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:
Basil Lubbock wrote in The Colonial Clippers that BRILLIANT became a very popular passenger clipper at the time of the Australian Gold Rush. Although most of the shares in it were held by the Duthie family of Aberdeen ship builders and owners, bookings (as with many of the Aberdeen clippers) were in the hands of London agents, in this case Devitt and Moore. Their advertisements illustrate the importance placed on attracting passengers. That for the maiden voyage in 1850 stated that ‘this fine vessel has most elegant and spacious accommodation for passengers’. The 1858 advertisement described the accommodation as excellent and claimed the vessel was noted for its fast-sailing qualities, a particular attraction for passengers. A fast passage was highlighted in the following advertisement, for example 89 days return in 1852, 78 days outward in 1853. Only once, in 1853, was it necessary to advertise shortly before departure that a few passenger cabins were still available. The ship also of course carried cargo, and consignments were often encouraged by claiming that ‘the greater part of the cargo was engaged’ or that there was room only for a few tons and, in a few cases, that the ship was to be despatched again immediately when in the event it did not sail for another two months. The Gold Rush certainly impacted return cargoes. In 1852 2 ½ tons gold were carried by BRILLIANT, valued at £219,000 and claimed to be the largest amount of gold any ship had yet brought from Australia.
BRILLIANT was stated in the first advertisement to have been built expressly for the trade, and for almost a decade it sailed with a regularity which was not matched by many clippers. Every year it departed on 1 June from the St. Katherine Docks in London direct to Geelong, near Melbourne. From 1853 it was advertised as an ‘annual packet ship’, reflecting accurately its consistent scheduling and destination. Its failure in the late 1850s to meet the 1 June deadline is probably a sign that its trade was beginning to weaken and it was struggling to secure a full cargo. In 1858 the last shipping date was 8 June and in 1859 it was said to be loading fast on 15 July. Bullock is incorrect in reporting that after a dozen years as a first-class passenger and wool clipper the vessel was ‘debased to the guano and nitrate trades’. It did indeed reach an Irish port in February 1863 with guano, 114 days from Callao. However, this cargo was secured on the return voyage from Australia. BRILLIANT had been advertised to sail on 26 July 1862 from London to Sydney. That it reached Sydney is confirmed by the report that Capt. Phillips’s wife Jane had sadly died there on 5 November. It was common for a master’s wife to travel with her husband on long voyages. From 1864 the ship appears to have been engaged in the timber trade from Canada. In September of that year it was reported as having passed the Pentland Firth on a voyage from Aberdeen to Quebec. Its abandonment in the Atlantic on 19 April 1868 was on passage from Dundee (left 1 April) to Quebec. It was now classed as a barque, indicating that its rig had been cut down to reduce crew costs (with the consequence of reducing speed, which was presumably no longer a selling point).
Capt. Walker reported on the loss of BRILLIANT. On 18 April 1868 at 10pm he was called by the mate, who reported a great deal of water in the forehold. Pumping was continued all night, but on the forenoon of the 19th the water was still gaining, being 4 or 5 feet in the hold and the pumps nearly choked. The boats were got out and at 10am left the ship, 8 men in one and 6 in the other, in strong winds and rain and hail showers. At 5pm a sail was seen to leeward, At 6pm the boats came alongside the LIBERTY of Newcastle for Quebec, on which Capt. Walker and his crew was treated with every kindness.
Sources (from British Newspaper Archive):-
Australian and New Zealand Gazette, 21/04 and 30/05/1855, 05/07/1862; Banffshire Journal, 12/08/1862; British Banner, 21/04 and 21/05/1852; British Standard, 26/03 and 31/05/1858, 15/07/1859; Cork Examiner, 17/02/1863; Dundee Advertiser, 07/09/1864; Dundee Courier, 12/06/1868; Londonderry Sentinal, 30/04/1852; Lloyd’s List, 09 and 31/05/1854; Morning Herald, 25/04/1831; Newcastle Journal, 23/01/1863; Patriot, 25/04 and 30/05/1850, 19/05/1853, 30/03/1854.
Newspaper extracts:
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.
