SATELLITE

Date1838

Object NamePADDLE STEAMER

MediumWOOD

ClassificationsShip

DimensionsGross tonnage: 104 tons.
Length: 109.3'
Breadth: 19.5'
Depth: 11.8'

Object numberABDSHIP003030.72

Keywords

Aberdeen Built Ships

About MeYard: John Duffus & Co.

Fate: unknown, not in Lloyd's

Propulsion: Steam
Description: Schooner rigged paddle steamer 1 deck, 2 masts, and propelled by steam with an engine room of 37ft and 22 tons, standing bowsprit, square stern, carvel built, mock galleries, a woman's bust figurehead.

Owners:
1838: Registered at Aberdeen for subscribing owners;
John Lumsden, George Elsmie, William Reid, James Forbes, George Forbes, Alexander Bannerman, all merchants; George Duffus, manufacturer, all Aberdeen, carrying on business under the firm of John Duffus & Co. Shipbuilders (64 shares)
1839: East India Company.

Masters:
1838: Walter Strachan (at launch), James White from September.
1839: Alexander Gordon.
(Source: Aberdeen Register of Shipping (Aberdeen City Archives))

General History:
27/05/1839:
SATELLITE steamer Gordon master, arrived Madeira 25 April from Aberdeen, Falmouth and Lisbon for Calcutta, to repair paddle boxes.
(Morning Post)

31/08/1839:
SATELLITE, steamer, sailed St. Helena 28 June for Calcutta.
(Caledonian Mercury (Edinburgh))

SATELLITE was then involved in military campaigns along the river Indus. Please note that the reports given here are generally direct quotes from publications of the time, they have been edited for length but the language and prejudices of the writers have been left unvarnished.

18/05/1842:
(From the Glasgow Courier:) The following is the copy of a letter from the commander of the Satellite steamer on the Indus to his brother Glasgow. " H. C. V. [Honourable Company Vessel] SATELLITE, Sukhur, March, 1842, " My dear Brother,—This country is in a very unsettled state. Ten days ago reports came in that 15,000 men were marching on Sukhur to attack it. [...] It was confidently rumoured, and as implicitly believed, that the SATELLITE had been boarded at night, the whole of us cut to pieces, and treasure we were carrying up, to the amount of 60,000l. taken and conveyed to the mountaineers. This report was so current that letters were despatched to Bombay announcing it [...]
the rumour arose from the following circumstances [...] I sent my steward and a native on shore to procure sheep and other supplies for the ship. They came on board in terrible fright, and said that they had been attacked their money and swords taken from them. [...] it was such glaring thing that I could not resist going and showing the blackguards that they could not do such things with impunity; so, accordingly, I started for the place where they were, with six European sailors and four native mariners leaving the steamer well armed and manned [...] About midnight we arrived at the place and found about 150 [...] all armed to the teeth [...] I asked for their kurdan or headman; and when he came forward I handed him over to the tars, who immediately disarmed him. I also took another 10 prisoners [...] as we retreated, [they] appeared to increase in numbers, but they showed no fight until we were near the steamer, when they opened a straggling fire from their matchlocks. Providentially none of our men were hit although we heard the bullets whistling over our heads. steamer immediately sent up a rocket and fired a large gun in about 15 minutes more we were all snug on board [...]
R. C. MILLER
(Morning Herald (London))

08/08/1842:
Calcutta, 6 June. SATELLITE, steamer, is onshore athwart a barque off the East India Company's store.
(Caledonian Mercury (Edinburgh))

07/04/1843:
SCINDE
[...] On the morning of the 15th [February], matters reached a crisis; the agency compound [in Hyderabad, Sindh, now Pakistan], a rather large enclosure, surrounded by a low mud wall, and defended by a guard of 100 men of the light company of her Majesty's 22nd, was invested and attacked about 9 a.m. The men reserved their fire till the enemy were close upon them, so that every shot told; their ammunition had at the beginning amounted to no more than 40 rounds of ball-cartridge; it began to run short; the SATELLITE steamer had been sent up the river on the 12th for supplies and reinforcements; General [Sir Charles] Napier having despatched them, sent a second note to hasten their departure; this unluckily was received before anything was put on board, and the commander misapprehending the injunction" to be off without delay—to wait for nothing," started without the objects of his errand. The steamer having thus returned without succour of any sort, it became apparent that there was no longer any object to be gained in protracting resistance, and the gallant little band, having quitted the residency they had for four hours so gallantly defended against such fearful odds - 80 to 1, with artillery to boot! —retired on the river, where the steamers SATELLITE, COMET, and PLANET, waited to receive them, and managed their movements as tranquilly and with as much order as if on parade. They had lost two men, which, together with ten wounded, was the whole amount of their casualties. From 90 to 100 of the enemy were afterwards ascertained to have fallen—about 400 having been wounded. After getting into their boats they cut away a large platform from under the enemy's guns, and the steamers run the gauntlet before huge masses of Beloochees, who attended them on the banks for upwards of three miles. On the 16th they found Sir C. Napier about 20 miles up the river, and now in full march for Hyderabad.
(Morning Herald (London))