COLLINGWOOD
Shipbuildervessel built by
Walter Hood & Co.
(Shipbuilder, Footdee, Aberdeen 1839 - 1881)
DateJune 1872
Object NameCLIPPER
MediumIRON
ClassificationsShip
Dimensionslength 211.1' x breadth 34.8' x depth 21'
gross tonnage 1064 ton
gross tonnage 1064 ton
Object numberABDSHIP000377
Keywords
Fate: Sunk 12 March 1917 by German submarine U-62 while under Norwegian colours, no casualties.
Propulsion: Sail
Description: Ship rigged clipper, 3 masts, 2 decks.
Owners:
1872: Devitt & Moore, London
1910: Akties Collingwood (O. Gotaas), registered at Christiana, Norway.
Masters:
1873-74: Master S. Calthrop
1874-75: Master A. P. C. Ross
1880-83: Master H. N. Forbes
1910: Master L. A. Larsen.
Voyages (from Lloyd's):
1873-74: London-Australia
General History:
Basil Lubbock described COLLINGWOOD as ‘Devitt and Moore’s first venture into the Melbourne wool trade, an iron clipper, and thoroughly looked her part’. He added ‘though she made no very memorable passage, her voyages were very regular and it was not often that she missed the [London] wool sales’. His tables of the wool fleets show its voyages as follows (in each case from Melbourne to London):-
1873-4: 24/12/1873 - 23/03/1874 – 89 days
1874-5: 01/11/1874 - 04/02/1875- 95 days
1876-7: 27/11/1876 – 06/03/1877- 99 days
1880-1: 05/12/1880 - 20/03/1881- 105 days
1882-3: 06/11/1882 - 26/03/1883- 110 days
1887-8: 12/12/1887 - 11/03/1888- 90 days
1888-9: 15/12/1888 - 20/03/1889- 95 days
1889-90: 23/12/1889 - 28/03/1890- 95 days
This certainly suggests a regular pattern, especially in arrival times in London for the wool sales. COLLINGWOOD sailings from London were almost always to Melbourne (often described as Port Philip) until 1892. However, occasionally it sailed to Adelaide (1883 and 1885) and to Wellington in New Zealand (1875 and 1892).
Devitt and Moore was a London shipping agency specialising in the Australian trade, often with clippers owned as well as built in Aberdeen. COLLINGWOOD appears to have been a new venture in being owned by them. Nevertheless, its outward sailings were sometimes advertised by other agencies:-
1875: New Zealand Shipping Co.
1876: Taylor, Bethel and Roberts London Line
1879 and 1882: Green’s Blackwell Line
1880: Anderson, Anderson and Co.
1885: Houlder Brothers (the early days of what was to become an important and long-lived shipping line).
COLLINGWOOD also carried passengers. In 1879 it was advertised to have ‘the most superior accommodation for all classes of passenger’, but in 1882 for cabin passengers only. In 1888 prospective passengers were invited inspect the ‘elegant saloon accommodation’ as it lay at London. In February 1893, within days of returning from its last voyage from Melbourne, Devitt and Moore advertised COLLINGWOOD for sale. Thereafter, it appears to have been employed in tramping, being at Port Natal (Durban) and Sydney in 1894, Galveston or New Orleans in 1898 and Madagascar and Freemantle in 1902.
Lubbock comments that ‘you could not wear out these early iron ships’, and this is borne out by COLLINGWOOD still being in service in early 1917, almost 45 years old. On 12 March of that year, while carrying the colours of neutral Norway, it was sunk by a German U-boat. The German rules of engagement permitted this only if the neutral vessel was carrying what Germany regarded as contraband. Lubbock claims the U-boat commander refused to read the ship’s papers, which would have shown it carried no contraband. Perhaps reflecting the prejudices of the time (his book was published in 1921) he claimed this was caused by the commander and crew being drunk on champagne and brandy looted from a previous victim.
Sources
Basil Lubbock, The Colonial Clippers (Glasgow, 1921), pp.280-1; British Australian, 12/03/1885; Daily News, 13/07/1880; Lloyd’s List, 21/02/1893; Shipping and Maritime Gazette, 14/06/1879, 09/05/1882, 14/05/1883; The Colonies and India, 03/04/1875; The Hour, 07/06/1876; Western Mail, 19/09/1898. (Newspaper references from British Newspaper Archive online).
Newspaper extracts
13/11/1872:
COLLINGWOOD, ship, London for Melbourne, 35 days out 12 Oct., in, 20W [Mid Atlantic between West Africa and Brazil].
(Aberdeen Journal).
24/07/1875:
New Zealand - ship COLLINGWOOD, with 286 immigrants, arrived 10th and has been put into quarantine. There were 20 deaths on the voyage and now 50 cases in hospital. The doctor had been stricken with the fever, but is now recovered. Some officers are also sick.
(Singleton Argus (NSW))
27/01/1879:
Ship COLLINGWOOD, now at Melbourne, has been chartered to load wheat at Port Pirie [Spencer Gulf, South Australia].
(Launceston (Tasmania) Examiner)
10/07/1885:
COLLINGWOOD, British ship, from London, has arrived Adelaide with loss of fore and main topmasts.
(Aberdeen Weekly Journal)
27/10/1886:
At anchorage ship COLLINGWOOD loading wool for London.
(Border Watch (Mount Gambier, S. Australia))
04/10/1888:
Hobson's Bay, 29 Sept. - COLLINGWOOD, ship, 1011 tons, from London 26 June.
(Hobart (Tasmania) Mercury)
06/05/1890:
Passage to Australia - intending passengers invited to inspect elegant saloon accommodation of splendid clipper ship COLLINGWOOD (owned by Messrs Devitt & Moore), sailing from East India Docks for Melbourne about 31 May. Vessel was specially built for conveyance of passengers and offers most desirable opportunity for those travelling for health or pleasure, carries a surgeon.
(Daily News)
13/02/1892:
COLLINGWOOD arrived London 4 Feb., from Melbourne 25 Oct.
(South Australian Chronicle (Adelaide))
30/06/1892:
Mr E. M. Powell, 2nd Officer of ship COLLINGWOOD, informed police he had been robbed in Zoological Gardens of a Bank of England £10 note and some private papers while he was admiring the animals on view.
(Melbourne Argus)
07/09/1892:
At Wellington Police Court Frank Northey, Master of ship COLLINGWOOD, was fined £1 for having no watch on board on night of 25 August.
(Melbourne Argus).
11/02/1893:
Ship COLLINGWOOD arrived London 9 Feb., from Melbourne 26 Oct.
(Sydney Morning Herald).
11/10/1894:
Arrived Sydney ship COLLINGWOOD, 1011 tons, Capt. Asgrup, from Port Natal [Durban] 1 Sept.
(Sydney Morning Herald)
30/03/1895:
COLLINGWOOD arrived London 28 March from Sydney 10 Dec.
(S. Australian Register (Adelaide))
19/12/1895:
Projected departures - COLLINGWOOD, barque, 19 Dec. for London [Last ref. found to COLLINGWOOD on London - Australia route].
(Sydney Morning Herald)
16/08/1902:
Barque COLLINGWOOD, which arrived Freemantle [W. Australia] from Madagascar, lost 3 men on voyage owing to outbreak of Beriberi. All crew, except 1st and 2nd Officers were affected.
(Adelaide Advertiser).
COLLINGWOOD's last passage was from the Port of Rasario in Argentina, bound toward Kristiania with a cargo of maize. Sadly, after 45 years of service COLLINGWOOD was sunk by the German submarine U-62 under command Kapitanleutnant Ernst Hashagen (24th August 1885 - 12th January 1947) on the 12th March 1917 some 100-120 miles west of the Scilly Islands; location 49.13N 09.39W. It is recorded that the officers and crew of the U-Boat were drunk with champagne and cognac sourced from the French ship, Jules Gommes which they had sunk two hours previously! COLLINGWOOD's crew were given ten minutes to get clear of the ship; there were no casualties.
(Basil Lubbock (1948 edn), "The Colonial Clippers" (James Brown & Son, Glasgow), pp. 230-31).
