:: Byrne Settler - What were the Ships Like ::

WHAT WERE THE SHIPS LIKE?

The ships which brought the Byrne Settlers to Natal were mostly barques of relatively low tonnage, with a couple of notable exceptions. A barque is defined as a three-masted vessel, the fore and main masts being square-rigged, and the mizzen mast fore-and-aft rigged, as seen in the drawing below:

They were all wooden sailing ships - without any auxiliary steam power - and were dependant on wind and weather as well as the skill of the captain and navigator: the voyage from England could take about three months. Their course was far from being a straight line. Alternately buffeted about by gales, or tediously becalmed, they zig-zagged their way across the ocean, relying on very basic navigational equipment to keep their bearings. Shipboard diaries of the time contain many references to being 'out of our course' and 'taking a long tack out to sea in order to keep off land in the prevailing wind' or 'not making much leeway'. It was an exercise in patience and resignation for those on board.

Not all the ships were as seaworthy as they might have been: the Henry Tanner, for example, leaked like a sieve. The first of Byrne's ships, the Wanderer, and four others - the Conquering Hero, the Sandwich, Devonian and Bernard - were brigs of between 170 and 320 tons. These smaller vessels would have had two square-rigged masts. At the other end of the scale were the Minerva, a former East Indiaman of 987 tons, and the Unicorn, at 946 tons. These were full-rigged ships, with three square-rigged masts and a bowsprit (a spar running out from the ship's stern to which the forestays were fastened). But even on these larger vessels, space was limited. The dimensions of the Dreadnought, a barque of 377 tons, are given in Lloyd's Register as only 109 x 23 x 16 feet. Into this tiny area were crammed 96 passengers, men, women and children, as well as a full complement of crew, not to mention baggage and other accoutrements. Below decks there was little or no privacy.

As a comparison, here is a cross-section of the emigrant ship Bourneuf, of 1495 tons burthen, which took settlers to Australia from Liverpool in 1852, showing the division of the passengers' quarters into 'married' and 'single, and the latter decorously separated into 'male' and 'female' - at opposite ends of the ship!

Few pictorial representations of Byrne's ships exist. In the larger scheme of things, they weren't 'important' vessels which commanded the attention of artists or the newspapers, and unless you are particularly fortunate you'll probably be unable to find a picture of the actual vessel on which your settler ancestor sailed. The Minerva acquired fame due to her spectacular wreck below the Bluff in July 1850, and was the subject of contemporary sketches by such artists as John SANDERSON, and, later, J Forsyth INGRAM. Details shown are scant, and these works could be of any three-master of the period. Sanderson's original sketches are held in the Old Court House Museum, Durban. Ingram's painting can be accessed on these pages at
http://www.genealogyworld.net/rose/maritime/b_minerva.html

In the Illustrated London News, several engravings relating to the big news topic of emigration appeared in the 1840s and 1850s, among them one of the Byrne ship Lady Bruce, showing her with sails furled, anchored at Portsmouth in February 1850 where she took on settlers from the Beaulieu estate in Hampshire, increasing the total number of passengers on board to 180. The picture gives a side-on view of this 538 ton barque.

Also from the Illustrated London News, the picture below shows an emigrant ship being towed out of harbour at the start of its journey to Australia in 1844. Though slightly earlier than the Byrne era (1849-51), this is a useful depiction of the shape and style typical of the three-masters.

The Sarah Bell, which took some Natal settlers to Melbourne in December 1852, was a small brig, hardly ideal for a voyage to Australia one would imagine, yet she carried about 50 passengers plus her crew.

From our present vantage point, the distances covered in tiny 19th century ships seem remarkable. Captain William BELL's two-masted schooner (also sometimes incorrectly described as a brigantine), Conch, was only about 100 tons and traded along the coast between the Cape and Natal, calling at Algoa Bay, Mossel Bay, Saldanha Bay, Simons Bay, the Breede River etc, but research has shown that he sailed her to Rio de Janeiro from the Cape and back at least once. Mrs Bell, confident in her husband's seamanship, went along as well. But it was not unusual for a schooner to undertake long voyages. John and William RUNCIMAN, as independent travellers, arrived in Natal all the way from Glasgow in the schooner Olympia, 224 tons, commanded by Captain JOPP, in July 1862, with fellow-passengers Mr and Mrs BOYD and their six children. The latter proved rather too much for the Runciman brothers in the confined space, as pithy comments in their shipboard diary reveal. (The original diary is held in Pietermaritzburg Archives Repository.)

Some ships generally associated with Natal had Australian connections as well. Byrne's brig Dreadnought (sometimes spelled Dreadnaught), 377 tons, was used in 1851 and 1853 on the route to Australia. The Ballengeich, not a Byrne vessel but carrying 95 settlers to Natal under the scheme arranged by MURDOCH and PELLY, appeared, flag-bedecked and with her name prominently displayed, in the pages of the Illustrated London News, departing for Australia from Southampton in 1852. The Australian gold rush was then at its height, and it was said that 5 000 emigrants were leaving England every week. The aptly-named Golden Age sailed for Australia from Natal in July 1854. See her passenger list at
http://www.genealogyworld.net/rose/maritime/golden.html So, it's worth checking whether the ship which carried your ancestor to SA undertook later voyages elsewhere: there could be information or even a picture lurking in another colony's records.

I'm often asked whether the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich UK, would have suitable pictures of 19th century ships which came to South Africa. Generally, the answer is 'No'. Unless a vessel had a particular claim to fame, it would be unlikely that an artist would have painted her and these were early days as far as photography was concerned. When looking for illustrations of an ancestor's ship for a family history narrative, an alternative would be to find an advertisement in the local SA press: dates of sailings were often advertised, together with a description of the ship's superior qualities as an inducement to would-be passengers e.g. the following advert appeared in The Natal Mercury, September 1861, for the 'splendid clipper* barque' Priscilla, with a little line drawing accompanying the text:

The Priscilla was the ship on which my own great grandfather Thomas Alfred GADSDEN arrived in Natal, and this advert would be an appropriate illustration for the Gadsden family history. The chances of finding a pictorial representation of the Priscilla would be fairly remote - and this applies to most of the ships which visited our shores during the 19th century.

* A clipper was a general term applied to any ship with forward-raking bows and aft-raking masts, and implies a swift sailer. For example, the clipper-built vessels of the Aberdeen Line - also known as the Aberdeen White Star Line (George Thompson & Co) - were famous for their speedy voyages and for their smart turn-out. In his book 'The Colonial Clippers', Basil Lubbock quotes the following:

"There's a jaunty White Star Liner and her decks are scrubbed and clean,
And her tall white spars are spotless and her hull is painted green.
Don't yer smell the smokey stingo? Ech! Ye'll ken the Gaelic lingo
Of the porridge-eating person who was born in Aberdeen."