BRILLIANT
Shipbuildervessel built by
DUTHIE
(Footdee, Aberdeen)
Shipownervessel built for
DUTHIE
(Footdee, Aberdeen)
DateApril 1850
Object NameCLIPPER
MediumWOOD
ClassificationsShip
Dimensionslength 151' x breadth 25.5' x depth 18.6'
gross tonnage 558 tons
gross tonnage 558 tons
Object numberABDSHIP000511
Keywords
Fate: Abandoned in the North Atlantic, 19 April 1868.
Propulsion: Sail
Description: Ship rigged clipper, 1 deck, 3 masts, square stern, carvel built, no galleries, female figurehead.
(Source: Aberdeen Register of Shipping (Aberdeen City Archives))
Owners:
23/04/1850: Registered at Aberdeen for subscribing owners;
William Duthie, 36 shares; Alexander Duthie, 8 shares; John Duthie, Jr. (all Aberdeen, shipowners).
Other owners; John Duthie, shipowner, 8 shares; John Cargill, shipmaster, 4 shares (both Aberdeen).
18/05/1850: William Duthie 4 shares - William Murray, shipmaster, Aberdeen
Abandoned at sea 19 April 1868 as per letter from register in Quebec.
(Aberdeen Register of Shipping (Aberdeen City Archives))
Masters:
23/04/1850: Master Hugh Longmuir (Aberdeen Register)
18/05/1850: Master George Brock
06/06/1850: Master William Murray
1861-62: Master J. Bowman (Lloyd's)
1863-68: Master G. Philips
Voyages (from Lloyd's Register):
1850-51: Aberdeen - Port Phillip (Australia)
1852-56: London - Port Phillip
1857-59: London
1861-62: Aberdeen - South America
1863-68: Aberdeen - Australia
General History:
15/01/1850:
You will oblige me by inserting in your pages reply to a letter signed W. Murray, Master of the ship BRILLIANT in the Daily News Oct 7 - this pilot claims Murray agreed to wait from Sunday to Monday for departure and regrets he was detained on Monday at court. In reply to an article, I may say a cowardly attack in the Daily News Sept 4th, speaking of my success of grounding two ships [...] why should I be singled out and have not the whole of the pilots occasionally grounded vessels?
(Melbourne Argus)
07/10/1854:
Geelong 6 Oct. On the arrival of the clipper ship BRILLIANT several of the townspeople interested in the advancement of the port intimated that if Capt. Murray would bring her over the bar into the inner harbour they would give him a public dinner. The vessel could have very easily been brought in as she only drew 15 feet of water on her arrival from London. But it appears either cheaper or more convenient to discharge and reload her seven miles from port... I should think Captain Murray too good a judge to throw away money... I think there is little doubt the BRILLIANT could take all her wool on board off the wharf after discharging her present cargo.
(Melbourne Argus)
22/12/1855:
There has been little business done in the gold market during the last week. A very few lots have been making up for the ship BRILLIANT.
(Melbourne Argus)
16/02/1861:
Deaths: On 24 August 1860 at sea on the homeward voyage from Callao, Capt. William Murray of the ship BRILLIANT of Aberdeen.
(Melbourne Argus)
Commanded by Captain Murray and sailing under Duthie's house-flag, BRILLIANT became a very popular passenger clipper at the time of the gold rush. On her first outward passage she went from London to Melbourne in 87 days, and this was about her average. She generally loaded wool for the London market at Geelong and made the homeward run in under 90 days [...] BRILLIANT on one occasion brought home seven tons of gold, giving Captain Murray an anxious time until he had it safely handed over to the Bank of England. After a dozen years as a first class passenger and wool clipper the BRILLIANT was debased to the guano and nitrate trades, being finally lost at sea when homeward bound from Callao with a cargo of guano.
(Basil Lubbock (1948) The Colonial Clippers (Brown, Son & Ferguson Ltd., Glasgow), pp. 118-19)
Note: Barque rigged from 1863
