspects, would have accepted being sworn at as part and parcel of the job.  Duguid defended his boatswain in Court, saying that he had received no complaint from the runaways and that the boatswain was an effective disciplinarian.  The likely reason for the Boatswain’s hostility emerged in court.  Captain Duguid revealed that Walsh had allowed a heavy block to fall from the masthead.  It narrowly missed the boatswain, who was standing on deck at the time. The boatswain must have thought Walsh at least clumsy and careless, but probably suspected malicious intent.    The captain expressed a wish to have the two men back aboard, perhaps sensing that it would be difficult to find replacements in Hobart.  However, the two absentees did not wish to return and accepted a month in jail.  Duguid also preferred a charge of refusing to work against another seaman, William Rogers, who had disobeyed an order from the 1^st mate to wash the decks, which was a daily task.  This event happened while Conway was in port.  Apparently, Rogers was the ringleader of a group which had been getting progressively more insolent and mutinous.  For example, the gang had been singing indecent songs (they claimed they were sea shanties!), which deterred visitors to the ship.  Rogers was sent to the House of Correction for a week and threatened with more severe treatment, should he reoffend on his return to the ship.  Another crew member in trouble was William Griffiths. Captain Duguid charged him with absence without leave on 5^th November. He had very poor eyesight and on several occasions Duguid had looked for him to take him to see a doctor but the defendant could not be found.  The police eventually found him drinking in a pub.  He too got 7 days in the House of Correction.  The Conway had at least two other desertions in Hobart, by Charles Fairburn and William Allison.  Captain Duguid stated that the men were well behaved and he had no idea why they should have absconded.  They too got 7 days, apparently the standard seaman punishment, before being returned to ship.

There was also an accidental death by falling into the hold, one of the regular causes of death on board ship.  A popular seaman, Robert Roberts appeared to have fallen down the hatch of the lower deck when he tried to descend to the hold for some water during the night, without using a light.  An inquest was held in the Waterman’s Arms and a verdict of accidental death recorded.  Roberts was buried the same afternoon and his coffin, draped with the Union Jack, was carried by his messmates.

The bounty passengers were pleased with Captain Duguid’s conduct of the voyage and had an address published in The Courier, praising Duguid, Mr Hill, the First Mate, Mr Mickle, the Second Mate and Mr Hay the Purser.  They even praised the provisions and the medical care, saying they wished to contradict rumours, circulating in Wales, that passengers were ill-treated on Black Ball ships.  Perhaps this belief accounted in some measure for the lack of Welsh emigrants?  Captain Duguid graciously accepted the praise of the passengers in a letter published in the same paper, The Courier and thanked the passengers for keeping to the ship’s regulations.

1855 – 1856.  Conway’s return via Bombay

Conway’s master also had to prepare the vessel for the return to Britain, clearing out and selling unwanted stores and taking on cargo or ballast.   For example, an advertisement was placed in the Colonial Times by Daniel Graham of the Exchange Warehouse offering 30 casks of prime Irish pork, ex-Conway, for sale “cheap”.   As on her previous voyage to Australia in 1854, Conway returned to Britain via India.  She cleared at Hobart Town on 19^th November 1855 and arrived in Bombay on 24^th January 1856.  On 28^th February she sailed for her home port of Liverpool, arriving on 10th or 11th July, 1856.  Nothing is currently known of Conway’s cargo on either leg of her return journey.

Sometime during 1856 but presumably while she was in Liverpool between voyages to Australia, she was surveyed for Lloyds and re-sheathed with felt and yellow metal fastened with iron bolts.  The type of felt used was a patent felt produced by Messers Ellis & Co which they described in an advertisement as follows.  “…by aid of machinery combining the latest improvements together with the first practical ability procurable, has enabled them to produce an article which for strength durability and quality is much superior to anything yet submitted to the public…..The Patent Sheathing Felt…for sheathing of ships under either Yellow Metal or Wood, combining great strength as well as durability and presenting a beautifully even surface; it will nourish and preserve the timber and caulking, prevent leakage  and effectively protect the planking from the destructive ravages of the worm”.

1856 – Conway’s journey to Sydney

After her return to Britain, Conway, under Captain Duguid, was again offered by James Baines & Co to the Emigration Commissioners for a charter to take emigrants to Sydney, New South Wales.  The bid was accepted.  On this occasion there was no advertising of passenger berths by the owner, though the freighting opportunities were publicised, mainly in the Liverpool press.  Conway was also contracted to carry the mails for Australia and New Zealand.  She entered out on 21st August and sailed on 21^st September 1856 with 443 emigrants, arriving in Sydney on 30^th December, after a passage of 100 days and docked at the Circular Wharf. The ship was said to be in a remarkably clean state.  The Australian newspapers reported that there were 72 married couples, 107 single men, 18 single women and 121 children, in total 430 souls, 13 fewer than were reported to have started the voyage, accounted for (approximately) by 16 deaths and 4 births during the voyage. 

The Conway’s cargo was typical of the range of items taken by emigrants to Australia, or ordered by those already in the country, with food and drink, raw materials and manufactured items predominating.  Many of the imported items were quickly put on sale, including nails, tinware, glass, coffin furniture, carpenter’s tools (damaged by sea water) and a large quantity of slates. Conway carried stores to feed the passengers for 140 days, so the surplus was auctioned at the Circular Quay on 19^th January 1856.  In total there was a substantial number of items and the quantities were large, for example, 5 gallons of lime juice, 33 barrels of flour, 20 cases of preserved potatoes and 80lbs of pepper. 

The Maitland Mercury and Hunter River General Advertiser speculated that the new immigrants would find it easier to procure employment in the country districts than had recently been the case, with wage rates of £50-£60 for married couples, farm servants £35 - £40, ploughmen £50, shepherds £30, bush carpenters £52, stockmen £40 - £45, bullock drivers £45 - £60 and general man servants £30 - £40.

There was the usual range of incidents involving both passengers and crew.  Thomas Millington, an immigrant, found himself before the Police Magistrate within a few days of arrival, charged with drunken and disorderly conduct.  Alice Robinson, who had found work with a family in Newcastle, NSW, appears to have been pregnant before the start of her voyage on the Conway.  She confessed her condition to her mistress but the baby was born prematurely and died.  Alice was exonerated by the Coroner at the subsequent inquest. Seaman Thomas Robertson was fined 90s for being drunk but Captain Duguid paid the fine.  Duguid also showed his softer side in withdrawing a charge of disobedience against another seaman, Alexander Martin, on the basis of his previous good behaviour and he was sent back to the ship.  James Brown, another seaman was sent to jail for 24 hours for disorderly conduct.  Thomas Norby tried to jump ship but was caught and sent back on board.  Codwallader Hughes received 24 hours in jail for disorderly conduct on board. There was a fine balance to be drawn between maintaining discipline and ensuring crew retention.  It is likely that the apparently generous acts by the ship’s master were actually examples of him acting out of self-interest, since he had to guard against being stranded in Sydney for lack of sufficient crew numbers for the onward journey.

Newly arrived passengers, as was usual, sought out, or were sought out by, friends and family already in the country.  “If you should meet Alice Williams, late of Swansea who left home in the ship Conway….there is a letter in the Post Office from T Goodhugh”, and “If Donald Campbell and Hugh McMaster joiners of Glasgow per ship Conway from Birkenhead have arrived in Sydney they will please write to Cuthbert Campbell care of James Burrell, Spencer-street corner of Roselay-street North Melbourne”, were typical messages in the newspapers.

1857.  Conway’s return via Bombay

At the end of January 1857, Conway was being prepared for her homeward journey.  Notices were placed in the local press advising those with claims or accounts against the vessel to make them by the end of Wednesday, 30^th January.  Accommodation was advertised for cabin passengers to Bombay but there were no takers.  Conway was also contracted to carry the mails for Bombay and she finally sailed from Sydney on Tuesday, 5^th February and arrived at the Indian city on 17th or 18th April, 1857, a journey time of 71 days.  The Bombay Presidency was a centre of operations in Western India for the East India Company and an important port.  It is likely that Captain Duguid hoped to pick up commissions there when he offloaded the mails from Australia.  Conway is presumed to have secured a contract because she sailed from Bombay on 1^st June 1857 for Bushier, the chief sea port of Persia, on the Persian Gulf, though the nature of her cargo is not known.  She returned to Bombay, where she picked up a cargo including dyestuffs, cottons, cocoa nuts, gingelly wood (gingelly seeds are used in Indian cooking) and bales of cotton. Conway set sail for Liverpool on 9^th December 1857, finally arriving back at her home port on 31st March or 1^st April 1858.

1858.  Conway’s journey to Melbourne

Within days of the return of the Conway, the Emigration Commissioners had accepted a bid by James Baines & Co to provide the ship for the transport of emigrants from Birkenhead to Melbourne at a price of £14 4s 3d per statute adult, a weighted figure allowing for children at a fraction of the adult rate.  Conway had to be available to travel between 22^nd May and 31^st May, 1858 at the discretion of the Commissioners.  In addition to her passengers, Conway would also be carrying mail and freight.  James Baines & Co advertised the service which included “Conveying goods to Geelong forwarding passengers by steam to all parts of Australia and Tasmania at ship’s expense”.  Conway entered out on 16th April and actually left on 10^th June, 1858 carrying 425 souls (381 statute adults).  The make-up of the passengers was 19 married couples, 77 single men, 233 single women and 77 infants and children.  The high proportion of single females was unusual.  During the voyage there were two births, one live, a boy christened “Conway” and a still birth, but no other deaths, which was not the norm.

Conway Diarists

Two of the emigrants on this trip, Fanny Davis and Annie Gratton, separately kept diaries of their experiences, which give an invaluable insight into life on board Conway under Captain Duguid and Surgeon-Superintendant John Carroll, as well as the lot of the emigrant passenger generally.  The originals are worth reading in full but some highlights have been extracted.

Living accommodation for steerage passengers was both communal and cramped, as Fanny Davis explained “Each person has two canvass bags given them and they are told to put a month’s clothes into them as all the boxes are to be put into the hold of the vessel today and only taken out once a month to get out another month’s clothes and put the dirty ones away”.

The journey started in British early summer and conditions warmed as they approached the equator, to the extent that the ladies needed an awning on the poop to protect them from both heat and sun. During the passage down the Atlantic the weather ranged from gales and heavy seas to periods of being becalmed.  After the line was passed, the weather deteriorated progressively.  The days got shorter and colder and the seas were often mountainous.  Even with hatches closed, seas washing over the decks penetrated into the cabin.  As a result, the floor was often swimming with water.  Confinement in the cabin in conditions too dark to read was also difficult to bear.  On 3^rd August the jib-boom was broken in two and a sail was “sent to pieces” in stormy weather.  The falling sail broke the glass in one of the ventilators, which fell down into the cabin occupied by Annie Gratton.  Sometimes the weather was so bad that the women could not get on deck and the men had to bring food, etc, to them.  The women often had to wear shawls and gloves in the cabin, or went to bed to keep warm, or to escape from the water swilling around the cabin floor.  On one occasion, Surgeon-Superintendent Carroll took pity on them.  He brought 6 sailors and stayed with them while they mopped up the cabin.  To a hardened seaman, such conditions were a part of life and they were probably not very sympathetic to the girls’ circumstances and needed Carroll’s presence to ensure the job was completed.  Occasionally fires in cages were hung in the cabin to alleviate the cold, such as on 13^th August.  On 28^th August, in the Southern Ocean, Annie Gratton noted “Heavy sea and rolling.  8 kts.  Snowball fight.  Then a hail storm”.  When the weather was bad and the ship rolling heavily, the single women often had difficulty sleeping and lay awake listening to commands being given by Captain Duguid, which were relayed to the crew by the First Mate.  In response, sailors ran about singing, their feet drumming on the deck above.  Bad weather frequently caused fear and panic amongst the girls.  Some fainted, some were crying and calling out names of friends left behind and others were on their knees calling on the Saints or the Blessed Virgin Mary to save them. 

Many of the passengers suffered from sea sickness.  Annie Gratton was sick on only the second day after departure and felt ill for much of the journey. Surgeon-Superintendent Carroll urged suffers to spend time on deck to counteract the symptoms.  On 15^th June he ordered all passengers on deck and those who could not walk were carried.  Especially after rounding the Cape of Good Hope, persistent cold was a problem and Annie Gratton recorded having chilblains on her fingers and toes.  Conditions on board were often treacherous.  One young woman slipped down stairs and broke her leg and a seaman was washed overboard and drowned only 4 days into to the voyage.  At this time, the death of seamen due to disease or accident (mostly drowning) in the British merchant fleet was about 1% per year for disease and the same rate for accident.

The ships’ officers did their best to entertain the passengers.  During calm conditions in mid-Atlantic they met with another Black Ball ship, the Oliver Lang and the meeting, which lasted several hours, ended with a firework display.  In fine conditions there was singing and games on deck.  Some merry Scotch girls did the Highland Fling and on 9^th August, a Fancy Dress ball was held.  Annie Gratton remarked that “Many had low dresses”.  Clearly the women were not so persistently miserable that they could not be bothered to make themselves attractive on special occasions!

The Surgeon Superintendent was appointed by the Emigration Commissioners to look after the welfare, as well as the health, of the passengers.  On one occasion Mr Carroll berated the cook for the poor state of the food.  Some livestock were carried and it was an occasion of note when a sheep was killed on 14^th July.  Annie Gratton did not like ships’ biscuits and hard salt junk (nautical slang for salted beef or pork) which was served 3 nights per week, but eventually she got used to this fare.  On their last night on board at anchor in Hobson’s Bay they dined on fresh bread and beef, which must have seemed like ambrosia.

Annie Gratton, a competent writer, was clearly one of a group of “better class” girls and she noted that the “Doctor and Captain soon signalled out the most respectable and show them many favours.  Advice to emigrants:  you cannot keep too respectable”.  Early in the voyage the single women showed fear and concern at the heavy rolling of the ship. They were visited by captain and doctor, who were amused by the reaction of the girls, to reassure them.  There were fewer strictures imposed on the passengers than Annie Gratton had been expecting.  Captain Duguid was clearly a popular and humane master, but also a highly responsible one.  Not for him heavy drinking, or playing cards with the saloon passengers, while the First Mate was left to look after the ship.  On 21^st July, 1858 when Conway was near Brazil, the Captain was afraid of land and turned ship the four times during the night.   While passing through the South Atlantic, Duguid, apparently to impress the ladies, caught two Cape Hens (name applied to a variety of sea birds, but typically the White Chinned Petrel) with baited hooks, tied up their beaks and threw them amongst the women to look at.  A little later, on 15^th August, he caught an albatross and tied a note round its neck with red ribbon.  When Conway arrived at Melbourne, The Argus commented, “The ship is remarkably clean and, taking all in all, reflects great credit on the captain, doctor and officers of the ship”.

In the confined and crowded conditions on board Conway it did not take long for tensions to emerge.  As early as 24^th June, Annie Gratton noted “Some people agreeable, some disagreeable.  The Misses Merigan have proved very deceitful”.  And on 29^th June, “It is impossible to describe the deceit and slander carried on amongst 280 females.”  She also, a bit snobbishly, objected to the standards of personal hygiene of some passengers.  “It is with great difficulty we can keep ourselves clean as there are some filthy people on board and I am sorry to say the unwelcome travellers have found their way to our part of the ship.”  Petty theft was also born out of the circumstances in the cabin.  “Knives and forks get lost and then they steal from one another”.  The following quotations from Annie Gratton sum up the general mood as the journey progressed towards its conclusion.  “Becalmed.  Finding journey tedious”.  “All getting tired of each other”.  And as journey’s end approached,   “Everybody disagreeable and impatient”.

On 19^th July 1858, when Conway was about 70 miles off the coast of Brazil, the passengers were invited to write letters to friends back in Britain.  Four other ships were in sight at the time and the letters were put in tin boxes, then into a barrel which also supported a tiny flag staff and flag.  The ship’s bell was rung and three similar barrels thrown over side, presumably in the hope that one of the other vessels would pick them up and transport them back home.  The passengers were told by a member of the crew that the tide would carry the barrels ashore and this appears to be what happened.  A correspondent of The Times, writing from Ceara, Brazil, August 5^th said “A few days since a barrel was found off the coast by some fishermen, which when opened was found to contain a tin box full of letters.  Those letters were written on board the ship Conway on the 19^th ult, off the Cape of San Roque, by the passengers giving their friends at home information of the progress of their passage since leaving Liverpool on the 15^th of June bound for Melbourne.  Our vice-consul here, John W Studart, we are informed, has forwarded the said box with the letters to the general post office, London”.

1858.  Arrival in Melbourne

On 15^th September, 1858, Conway dropped anchor off Port Phillip Heads to take on the pilot and then moved on to Hobson’s Bay, close to Port Phillip and the process of inspecting and unloading passengers and cargo began.  The journey time had been a modest 97 days.  As usual, the Conway’s cargo was very diverse, with large amounts of food and drink, such as butter, oats, ale, vinegar and spirits, but also manufactured goods, including soda ash, railway bars and galvanised iron sheets.  The ship was visited by the Medical Officer and by Government Inspectors and on 18^th September steamers came along side to take the passengers ashore.  The Married couples and children left first, followed by the single girls.  Captain Duguid handed them down and the first mate received them on the steamer.  After formalities lasting two hours they were free to go.

Most of the Conway’s passengers had been partially assisted by their friends and relatives to pay for their passage to Australia but about 100 of the single women were funded entirely by the Government.  Those emigrants who lacked positions were made available for hire from Monday, 20^th September at the Immigration Office.

Conway was equipped with Dr Normanby’s Apparatus for Distilling and Aerating fresh water from salt or impure water.  It was capable of supplying 850 gallons in 24 hours, enough for the needs of the 450 or so passengers.  However, the equipment was not required on the return voyage and was offered for sale in Melbourne in The Argus, with a recommendation to anyone travelling to the mine workings at Port Curtis, where there was known to be a water shortage.

Most residents of Melbourne who met Captain Duguid were impressed by his conduct, but one man, Charles Bolton was not.  Indeed he was so incensed by the treatment he felt he had received that he wrote a letter to the local press.  He was passing down the bay in a small vessel belonging to Mr Bayes, shipping butcher, to meet the ship Conflict on her way up.  His boat was suddenly engulfed by heavy squalls and, as a result, he had to sail past the Conflict.  The poor weather conditions obliged him to continue speedily down the bay.  He was shipping water and in danger of sinking when he sighted the Conway, also on her way up and signalled for help.  Conway continued on her course, which action was given a negative interpretation by Charles Bolton.  He was eventually rescued by a steamer but only after another ship, the Harmony, had thrown him a line which he could not secure as Harmony was doing about 9 knots.  It is unlikely that Conway and her master had carelessly ignored another vessel in distress.  A much more likely explanation is that Conway either did not see the small boat, due to the conditions, or that Duguid judged that he could not turn and manoeuvre to help Bolton’s craft.

1858.  Conway’s return via Calcutta

As on her previous three journeys to Australia, Conway returned to Britain via India.  On this occasion she was under contract to the Honourable East India Company to transport a large number of horses to Calcutta.  Presumably, these were reinforcements for the additional troops sent to India as a result of the recent unrest in the sub-continent.  However, by the time Conway sailed from Hobson’s Bay on Thursday, 18^th November 1858, the East India Company had been liquidated in the aftermath of the Indian Mutiny of 1857 and the Company’s assets transferred to the British Crown.  The Government also took responsibility for EIC contracts, presumably including the one involving Captain Duguid’s ship.   Conway’s availability to carry cabin passengers, gold and specie (coinage, especially high value) to India was advertised in the local Australian press.  She carried 2,768 oz of gold to Calcutta.  In contrast, in the same week Swiftsure carried 84,775 oz of the precious metal to London.

The date of arrival of Conway at Calcutta is not presently known but on 31^st January, 1859, Conway was cleared at Calcutta for Mauritius, where she arrived on 7th March.  It is very likely that the voyage to this Indian Ocean island, more than 3,200 nautical miles from Calcutta, was to take on board sacks of sugar, since this substance was the main product of the Mauritian economy throughout the 19^th century.  Conway then travelled on to Bombay, arriving on 4th June to unload her cargo.  She then sailed for Calcutta where she arrived on 14^th August 1869 at Kedgeree, 65 miles south of Calcutta on the Hooghli River.

1859 – 1860.  Transporting “Coolies” from Calcutta to Trinidad

Slavery was abolished throughout the British Empire by Act of Parliament in 1833.  This resulted in a labour shortage in the plantations of Trinidad, Guyana and other British possessions in the West Indies.  As a consequence indentured labour was recruited from various countries to fill the gap.  India was an important source of “Coolie” labour for the West Indies sugar plantations and the transport of these labourers was organised by the Emigration Commissioners. Conditions on the “Coolie” ships were often insanitary and deaths could be in excess of 10%, typically due to the outbreak of cholera.  In early schemes the labourers were indentured for a period of 5 years but this was increased to 10 years after 1855.  At the end of the contract period, the labourers had a right to claim a free passage home.  Many stayed in their adopted lands but some returned, often accompanied by substantial amounts of money and bullion, put into safe keeping with the ship’s master. 

Trinidad was one of the principal recruiters of indentured labour and in late 1859, Conway was contracted to carry emigrants to that destination at a price of £9 7s 6d per head.  It was initially announced in Lloyd's List that Conway had cleared for London on 9th November but this was quickly corrected to give her destination as Trinidad.  On the way Conway had a brief stopover at Cape Town between 31st December and 2nd January.  She arrived at that West Indian island on 29^th January 1860.  Captain Duguid then sailed Conway back to London, where she arrived at Gravesend on  25th or 26th May, 1860.  She entered inwards at the London Customs House two days later.  This had been William Henry Duguid’s last voyage as master of the Conway.  His next charge was to be another Black Ball vessel, the Solway, which left Gravesend for Sydney with a full complement of emigrants on 12^th July 1860, not much of a break for Duguid after being continuously absent from Britain for 717 days, from 10^th June 1858 to 26^th May 1860.

A Comet Sighted

Conway was towed back to Liverpool from London by the steam tug, Storm King.  The vessels passed Deal on 19^th June 1860 and arrived in Liverpool on 23^rd June.  The only thing of note that happened on the journey around the south coast of England and up the Irish Sea was the observation of a comet by the captain of the tug.  It was announced in a letter to the Liverpool Daily Post by a William Griffiths as follows, “The captain and crew of the steam tug Storm King, whilst towing the ship Conway from London to Liverpool, report that on Thursday last (21^st June), at 11pm about 30 miles SW of Milford Haven, wind NW and hazy they observed the sky to clear up to the northward and present a remarkable appearance when a comet of great brilliance was seen surpassing that of 1858 and was distinctly visible from 11 o’clock at night until 1 o’clock in the morning and bearing by compass N by W”.  It is now known as the “Great Comet of 1860” and appears to be a long orbit comet that has only been observed once.

1860.  Conway Contracted to take Soldiers and Families to India

After her return to the Mersey at the end of May 1860, Conway entered Birkenhead Graving Dock to have some maintenance and repairs carried out – she had been away from her home port for almost two years and her hull must have been heavily fouled.  By the beginning of July she had been moved to the Queen’s Basin.  At this time, Daniel M’Rae had been appointed ship’s carpenter and he kept a watching brief on work being carried out to masts, spars and rigging.  Mr Potter, master shipwright, had been contracted to carry out this work.  Conway was given a new mizzen mast, a replacement main mast (possibly new), several new spars, a foreyard and a topsail yard.

As a result of the Indian Mutiny in 1857, many reinforcements were sent out urgently to the sub-continent in 1857 and 1858.  A great number of soldiers’ families were left behind and, being separated from their soldier husbands and their wages, many became destitute.  By 1859 the crisis in India had largely passed and it was possible for separated wives and children to be consigned to India to rejoin their husbands.  More than 2000 women and nearly 3000 children were dispatched in 1859 and a further 600 women and 700 children in 1860, under the authority of the Horse Guards and the Emigration Commissioners.  Plymouth, Southampton, Birkenhead and Gravesend were the embarkation ports used and wives and families travelled there at public expense.  Each woman was provided with 20/- and each child with 10/-, at the expense of the Indian Government, to equip them for the voyage.  Further substantial funding was made available by the Society for Improving the Condition of Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Wives.  There were extreme cases of destitution.  One woman arrived from Ireland dressed only in a man’s great coat. As might be expected with poor or destitute women, children and infants, disease often broke out and mortality resulted, especially amongst the youngsters. 

Conway was initially chartered by the Honourable Council for India to carry cavalry and infantry troops from Cork to Bombay, the announcement being made on 21 June 1860.  The vessel was inspected by Mr Ritherdon, shipwright surveyor to the Marine Transport Department of the Indian Council.  He found that she was iron-bolted, with the exception of a few copper bolts and considered that these bolts may have become corroded.  James Baines & Co declined to substitute copper for iron bolting and to make certain other alterations, as a result of which the Marine Transport Department rejected Conway and an alternative vessel was substituted.

Conway was again offered for service to India.  On 10 July, 1860 she was chartered by the Emigration Commissioners, acting on behalf of the Council for India to carry principally soldiers’ wives and families, but also some soldiers, to Calcutta at a price of £16 9s 3d per statute adult.  The date of sailing (at the discretion of the Commissioners) was to be between 1^st and 18^th August, 1860.  This acceptance of the Conway to transport mostly soldiers’ wives, when she had just been rejected for the transport of soldiers, caused some comment in the press about the lack of consistency in marine surveying standards, but these comments were ill-informed.  Robert James, RN and William Haselden, RN surveyed Conway on July 11^th, while she was in dry dock.  New bolting had been put in, timbers had been repaired and she had been caulked all over.

Conway’s Officers

Conway’s new master was Captain William Pole, who was born in Lerwick, Shetland in 1827.  He gained his Mate’s Certificate in 1852, 1^st Mate’s in 1853 and Master’s in 1854.  Between April 1855 and April 1859 he commanded the Thomas Hamlin, an iron-built ship of 832 tons, owned by Hamlin & Co and registered at Greenock.  Thomas Hamlin was a Greenock shipowner and well-known local advocate of temperance.  The Thomas Hamlin seems to have been mostly involved in the sugar trade, travelling between various Indian ports and the island of Mauritius.  Greenock was a centre of sugar refining.  The other officers on the ship were Thomas Dodgson, First Mate; John Seymour Hart, Second Mate; Edmund Catterall, Boatswain; George Anderson, Surgeon-Superintendant; TE Le Blanc, Assistant to Surgeon-Superintendant; Mr Neville of the 70^th Regiment, Quartermaster (in charge of the soldiers aboard).

Detachments of the 23^rd Royal Welsh Fusiliers and the 35^th Regiment left Chatham on 15^th August for Birkenhead to join the Conway.  A further detachment of married men of the 34^th and 54^th Regiments and their wives and children, left barracks at Colchester for the same destination.  Many of the women were wives of soldiers previously sent to India in the wake of the Indian Mutiny.  In total Conway carried 211 adult passengers (including about 70 soldiers) and 153 children and infants. In addition to her human cargo, Conway had taken on 200 tons of coal, 180 tons of railway iron and 379 tons of cases of machinery and bricks in the Coburg Dock, Liverpool.    

The Conway departed from the Mersey on Friday, 24^th August 1860 and was towed out by the steam tug Resolute.  She was left on the following Sunday near the Tuskar Rock, which lies 7 miles off the south east coast of County Wexford, Ireland.  Initially she encountered only light headwinds but early on the morning of Thursday, 28^th August a fresh gale developed from the south west and a portion of the lower deadeyes and fore- and maintopgallant and royal backstays were carried away.  Some of the eyes snapped through, and the rigging gave way at the masthead.  The top tier of water casks and provisions in the fore hold came adrift and rolled about.  They were then secured by the second mate with the help of some soldiers.  During this period of bad weather, Conway almost came to grief on the Irish coast, when breakers were sighted ahead, but she just managed to avoid going ashore. 

September 1860 – Conway is wrecked again

After this incident the weather remained unremarkable until Friday, 7 September, when bad weather started about 4pm with constantly increasing wind speed.  The sails were shortened progressively until midnight when the crew went aloft to take down the fore topgallant yard but before they had got to the topmast head, the maintop gallant mast, yards and rigging fell.  At 2.30am on Saturday, 8^th September, with the vessel still rolling heavily, the foremasthead and rigging were carried away and at 3.30am the main and mizzen channel plates gave way.  Then the wire mainstay gave way at the masthead and the main mast fell aft on the poop, striking the mizenmast and falling on the port side.  Daniel M’Rae, the carpenter and several passengers were injured as a result.  M’Rae was knocked unconscious and subsequently he suffered from problems with his eyesight, which prevented him carrying out repairs.  The mizzen mast was the next to fall, smashing the poopdeck, rails and skylight, the two quarter lifeboats and others on the skid, tearing up the main deck and carrying away the standard of the after main pumps.  Water cascaded into the passenger accommodation ‘tween decks and the passengers were set to bailing out.  The soldiers on board were employed pumping out using the foremast pumps.  About 7am on Saturday, 8^th September the sling of the foreyard gave way and fell across the longboat and pinnace.  Over a period of 7 hours, Conway had been wrecked and rendered essentially unsailable.  She was now located about 240 miles NW of Madeira.

In order to try to remedy the situation, the crew cut away part of the stump of the mizzen mast, rigged a jury mast and set another topgallant sail. When conditions allowed the crew were ordered to start clearing the main deck but little progress was made with this task. Captain Pole, Mr Dodgson, Dr Anderson and Mr Neville discussed their options, the captain’s preference being to try to sail to Funchal, the capital of Madeira.  The others agreed. However, the ship could only manage about one knot under the jury rig and would not answer the helm, sometimes going around in circles. The ship was still rolling heavily and the plight of the passengers and crew was extreme when, at 7am on Sunday, 9^th September, another ship was sighted and Conway signalled to her.

Rescue by the Summer Cloud

The ship was the Summer Cloud, a clipper belonging to Houlder Brothers of London, which had sailed on 6^th August, bound for Sydney, under Captain William Sabiston.  Summer Cloud too had experienced bad weather, having weathered two severe gales in the Channel and then the extreme conditions suffered by Conway on 8^th September.  She arrived alongside Conway between 2pm and 3pm.  The scene that greeted them was horrific.  Captain Sabiston later wote, “I never yet saw such a scene of wreck and destruction in my life before; her masts all laying over her stern, and men, women and children  rolling about the decks”.  Sabiston went aboard the Conway to consult with Captain Pole.  At 4am on Sunday, 9^th Thomas Dodgson sounded about 2ft of water in the hold and at 7am the level had risen to 3ft.  Between 5pm and 6pm that evening the depth of water had increased to almost 6ft.  It was agreed that the passengers and crew of Conway would be evacuated to the Summer Cloud, but that the evacuation would be postponed until the morning.  In the meantime Summer Cloud stood by.

The following day 416 souls were evacuated from Conway using the three boats of the Summer Cloud and mixed crews from both vessels, Conway’s boats all having been smashed in the storm.  The operation took from 8am to 9pm and, in spite of the rolling of the Conway, was accomplished without loss.  At the end of the operation, William Sabiston wrote a letter to the owners of Summer Cloud, which he ended with, “Excuse this rambling letter, but I am tired and wearied – WS”.  It had been a long and exhausting day but one which must have given Sabiston a great deal of satisfaction.

Captain Pole was concerned that Conway, now a hulk, was a danger to other shipping and, in consultation with his officers and Captain Sabiston, a decision was taken to scuttle her.  The first mate, Thomas Dodgson, the second mate, John Seymour Hart and the carpenter, Daniel M’Rae, bored four holes in the starboard side of the hold and two in the port side of the bow.  The Boatswain sounded her just before quitting the vessel and the depth of water he calculated was rather over 8ft.    Along with Captain Pole they then left the Conway.  They were the last people off the ship and they were convinced that she would soon sink.

Conditions aboard the Summer Cloud were very trying.  She was smaller than Conway, yet she was carrying the passengers and crew of both vessels.  The overcrowding prevented her crew setting much sail on the journey to Funchal, but fortunately the weather was fair.  William Sabiston summed up the situation as follows, “The Lord keep us from ever being in the same state as we have been these last few days.  People in a state of starvation through inability to cook food for so many people.  Women and children scrambling for eatables, and men as bad, if not worse”.  Summer Cloud arrived at Funchal at 6pm on Thursday, 13^th September and the rescued passengers were landed the following day and found accommodation.  Subsequently, the Emigration Commissioners made alternative arrangements for their onward travel to India. Remarkably, Conway’s passengers, in spite of desperate circumstances, had suffered no casualties throughout the whole episode. 

By chance, HMS Geyser, a six-gun paddle steamer was in Madeira, having towed another vessel there.  She took Captain Pole and 37 men of his crew on board and returned to Plymouth, landing them on 28^th September. Conway’s master then sent a telegram to the Admiralty with an account of what had happened.  On receipt of the news the Admiralty wrote to Lloyds of London to inform them of the arrival of Conway’s master and crew in Plymouth. Presumably HMS Geyser was also carrying Captain Sabiston’s letter to Houlder Brothers.  Thus did the fate of Conway and her crew become known to the world.

Houlder Brothers, the owners of the Summer Cloud were naturally proud of the achievement of their vessel under the leadership of William Sabiston and immediately sought to gain recognition for his undoubted professionalism and persistence. They were also seeking to puff up the image of their company.  The following letter was sent to the editor of the Morning Post, under the name of the company, no doubt seeking to catch the attention of Government.

“Loss of the Conway.  Sir, Believing some short account of the loss of the Conway would be interesting to your readers, we annex an extract of a letter, dated Madeira, Sept 16, 1860, received from Captain Sabiston, of the Summer Cloud, in which he modestly gives the particulars of the distressing accident, which but for his unflinching courage, must have ended in the awful destruction of above 400 persons.

The Summer Cloud formed one of the ships of our monthly line to Sydney, and was despatched from London on the 12^th July.  She is a fine clipper ship of only 700 tons register, and it affords a great satisfaction to find that the precautions taken by us to ensure the safety and comfort of our passengers, and which the owners so ably seconded, regardless of expense, enabled Captain Sabiston, unaided, to rescue the Conway’s perishing people without a single accident.

We hope Captain Sabiston’s noble conduct will not be permitted to pass without some suitable recognition on the part of Her Majesty’s Government – We are, sir, your obedient servants.

Houlder Brothers and Co

146, Leadenhall Street, London, Sept 29”

Putting aside the cloying Victorian melodrama and overstatement of the anonymous author, which suffuses the missive, it is difficult to sustain the claim by Houlder Brothers that the Conway rescue was somehow accomplished by the expenditure they had lavished on the Summer Cloud. Captain William Sabiston was subsequently rewarded for his "courage, humanity and energy" with the award of a golden chronometer by the Board of Trade..

The Summer Cloud continued on her journey to Sydney, leaving Madeira on 16^th September 1860. She would have been expected to reach Australia before the end of that year, even on a slow passage.  By the middle of January 1861 she had not arrived and anxiety was being expressed in the newspapers that she had been lost.  She finally arrived on the afternoon of 26^th January 1861, after a very slow passage of 161 days.  The explanation proved to lie in the route Captain Sabiston had chosen to follow.  Basically he had followed Admiralty advice and sailed via the Cape of Good Hope.  After rounding the Cape he did not descend to high latitudes, his furthest southing being 42 degrees.  As a result he travelled much further than if he had followed the great circle routing principle.  Also, his route did not pick up the most favourable winds and his slow progress led to Summer Cloud’s bottom becoming heavily fouled, impeding her sailing speed even further.  In contrast, the Star of Peace crossed the equator on 25^th November 1860, passed the meridian of the Cape on 18^th December and followed a great circle routing for Sydney.  She reached a latitude of 52.4 S and arrived on 17^th January, 9 days before the Summer Cloud.

1860.  Conway’s passengers finally reach India

The Emigration Commissioners then worked with commendable speed to charter a rescue vessel to collect the passengers from Funchal and take them on to Calcutta.  The Black Ball Line was again successful in winning the contract and the Chatsworth, 1037 tons register, under the command of Captain James Baker was chartered on the 8^th October to sail for Madeira on 29^th October 1860 at a price of £13-9s-3d per statute adult.  She left Funchal for Calcutta on 21^st November 1860, having on board 69 married couples, 2 single men, 67 single women and 165 infants and children, making a total of 362 souls (equal to 271 statute adults).  Conways’ surgeon-superintendent, George Anderson sadly became ill in Madeira and died on 26^th October.  He was replaced on the Chatsworth by Surgeon-Superintendent Frederick Gourlay, MD.   Conway’s Assistant Surgeon-Superintendent, Thomas Le Blanc, had serious charges (identity not known) laid against him while in Madeira and, after an investigation, he was discharged from the vessel.  Back in Birkenhead, in July 1862, he was convicted of obtaining goods and services on false pretenses and sent down for three calendar months with hard labour.  James Chant, the Emigration Commissioners’ Dispatching Officer at Birkenhead, who had been drafted to Greenock in 1854 at the time of the cholera outbreak on Conway, had accompanied Chatsworth to Madeira and supervised the dispatch of Chatsworth’s passengers.  Not all Conway’s passengers travelled on in the Chatsworth.  One woman received an official letter telling her that her husband had died in India and that she was to return to Britain.  Other soldiers’ wives arrived in India only to find that their husbands had been sent on to China to fight in the Second Opium War (1856 – 1860).  Chatsworth arrived off Kedgeree at the mouth of the Hooghli River on 12^th March 1861.  

1860.  Inquiry into the wrecking of the Conway

Also, with remarkable speed, a Board of Trade Inquiry was instituted, under the Merchant Shipping Act of 1854, into the circumstances of the loss of the Conway.  The agent of the Shipwrecked Mariners’ Society in Plymouth had forwarded the Conway’s men to their home port of Liverpool, where several of them gave evidence to the inquiry. The Board of Trade, the owners and the master were legally represented at the proceedings, which began on 12 October 1860 in the Sherriff’s Court, St George’s Hall, Liverpool, before Mr TS Raffles, the stipendiary magistrate and Captain Harris RN, nautical assessor to the Board of Trade.

In examining the circumstances of the loss, a number of matters was evaluated before the inquiry reached its conclusions.  Each will be dealt with in turn.

Alcohol consumption by the officers.  The evidence concerning alcohol consumption by the officers was conflicting but sufficient claims of alcohol abuse were made to give rise to the suspicion that there was a measure of truth in them.  The officers tended to stick together and took a “see no evil” approach.  The First Mate stated that he never saw the Captain the worse for liquor and that “anyone who said he was drunk during the voyage would tell a falsehood”.  Daniel M’Rae gave a similar opinion, when asked if the captain was ever drunk, “No, all orders were clear and correct”.  Second Mate Hart also supported the ship’s master, saying that Captain Pole was attentive to his duties and that he saw no symptoms of drink upon him from the time of leaving Liverpool until he left the wreck.  Peters, the Steward informed the Inquiry that the Captain was sober in every way.  He also said that he did not see the Second Mate or the Boatswain drunk during the voyage.  Captain Pole himself claimed that he had never been drunk in his life and had heard no complaints that he or his officers were ever drunk.

However, several witnesses gave evidence that the Captain and some of his officers did drink and were on occasion drunk, even though different witnesses were not always consistent with each other.  Seaman William Lavering, said that the captain was not always sober and that he was drunk on the night of 28 August when the ship came close to shore off Cork.  He was also drunk subsequently, as were the officers down to the boatswain (but excluding the third mate).  All of the officers were drunk on the night of the wrecking. When Captain Pole went on board the Summer Cloud he fell down and could not get up without assistance and he was the worse for liquor.   Another seaman, Jeremiah Ryan partially contradicted Lavering by saying that the captain was not drunk on 28 August but that he had been drinking on the first night out of port, though he was not drunk.  He saw the captain the worse for drink on the day of abandonment, Monday 10^th September 1860. On the morning that the Conway lost her masts (Saturday 8^th September), in his opinion, none of the officers, except the third mate, was in a fit state to give orders.  Another able seaman, Henry Dickson, said that Captain Pole was drunk on several occasions but he never saw him so drunk that he had to lie down.  It is easy to label the statements of the ordinary seamen as unreliable, but it is less easy to dismiss a letter written by the ship’s doctor in similar terms.  This letter was placed before the Court and was debated but was not admitted as evidence.  In it Dr Anderson charged that the captain’s conduct was reprehensible and that he was drunk during the incident off the Cork coast.  Another letter, also not admitted as evidence, from Mr Neville, the quartermaster, alleged that the captain was drunk, both before and at the time of the wrecking and until he went on board the Summer Cloud.     

Behaviour of the crew.  Conway was claimed to be a temperance ship and the crew were not allowed alcohol, except on special occasions.  Thomas Dodgson described the 42 crew as “a fair average one as far as they went” and said that they behaved very well until the time of abandonment.  As a result of the damage to the ship the crew was able to gain access to the store room and drank from the liquor held there.  One man even left the wheel and Dodgson had to pull him out of the store room, where he was imbibing in the company of some soldiers.  Edmund Catterall, the Boatswain, reported that on the day of abandonment the crew took about 30 minutes to turn out after being called but otherwise behaved tolerably well.  Second Mate Hart confirmed the drinking behaviour of the crew at the time of abandonment, saying that the majority was drunk when leaving Conway, including some of those rowing passengers across to the Summer Cloud.  He had no criticism of the behaviour of the soldiers and the passengers.  Edmund Catterall, the Boatswain, backed up the evidence of Hart concerning the crew’s conduct.  However, Catterall’s evidence concerning crew conversations on board the Geyser were rather damning of the crew.  He reported that some of the men said, ““If owners don’t give us a present for the loss of our clothes (and, -‘em, they nearly all got their clothes) we’ll lose their insurance” they’d swear this and that, and God knew what else they would not swear”.  If this reported conversation is accurate it implies that some crew members were prepared deliberately to lie in Court to take revenge on the Conway’s owner.  How much credence should be given to their evidence?

Fitness of the ship to undertake the journey.  There seems little doubt that Conway had been adequately repaired and was structurally fit to start her voyage to India.  She had a new mizzen mast and various spars, a main mast was also put in though it is not clear if it too was new.  Her cladding had been bolted with new iron bolts and she had been caulked all over. In addition, Captain Pole wrote in the ship’s log before sailing that the Conway was “stout, staunch and strong”, suggesting that he was satisfied with her structure and state of repair.  Daniel M’Rae, the carpenter, formed the view that the ship was sound in every way and that the use of Canadian timbers in her construction did not lessen the integrity of the vessel.  The only evidence to the contrary which was turned up by the inquiry related to the tautness of her rigging.  Thomas Dodgson, the first mate gave evidence that the rigging did slacken in the early days of the voyage.  Potentially more damaging was the claim by seaman, William Lavering, that the rigging was slack before Conway left the Mersey.  However, there was reason to question the accuracy of his evidence, as can be seen elsewhere.  The adequacy of storage in the hold was also suspect due to water barrels coming adrift during the first period of rough weather.  All vessels had to be inspected after loading but before clearing out and any defects in either rigging or storage would likely have been spotted then. 

The judgement of Captain Pole.  The evidence presented to the inquiry concerning the decision to abandon and scupper the Conway almost entirely backed up Captain Pole.  He was supported by his first and second mates, the boatswain, the quartermaster and the doctor.  They agreed that if they remained on board until the first breeze of wind arose they would sink with her.  Captain Sabiston also supported this view.  The only dissenting voice was seaman William Lavering, who told the inquiry that he felt that the Conway should not have been abandoned but an attempt made to sail her to Funchal. His evidence was subsequently undermined, when it was demonstrated that he had not initially opposed abandonment but changed his view when he found that the crew’s possessions were to be left on board the Conway.

The cause of Conway’s loss. The Inquiry found decisively in favour of Captain Pole and the company on all points except one.  The vessel had been competently surveyed and, although a few months previously some defects had been found, these had been rectified and the vessel was structurally sound.  There was no evidence that the ship had been badly stowed or that it was overloaded.  The captain was fully justified in abandoning the ship when he did.  To do otherwise would have involved him taking a heroic gamble with the lives of his crew and passengers, which could have resulted in all on board being lost.  If Captain Pole was justified in abandoning ship, then he clearly did not hazard the vessel with bad judgment, no matter what his state of inebriation.  Whether he was ever drunk was beyond the competence of the Inquiry to evaluate but there appears to have been some doubt in the minds of Mr Raffles and Captain Harris, since they pointed out that “The matter may be further investigated, should your lordships desire it, before the local Marine Board…”  Finally the Inquiry concluded that the Conway was “lost by accident, or ordinary “peril of the sea””.  Captain Pole’s master’s certificate, which had been removed from him at the start of the Inquiry, was returned and he was free to continue his career.

No evidence has been uncovered that Captain Pole did have to face further scrutiny of his drinking habits but it may be that the evidence brought to the Board of Trade Inquiry put doubts into the minds of the Conway’s owners as to Pole’s suitability to command its ships.  He did not subsequently sail as a captain with the Black Ball Line, though in 1861 he was in command of the ship Patna.

On the return of Conway’s crew to Great Britain after the Madeira wrecking, Jeremiah Ryan and some other seamen went to see James Baines, perhaps in the belief that he would volunteer some compensation for them.  These (probably illiterate) men from the lower orders would have been uncomfortable in the presence of one of the most powerful ship owners in the land and may well have been incapable of articulating their case.  Baines did not volunteer anything but instead asked them what they wanted.  “Nothing in particular” was the reply and the seamen all trooped out, still harbouring resentment against the powers that be.

1860.  Conway’s Amazing Journey to Barbados

Following abandonment of the Conway, it was assumed that she had gone down and become a total loss.  Indeed, it was stated as a fact in the inquiry into the abandonment of the Conway that she had sunk.  Conway’s owners and insurers certainly thought so, for a successful claim was made on the insurance policy held on the vessel.  Greatly to the surprise of everyone who had been connected with the Conway’s last trip, a communication was received at the Underwriters’ Rooms, Liverpool from Barbados, dated 22 October 1860 which reported that Conway had not sunk but had been salvaged.

On 11^th September, 1860 (the day after Conway was abandoned) the Home, owned by Lochlan Cameron, Esq, of Liverpool and commanded by Captain Rose, which was on route from Newport to Grenada with a cargo of coals for the Royal Mail Steam Company, fell in with the Conway in lat 35deg 36’N, lon 19deg 15’W (250 miles north west of Madeira).  The Conway was derelict, with only her fore lower mast and bowsprit standing and with the main and mizzen lower masts lying fore and aft on the port side of the main deck and quarter deck. The ship clearly had not drifted far from the position of her abandonment on the previous day.  There were people on board from the barque Orizona of Bordeaux and the Spanish barque, Isabella and they were stripping everything of value from the Conway and carrying the booty away in boats to their parent ships.  Captain Rose was amazed and shocked by the scene before him, both from the devastation on the main deck and between decks and from the behaviour of the French and Spanish sailors, who were “dressed in women’s apparel a la Bloomer, with plumes and artificial flowers waving on their heads gracefully in the breeze, while busy in breaking open chests, carpet bags, knapsacks, bedding, &c.”.  It should be recalled that the Conway was carrying many soldiers’ wives to Calcutta and their personal possessions would, of course, have included clothing.  Captain Rose intimated to the captains of the other two vessels that because Conway was a British vessel, it was his duty, as a British subject, to act for the benefit of all concerned and put a stop to further plunder.  He would not interfere with their claim upon the ship but he would stand by to ensure that the ship was carried into port.  He clearly indicated to the masters of the plundering ships his determination to act, with a thinly-veiled threat of force if they did not comply.  In his own words “One of my boys gave the French captain rather a bull-dog shake, they thought fit to take their departure”!

Rope, canvas, signals, compasses and sails were all gone from the Conway and essential replacement supplies had to be ferried across from the Home.  The hold was flooded to a depth of five feet, with water flowing in continuously from the lower of two augur holes in the starboard lower bow post, but water only came in from the upper hole when the ship dipped.  These holes were plugged from the inside and four seamen left on board for the night, while the Home stood by.  The next morning (12 September 1860) a jury rig was accomplished by the Home’s chief mate with five of her sailors and they were given instructions to sail for the first port in England that wind and weather would permit.  The chief mate was also given a sealed report to be delivered to Lloyd’s agent when the Conway docked.  Clearly, Captain Rose thought he had some important information to disclose to Lloyds.  On 13^th September at 6.00pm the two ships parted, with the Home continuing to Grenada with her cargo of coal.

By an amazing feat of seamanship and navigation, the scratch crew of six men, commanded by the Home’s First Mate, Mr Jones, with a jury rig of three sails and seven feet of water in the hold, sailed the Conway about 2,620 nautical miles to Carlisle Bay, Barbados.  They arrived there on 21 October 1860, 38 days later, at an average speed of about 3 knots.  Conway was delivered up to the Admiralty authorities.  The vessel’s registered weight (ie empty) was over 1,100 tons and her normal crew complement was about 40.  However, the largest of the three sails in the jury rig was a maintopsail (medium-sized), whereas Conway would normally have had a complement of about 20 sails.  All the chests and boxes on board Conway had been broken into and their contents rifled.  Most of her cargo of coal and railroad iron and her stores were still on board and more or less intact. The main mast was lying on the deck “in a state of rottenness”.  A sergeant and five police officers were put on board to protect Conway’s property.

1860.  Repair and Return to London 

The arrival of Conway in Barbados was communicated to the Underwriters’ Rooms, Liverpool in a letter dated 22^nd October, which reached Liverpool on 17^th November 1860. Immediately there was comment in the British press concerning the cause of Conway’s dismasting and claims that the rotten state of the mainmast was the reason for Conway’s wrecking, contrary to the findings of the recent inquiry.  However, this claim is difficult to evaluate at this distance in time.  Certainly the main mast fell first and that event would make the other masts more vulnerable to the storm due to the failure of stays, even if, like the mizzen mast, they were new.  The inquiry into Conway’s wrecking was not re-opened.

Conway was surveyed in Barbados and found to be completely watertight and was thus discharged.  She was repaired and re-rigged and then sailed to London via New York, which she left on 6^th July 1861 in the command of Captain Groves.  She arrived at London Docks in August 1861.  Conway was reported to be partly insured, though it is not known if the policy covered the vessel, the cargo or both.  Since James Baines & Co had claimed and the insurance company had settled on the policy at a time when it was believed that Conway had sunk, it is not clear in whose ownership Conway then stood.  What is clear is that she ceased to be a Black Baller.  Captain Rose and his crew became salvors and gained rights to recover their costs and share in the value of the sale of Conway.  She was sold to E de Pass, London and her remarkable career continued.

The Home, which had salvaged the wreck, proceeded from Grenada to New Orleans, presumably to collect a cargo of cotton.  The vessel left New Orleans on 6^th March 1861 and arrived at Liverpool on 5^th May.  On 9^th May, Captain Rose was paying off his crew at the Sailors’ home when five men, formerly part of the Home’s crew and who left the ship in New Orleans, appeared and demanded wages they claimed were due to them.  Rose believed them to have deserted ship in the southern American port and thus not due for any wages.  He handed them in to the custody of the police.  The five had joined the Home at Bristol in August 1860 for a voyage to New Orleans and to be discharged in any port in the UK.  In Court the ship’s articles and log book were produced.  The defence of the five was that they were carried off the ship by armed runners against their will.  This claimed event occurred at the start of the American Civil War, which began on 12^th April 1861.  Armed runners were operating at that time to induce or coerce sailors on British ships to desert to American ships.  Captain Rose admitted that runners had visited his ship.  The defence also claimed that the charge of desertion was contrived by Rose to deprive the five of their share of the salvage fee (in total, £1700, about £170 per man) from the Conway.  Rose admitted not making an entry in the ship’s log concerning the incident until a week after it occurred. The magistrate discharged the prisoners, thus making the men eligible for a share of salvage and also to recover their belongings left on the Home.

Military stores to Canada

Under her new owners, Conway was contracted to the Royal Navy to transport military materials to Quebec and Montreal.  On Thursday, 12^th September she went alongside Woolwich pier in preparation to ship guns and munitions of war from the Royal Arsenal.  She was also due to receive 700 tons of gunpowder from the floating magazine.  Conway sailed from Gravesend on 19^th September and the following day anchored at Deal before proceeding.  Conway reached Quebec on 3rd or 4th November and Montreal on 13th November. She departed that city on 22nd November 1861, rather late in the year to be making this journey, since the river would imminently be affected by freezing conditions and vessels risked damage from ice, or even being frozen in for the winter.  It was reported from Quebec on 29th November that "Upwards of 50 ships were between Quebec and Brandy Pots yesterday of which about 30 were above the traverse; it is hoped they got through last night.  The Conway and Paragon have been towed to Bic".  Conway arrived at Gravesend on 11th January 1862.

1862.  Conway’s journey to Brisbane and Middle Class Female Emigration

Conway did not sail again until the summer of 1862.  At the end of June she was contracted to the Emigration Commissioners to convey emigrants from Southampton to Brisbane, Queensland at a rate of £12 12s 6d per statute adult.  The ship was scheduled to sail on 11^th August 1862 under Captain Charles Ogilvie Spence.  She entered out on 23rd June at the East India Dock, sailed about 7th August,reaching Portsmouth on 10^th August and Southampton on 12th August.  She finally sailed from Southampton on Sunday, 18th August carrying 396 emigrants (256 ½ statute adults).  Surgeon-superintendent JG Winstone was in charge of the emigrants, 219 of whom were from England, 140 from Scotland and 8 from Ireland.  A schoolmaster (Mr RE Pym) and a matron (Miss Pym) were also appointed. About £136 from Kelsall’s Emigration Charity was distributed to the poorest and most needy cases on board in Southampton.  Conway was again fitted with Dr Normanby’s distilling apparatus to provide fresh, aerated water (about 10 gallons/hour) from sea water during the passage.  She sailed under the banner of the White Horse Packet Line.

Conway’s passage was slow at times, as she was affected by light and contrary winds in places.  She picked up her pilot off Cape Moreton on 2^nd December, 1862, 102 days out from Southampton.  There were two births during the voyage but no significant disease and no deaths.  The immigrants presented a testimonial and a silver tankard to Surgeon-Superintendent Winstone and also to Captain Spence, as a mark of their gratitude. Miss Pym was praised for her care of the single ladies and the Brisbane immigration authorities complimented Captain Spence and Mr Winstone for the cleanliness of the ship and the good health of the passengers.    Conway’s passengers were landed by the steamer Rainbow.

Conway’s cargo and her passengers’ luggage, was unloaded and carried up the bay by the same steamer.  Items in the cargo, which were lightered to the quayside by various smaller vessels, conformed to the pattern of Conway’s previous voyages to Australia, with food, drink and manufactures to the fore.  There were also two pianos.  Some of the drink, including “No 3 Burton Ale”, had been imported speculatively and was immediately offered for sale.  Excess stores, including maize, Californian flour, jars of pickles and empty pickle jars and a variety of items of tinware, were also disposed of by auction. 

As usual, various members of the Conway’s crew had designs on desertion.  Some were detected in the act of stealing one of Conway’s boats on arrival.  One seaman jumped overboard from the Rainbow steamer and attempted to swim ashore.  He was later found drowned. Two seamen absconded from Conway and were reported to be drinking in the Sovereign Hotel, Little Ipswich.  Police sergeants Carson and Greenaway went to arrest them, but one of them, Christian Anderson, a Swede, resisted and drew a knife, whereupon, Sergeant Greenaway knocked him down with his baton.  Anderson was fined £5, or two months hard labour as an alternative.  Anderson and his colleague, John Rock, were also charged with assaulting a Conway passenger, Francis Davis, after accusing him of informing Captain Spence of their plans to abscond.  Davis denied informing, but admitted he was present when someone else passed information to Captain Spence.  Both assaulted Davis and received another fine of £5 for their efforts.  They also had to find sureties concerning their behaviour towards Davis for 6 months, due to them having made further threats against him, saying that Davis would get some more for what he had done when “the other chaps got out of hokey”.  Some seamen may have been helped to abscond by local boatmen travelling to and from ships anchored in the bay.  Two sailors from the Whirlwind, which was anchored near the Conway, were found by the police hiding on a boat and the boatman, Robert Miller, charged with aiding and abetting the seamen.  He indignantly protested his innocence in the local paper.

Maria Rye and Middle Class Women Emigrants   

A significant number of the emigrants were nominees of land purchasers, including about 100 single women who were nominated by Miss Maria Rye, a prominent advocate of “middle class” female emigration, who founded the Female Middle Class Emigration Society in 1861.  Apparently, the Emigration Commissioners tried to dissuade Miss Rye from sending so many middle class ladies to Queensland, due to the lack of suitable employment opportunities for them, but Maria Rye had previously bought about £700 worth of Queensland passage certificates in blank and she ignored their advice.  

News of Conway’s middle class ladies had reached the colony in advance of the ship’s arrival.  It generated a lot of correspondence in the local newspapers, most of which took a sceptical, even withering, view of the desirability of sending such ladies to a colony where social conditions were likely to be very different from those left behind in the home country.  The following extract from a letter to the Brisbane Courier of 29^th November, 1862 gives the flavour of the debate,  “Expressed in other words, this simply means that a vessel now daily expected to arrive, will land upon our shores about one hundred females of a class most unsuitable to the colony, and whose coming bids fair to entail upon them an amount of mental suffering and humiliation which a continued residence in the old country despite of all the heart-aches and up-hill struggles which there attend the pathway of "genteel " poverty "- would scarcely have forced upon their endurance. We are beginning to import genteel poverty at too rapid a rate as it is. Scarcely a vessel arrives but brings its proportion, however infinitesimal, of persons of "high respectability," but no means. They have never been used to hard work, or work of any kind, in fact, and they have a decided objection to attempt a commencement”. 

Speculating on the possible reason for these ladies emigrating (the excess of males over females in Australian society) the sneering continued. "Here," said the DORCASES of English society, "is an opportunity not to be lost. How many thousands of our countrywomen, well-born, well-educated, and well-domesticated, are pining away their lives in single blessedness, and how many thousands of sturdy Australian settlers are sighing for feminine companionship”.  In fact most of the single women proved to be competent and adaptable.  Six of them inserted an advertisement in The Courier flagging their availability for hire “in Houses of Business, viz. Saleswomen, Assistants, Dress-makers, Barmaids, Housekeepers (one a widow) or in any energetic employment.  Country not objected to”.  Several of the more educated girls quickly found employment as governesses at salaries of £60 - £80 per year.  So much for the sneering in the local press!

Some misunderstanding over the nature of the “ladies” who descended on Brisbane had arisen due to them being represented as “governesses”, which was inaccurate, since they were mostly higher class servants.  There were actually 96 “ladies” and they were temporarily accommodated in the Normal School building.  However, due to some administrative error, no beds or bedding were provided initially and they had to sleep on bare boards on their first night ashore.  This was probably not the welcome that they had expected and, perhaps through embarrassment, some of Brisbane’s lady residents clubbed together to obtain furniture and other materials to make the British guests more comfortable.

Miss Charlotte Bustard was one of the middle class lady immigrants.  Her mother was a friend of Mrs Janet Brown, who had emigrated to Toowoombah about 12 years previously and, on hearing of the arrival of the Conway, Janet Brown wrote a letter to Charlotte.  This was dispatched by hand to Brisbane by an acquaintance of Mrs Brown who happened to be going that way.  This country chap was a bit bemused about how he should deliver the letter and resorted to pushing it through the letter box of the Brisbane Courier.  The Courier made a bit of sport about the circumstances and the appearance of the informal postman (“of rather imbecile appearance, and somewhat inclined to the seedy in point of attire”) but, not knowing who Miss Bustard was, published Janet Brown’s letter in the hope that Charlotte Bustard would see it.  The letter gives a good insight into life for a middle class immigrant lady in Queensland in the early 1860s.  Clearly some middle class immigrants, including the Browns, had survived the rigorous conditions and done well. Interestingly, experience of the harsh life of the colony had not obliterated Mrs Brown’s English middle class attitudes and in her letter she could still look down upon a “rough Scotch woman” on the cattle station “who stands up to her tub like a man, and gets through an immense amount of sheer hard work, but is sadly unsympathetic, and, naturally enough, does not understand the nick-nackaries of life”!

1863.  Conway returns via Bombay

By early January 1863, Conway was taking on a cargo of 400 tons of coal, which would also act as ballast, for her next journey.  Rather tediously, the coal had to be carried down the bay by smaller vessels.  Conway cleared for Point de Galle in Ceylon on 23^rd January 1863 but did not leave immediately, the reason being a shortage of crew.  In addition to desertions, one Conway seaman, James O’Brian was found drowned.  At his inquest held at the Sawyer’s Arms he was described as being of “a free and jovial disposition” and it was conjectured that he had been drinking prior to the departure of his ship and had fallen into the harbour.  The jurors viewed the body and found no evidence of violence on it, though “it was plain the fishes had begun their work of demolition”.  Captain Spence advertised for three, then four, then six men to complete the crew for India at “the highest rates of wages given”.  The reason for the increase in number was not further desertions but a problem with the wording of the ship’s articles, which failed to specify the total size of the crew correctly.  This was pointed out to the captain by the “forecastle lawyers”!  The men refused to work unless the ship had 30 sailors, ie men who could work the ship, on board.  Captain Spence had to return to Brisbane several times in order to secure the necessary complement.  Conway was still anchored at the Water Holes near the Pilot Station on 6^th February, but must have sailed soon afterwards, her ultimate destination being Bombay.

Nothing is currently known about Conway’s arrival in Bombay or her departure from that port.  By 22nd September 1863 she had reached Ascension Island on her journey back to London.  She arrived at Gravesend on 30^th December.  It was the end of her long and successful association with the transport of emigrants to Australia.

Conway after Emigration – Mostly Timber and Coal

The subsequent career of the Conway was as a freighter carrying mainly coal from Britain and wood on the return journey.  The next record of Conway departing from Britain was when she left Gravesend on 9^th April, 1864 for Quebec, under the command of Captain Barrett, arriving on 14th May.  She is presumed then to have returned to Britain with a cargo of timber, entering inwards at the London Custom House on 26^th July and docking in the Surrey Docks.  Conway next sailed on 18^th August, repeating the journey to Quebec.  She travelled out in ballast and reached Ile d’Orlean in the St Lawrence, about 100 miles from Quebec, bound up, on 1^st October.  She returned to London, reaching Deal on 23^rd November, 1864 and Gravesend two days later.

On 16^th January 1865, Conway was reported to have cleared at London to load coal in the River Tyne.  She arrived in ballast at South Shields on 25^th January and entered the Tyne Dock.  This large dock was opened in 1859 by the North Eastern Railway to handle coal exports via the river.  When this trade was at its peak, 7 million tons of coal were handled annually using the four staithes (wooden structures which allowed coal to be dropped directly into ships’ holds via shutes) built to facilitate the loading of ships. The depth of water at the ‘cil at the entrance to Tyne Dock was 24ft at spring tides, enough to handle Conway which drew about 22ft when burthen. Conway loaded 714 tons but had to wait until 11^th February for favourable wind and water.  Along with many other vessels, Conway was able to leave Tyne Dock, at last, on 10^th February.  Conway, under Captain Owen, was originally announced to be heading for Callao, the port of the city of Lima, Peru, but she eventually went instead to Genoa in Northern Italy.

Conway beached on the Norfolk Coast

The weather on Conway’s passage down the North Sea was dreadful.  Heavy gales, snowstorms and fog were reported and there was much disruption to shipping.  Conway was one of the casualties, getting stuck on Haisborough Sands, a 10 mile long sandbank lying parallel to the coast off Happisborough, Norfolk. After a failed attempt by a steam tug to refloat her she got off with the help of beachmen for a fee of £250, after jettisoning 300 tons of coal.  Conway then proceeded on her way, passing the P&O steamer Poonah on 10^th March and arriving in Genoa on 15^th March, 1865.  Her return journey was to Newport, South Wales, presumably to load with coal and she left for Gibraltar on 27^th April.  After sailing back to Britain Conway entered Tyne Dock, South Shields about 4^th October, 1865 to load 740 tons of coal.  As on her previous visit to the Tyne Dock, Conway had to wait a substantial time before she could safely emerge into the river, in company with 50 other sailing vessels, on Saturday 21^st October.  On this occasion, with an additional 26 tons of coal in her hold, Conway drew 22ft 9in of water.  A member of Conway’s crew, Edward Bluck, an apprentice from London, deserted on 19^th October.  His ship had left by the time he was brought before the courts and he was sent down for a month. On this voyage Conway, still under Captain Owens, was destined for Rio de Janeiro.  Her date of arrival at the then Brazilian capital has not been determined though it was after 12^th December, when she was spoken to in mid-Atlantic.

Back to Quebec

Conway then travelled directly to Quebec for timber.  She arrived at St John, New Brunswick 0n 20th April and at Quebec on 7^th May, 1866 before returning to the Port of Liverpool on 1^st July.  The voyage to Quebec was then repeated, with Conway leaving Britain on 26^th July.  She was reported to be off Dundrum Bay the following day and arrived in Quebec on 30^th August, loading then clearing for Liverpool on 1^st October and was back in Liverpool on 28^th October.  Captain Owens was Conway’s master throughout.  Only these rather stark statistics have so far been uncovered about the two visits to British North America in 1866.

Conway Struggles with Leakiness

Winter was a period of the year when access to Quebec was impossible, due to ice in the St Lawrence. Instead, Conway entered out on 14th November and left Liverpool for Rio de Janiero on 2^nd December 1866, apparently intending to call at Cardiff for a cargo of coal.  However, she did not get further than the Lleyn Peninsula in North Wales, where she put in at the small port of Portdinllaen for some unspecified, but probably maintenance-related reason. She then returned to Liverpool on 22^nd December, though the details of her arrival in Liverpool and subsequent departure for, and arrival in, Cardiff have not been discovered. She must have sailed from Cardiff for Rio de Janiero before the 8^th January, because on that date she was seen steering south 20 miles south of the Tuskar Rock, County Wexford, South East Ireland.  Her maintenance problems apparently persisted because the following day, 9^th January she made another unscheduled call, this time at Broadhaven, a small town in Pembrokeshire, due to being leaky and her crew "refractory".  She then apparently moved on to Milford Haven, where she was surveyed and the decision taken to lighten her and to caulk her topsides.  After these repairs had been completed she sailed for Rio de Janiero on 14th February, where she arrived on 2nd May 1867.

From Rio de Janiero, Conway again sailed directly for Quebec and was seen off the Pilgrims on July 27th.  She arrived at Quebec on 2^nd August 1867.  Conway had loaded and departed by 24^th August, when she was seen bound down the St Lawrence. Her destination on this occasion was Plymouth, where she arrived on 22^nd September.  From Plymouth she sailed, still under Captain Owens, to Pensacola in Florida, returning to Liverpool on 12^th April 1868.  The usual reason for ships travelling to the southern states of the USA was to load with cotton for the Lancashire cotton industry and Conway may have been carrying cotton on this occasion, since she returned to Liverpool, the main port for cotton importation.  However, Conway also returned with 157 barrels of rosin, the solid form of resin from pine trees.  It was offered for sale in the Exchange Buildings on 15^th April.  Rosin was used, amongst other things, in the manufacture of varnishes and paints.

Another Accidental Death

Conway entered the Sandon Graving Dock for maintenance and repairs following her return from Florida.  This may have been the time when she was re-rigged, because on her next voyage she was specifically referred to as a “barque”.  She was being guarded in dock by Daniel Keith, a 62 year old shipkeeper from Bootle.  Sadly, he appears to have fallen into Conway’s hold on the night of Saturday, 9^th May, 1868, though he was not found until the following morning.  Keith was still alive and immediately taken to the Northern Hospital, where it was found he had fractured the base of his skull and had also sustained internal injuries.  He died soon after admission.  This accident was closely similar to that which befell painter Joseph Irvine in November 1853, when Conway was also in the Sandon Dock, being prepared for her first journey to Australia.

Another Grounding

When she returned to sea on 27^th May, 1868 with a new master, Captain Thomas, Conway again headed for Quebec.  She was seen off Queenstown on 6th June and reached Quebec on 18^th July.  However, on leaving the wharf with her cargo of timber she grounded and was said to lie badly at low water.  Conway was quickly re-floated and, apparently undamaged by her experience, left for Plymouth, where she arrived on 21^st September, 1868.  It was again the season for travel to the southern American states and Conway departed from Plymouth bound for Pensacola on 10^th October and arriving back at Liverpool on 16^th February 1869.

At this time Conway was still spoken of as being “of London”, so presumably she was still in the ownership of Mr de Pass.  Another voyage to Quebec then ensued, Conway departing from Liverpool on 6^th April1869.  She was passed, bound up, in the St Lawrence by the steamer Nestorian on 8^th May and arrived in Quebec on 14^th May.  Her departure for Plymouth was on 21^st June 1869 under a new master, Captain Harland.  Plymouth was attained on 30^th July.  The journey was then repeated.  By 19^th August, Conway was mid-Atlantic and arrived at Quebec on 11^th September.  Perhaps prophetically, Conway passed a wreck of about 790 tons floating bottom up during her journey.

Conway and Bristol

Conway cleared in Quebec on 9th October for the return to Britain. The journey from Quebec to Bristol was difficult, due to Conway being leaky again.  It was reported that she was making 10in of water an hour and part of her cargo had been thrown overboard.  She anchored in Walton Bay on Sunday, 14^th November to await a suitable tide for passage up the Avon and an available berth at the docks at Bristol.  At this location the tidal range can be more than 40ft. Ships were towed up to Bristol on a rising tide by steam tugs and needed to be securely moored before the tide turned.  Conway was tied up in Bristol on 19^th November, 1869.  Her cargo (or remaining cargo) was listed as 206 pcs white pine timber; 5pcs ash timber; 25pcs oak timber; 27pcs walnut timber; 169pcs birch timber; 12,216pcs floated pine deals; 2,188 deal ends; 9,286 bright pine deals; 354 pine boards and 6,000 WI staves. 

It was at about this time that Conway was sold to Bristol owners.  She also acquired a new master, Captain Webster.  On 11^th March 1870 Conway was advertised as loading for Quebec and entered out the following day.  She appears to have made the short hop across the Bristol Channel to Penarth, Cardiff about 24^th March, probably to load coal, before finally sailing on 29^th March.  She arrived in Quebec on 15th May, 1870.  Conway sailed from Quebec on 18th June under a new master, Captain James and returned, this time to London.  She reached Deal on 30^th July and Gravesend on 31st July.  She left again for Quebec in ballast on 16th August, under the command of Captain James, passing Deal on 17^th August and reaching Quebec on 1^st October, 1870

The journey back from Quebec to Bristol began on 22^nd October, with Captain James still in charge.  On this occasion her cargo consisted of 1,205pcs white pine; 1,809 pipe staves; 10,346 WI staves and 1,481 pine deals. Again Conway experienced problems with water ingress.  She sprang a leak off the  Newfoundland Banks and was spoken to and supplied with provisions by the Chinaman from Foo-chow-foo on 5^th December. Conway arrived in the Kingroad, an anchorage near the mouth of the Avon, for Bristol on 13^th December but had to wait until 21^st December before beginning the tow up to Bristol, for want of dock accommodation.  The owner of either the Conway or the Florence Nightingale, which was delayed for a similar period, advised his consignees, “that they must never again offer them any freights to Bristol”. 

The Western Daily Press also joined in the criticism of the Bristol city fathers on 17^th December, 1870.  “The delays and loss caused by want of dock accommodation at Bristol have been so frequently pointed out that it is like repeating a thrice-told tale to allude to the subject again.  There happens however, to be at Kingroad at the present moment a very striking illustration of this local defect.  There are now lying at that anchorage four vessels consigned to Mr HR James of Queen Square not one of which can come up the river till next week.  These vessels are the Florence Nightingale 1362 tons register from Quebec, the Conway 1140 tons register from Quebec, the Retriever 1336 tons register from Quebec and the Emperor 625 tons from Gaspe.  The last-named vessel will not get up till Monday, the Conway will be delayed till Tuesday and the Florence Nightingale and Retriever till Wednesday.  Another vessel the McLeod 1360 tons register from Quebec consigned to the same house will be delayed till Wednesday if she should arrive before that day.  These facts require no comment.  They are an exhaustive commentary on the folly which has left the port in the condition which has made such things possible”

  

1871 - Another Mutiny

On 3^rd March, 1871, Conway began loading for her next voyage to Quebec, travelling across the Bristol Channel to Penarth, Cardiff, to load with coal under Captain Acraman.  The date of departure for Quebec from Penarth is not known but by 20th April Conway had had to put in to Queenstown, Cork having lost her foremast above the eyes of the lower rigging, her maintopgallantmast and some spars in stormy weather.  Also, she was again leaking badly, admitting 5in to 6in of water per hour.  She was towed to the docks to discharge and undergo repairs, which were carried out by Messers Wheelers  at Queenstown.  Conway resumed her passage to Quebec on 6^th June.  But further problems arose when the crew mutinied and Conway had to return to Queenstown, reaching that port on 19^th June, still leaky.

Events had unfolded as follows.  It appears that Conway’s crew was paid off (including Captain Acraman) while she was under repair in Queenstown.  After the repairs had been completed, a scratch crew was recruited from the local area, mainly Queenstown, Passage and Crookhaven.  They were subsequently described in Freeman’s Journal as “some of the most determined ruffians that have ever sailed from here “.  Conway proceeded under a new master, Captain Jones and had reached a latitude of 22degW when the mutiny broke out.  Apparently the cause of the crew’s discontent was that there was more work setting up the new rigging, which had slackened, than they had either expected or cared to undertake.  At first they refused to sail further west and then became mutinous. Captain Jones was thus compelled to signal a passing Allen Transatlantic steamer, the St Patrick for help.  The St Patrick sent across a boat load of burly sailors with fire-arms and hand-cuffs.  Ten ringleaders of the mutiny were put in irons to immobilise them while Conway made for port.  The vessel was met by a substantial corps of police officers who dumped the miscreants in the bridewell (slang for a prison or police station in Ireland), until their trial on Wednesday, 21^st June.  Captain Jones then appears to have been replaced by Captain Heselton who recruited new men and Conway resumed her voyage.  She was sighted on 12^th August, 1871 in mid-Atlantic about 1000 miles from her destination.

Conway was off the Pilgrims on 31st August, in the Traverse on 2nd September and arrived at Quebec on 4^th September, 1871.  After taking on her cargo of timber she sailed for Bristol on 27^th September and arrived at Kingroad on 25^th October.  The cargo consisted of 81 pcs oak timber; 20 pcs black walnut timber; 164 pcs birch timber; 10 pcs ash timber; 125 pcs red pine timber; 496 pcs white pine timber; 12,107 bright pine deals; 700 bright pine deal ends; 1,948 pipe staves and 3,600 WI staves. Interestingly, Conway’s master had again been changed, the return journey being under the command of Captain Hesselton, who imported, on his own account, 12 barrels of cod rounds. There was no delay at the anchorage in the Severn Estuary and Conway immediately passed to Bristol.  Her crew was discharged and her cargo unloaded.  Frederick Crickley, a 66 year old seaman, was taken on as watchman to guard the now deserted ship.  Captain Hesselton had seen Crickley at 7pm on Wenesday, 8^th November but when he returned to the ship at midnight he found Crickley dead, lying on his back in the galley.  Apparently the dead man had recently been complaining of pains in his chest.

Winter was now approaching again and Conway’s next voyage, again under Captain Heselton, was to Pensacola in Florida.  She sailed on 25^th November 1871, arriving at her destination on 3^rd January 1872.  She left Pensacola for Liverpool on 17^th February and arrived in the Mersey on 7^th April.  No details of her cargo have been uncovered but they are likely to have included cotton and rosin which could readily be sold to industries located near her port of destination.  In 1872, Conway’s ownership appears to have changed twice.  Firstly, she was sold to Henry Randall James, a Bristol shipbroker who had imported goods on Conway several times.  Then Conway was sold on to a rather mixed local partnership of accountants, merchants of various hues and Mr Stockfisch, the superintendent of the Bristol Sailors’ Home.

Conway Grounded in Walton Bay

Conway entered outwards on 29th April sailed for Quebec from Liverpool on 6^th May, 1872, under Captain Williams. She arrived at her destination on 1^st June and sailed for Bristol on 4th July.  Conway anchored in Walton Bay, about 6 miles SW of the mouth of the River Avon, on 1^st August, waiting for suitable conditions to pass up to the Cumberland Basin in Bristol Docks.  About 7pm on Monday 5^th August a violent squall got up which raised the level of high tide about 6ft above the expected level.  Conway dragged her anchors and was driven high up on the beach.  Her false keel was broken off and substantial damage caused to her hull.  However, she managed to stay upright.  In an attempt to refloat her on the approaching spring tides, her deck cargo of timber was unloaded and the help of steam tugs enlisted, but to no avail.  She was beneaped until 18^th August, 1872, when she was finally got off, taking in water and passed up to Bristol.  Her cargo consisted of 23 pcs oak timber; 1,241 pcs white pine timber; 1,299 deals; 5,712 pipe staves; 6,000 WI staves and 6 cords lathwood, which had been consigned to Bayly and Fox.

Conway must then have undergone repairs following her latest mishap and she reappeared to take on cargo for Quebec about 22^nd March, 1873.  She sailed on 17^th April, was in the St Lawrence off the Quarantine Ground on 7th June and arrived in Quebec on 9^th June.  She left Quebec on 10th July and arrived back in Bristol on 14^th August, under the command of Captain Moulton.  Her cargo was typical of her journeys from Quebec, consisting of 89 pcs of oak timber; 1,821 pcs of fir timber; 1,680 deals; 2,881 pipe staves; 6,000 WI staves and 17 cords lathwood.  Conway’s owners then planned to repeat the journey across the Atlantic.  She was advertised as taking on cargo from 29^th August 1873 “for foreign parts”.  The ship entered out for Quebec at Bristol on 30^th August and finally sailed on 25^th September, again under Captain Moulton, arriving at the southern port on 22nd November.  The reason for the long delay between entering out and actually sailing is unknown but could have been maintenance-related.  It is also not known if she took on a cargo of coal as ballast.  However, when she finally left, her destination was given as Pensacola, not Quebec.  The change of plan was probably due to the delay in sailing which made it unwise to head for Quebec so late in the year and risk getting stranded over winter in the St Lawrence. 

More Storm Damage

From Pensacola, Conway returned to Bristol, leaving on 20th December and anchored in Kingroad on 25^th February 1874, before finally docking in Bristol on 3rd March.  No details are known of her cargo but it seems unlikely that she was carrying cotton, otherwise she would probably have headed for Liverpool and the Lancashire cotton market.  With the arrival of spring, Conway again headed for Quebec, sailing on 6^th April under Captain Moulton.  She was now described as a “Whitby ship”, but that was probably because she had a new owner who lived in the Yorkshire port.  Conway was soon forced to turn back and arrived in the Kingroad on 17^th April.  She had been struck by a heavy sea during a WSW hurricane and suffered serious damage.  Her hatches were stove in, boats smashed, skids carried away and binnacle and compass washed overboard.  Also, her ballast (coal?) shifted and two of her crew were injured.  Conway was then patched up and resumed her journey, under yet another new master, Captain Martin, arriving at Quebec on 9^th June.  Her return trip to Britain began on 7^th July and she reached Bristol on 12^th August 1874.  She was carrying another typical cargo of timber, consisting of 27pcs oak timber; 1,134pcs white pine; 1,473pcs floated pine deals; 262 pipe staves and 20 cords lathwood.

And Leaks

Captain Martin was still commanding Conway and she was quickly turned around, sailing from Bristol on 27^th August for Quebec, thus giving her sufficient time to load with timber and retreat down the St Lawrence before the appearance of ice in the river.  The details of her subsequent return to Bristol and departure for her routine winter voyage to Pensacola have not been discovered.  It is even a possibility that she never reached the St Lawrence but diverted to Pensacola.  Conway reached Pensacola on 14th November 1875.  On her return journey to London from Pensacola Conway ran into further trouble.  On making landfall she headed for Falmouth, where she arrived on 9^th February, in a leaky state and having lost an anchor.  Again, she was patched up and departed for London on 11^th February 1875.  Somewhere in the Channel she was picked up by the tug Cambria, arriving at Gravesend on 13^th February and entering the Surrey Commercial Dock 2 days later.

1875 – Conway’s Last Voyage

Conway departed on what was to be her final voyage from London about the beginning of April 1875, under Captain George Prance.  She was destined for Quebec in ballast and was spoken to in mid-Atlantic on 10^th April.  On 7^th May 1875 Conway was abandoned leaking badly and her crew of 22 rescued by the German barque Schiller, which landed them at New York, the information being communicated back to Britain by telegram.  Captain Prance returned to Bristol on the steamship Great Western, arriving on 16^th June after a favourable passage.  Her second mate later testified that her timbers were decayed and her fastenings loose.  In truth, she was unseaworthy and, on the published evidence, she had probably been so for some time.  Indeed, between 1851 and 1867 Conway was only reported in the press to be leaky once, in 1866 but, between 1868 and 1875, she was reported to be leaky 6 times.

Conway – 24 years on the World’s Oceans

How far did Conway travel?  It is difficult to be precise but if the minimal distances between all the ports she is known to have visited are added together a figure of 351,000 nautical miles is reached, but this is the bare minimum for the mileage she must have travelled.  What was the true distance travelled?  A guess could be perhaps 1.25x – 1.5x that distance. 

During her commercial life she crossed the North Atlantic and back 24x, travelled to South America 2x, the Mediterranean 2x and journeyed to Australia, followed by India, 5x.  On each occasion of her 5 Australian trips, when she carryied about 2000 emigrants in total, she had a different port as her destination - Geelong, Hobart, Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane.  Her cargoes, other than the human variety, included many diverse items but the staples of timber, coal and cotton predominated

Her period of commercial life spanned the period from the heyday of the clippers in the 1850s to their progressive decline during the 1860s and 1870s, as steam gained the upper hand.  It can be seen in her record that her successive owners struggled to maintain her commercial viability, moving away from passengers and the attentions of the Emigration Commissioners after 1862 and re-rigging her as a barque in 1868, both actions resulting in a requirement for smaller crews.  On her first voyage to Australia in 1854 she carried a crew of 50 but on her last voyage in 1875 her complement was down to 20.  Another likely economy measure appears to have been the adoption of a minimal maintenance regime resulting in her becoming increasingly leaky and prone to unscheduled interruptions to her passages.

At the peak of Conway’s prowess under William Henry Duguid, one of the finest but least-lauded clipper skippers, her master retained his position for 6 years.  Towards the end of her life she had frequent changes of master, some only serving for one leg of a round trip across the Atlantic.  This again seems to have been an economy measure, with the master and all the crew being paid off at every opportunity to save on crew costs, though perhaps some skippers were glad to depart from commanding what had become a leaky old tub.

Conway led a charmed life, being wrecked on two occasions to the point where she was expected to be a total loss and having several lesser scrapes and groundings.  On each occasion when she was close to oblivion a change of owner was the result.  As an all-wood ship and mainly soft wood, it is remarkable that she lasted as long as she did.  She also gained notoriety as the “Cholera Ship” in 1854 and suffered two mutinies one, off Queenstown in 1871, probably being a direct result of the owner’s crewing strategy, which resulted in a gang of work-shy ruffians being recruited to the forecastle.

For me, this study of the life of the clipper ship Conway has given a wonderful insight into the life of seafarers, including my relative, Thomas Spurrier and emigrants in the mid-19^th century.  I hope others will find incidents here to fascinate, amuse or even horrify them as they search for the essence of their own ancestors’ lives.

 

Don Fox

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donaldpfox@gmail.com