Mariners: Caithness and the Flying Dragon 3

W and J Pile Shipbuilders of Monkwearmouth:
The Flying Dragon was built at this yard

The reports of Flying Dragon’s disastrous fire at the end of July 1854 were still fresh in public memory when she was again in the news. 

Incredibly, within a matter of months the vessel was involved in a second fire. The headline, ‘Loss of the Flying Dragon’, would have given readers a sense of déjà vu as they perused their papers over breakfast.

An account in the Graham’s Town Journal was repeated in the Hobart Town Daily Courier on 16 July 1855 after the usual colonial time lag: 

Loss of the Flying Dragon: This vessel, which put into Simon’s Bay some months ago [July 1854], having a fire smouldering on board, was entirely consumed by the same destructive element on Tuesday last, when a youth, the son of the master, Captain Caithness, unfortunately lost his life. She had been surveyed and was expected to put to sea on Tuesday next. The unfortunate youth who perished on the occasion had previously encountered another narrow escape. He was on board the Sea Gull when she ran ashore in Table Bay, and by a miracle escaped being knocked overboard when another vessel came in collision with her on that occasion.

The Liverpool Daily Post of 12 June 1855 offers a precise date: ‘Cape of Good Hope, April 19, The Flying Dragon, Caithness, in ballast*, was burnt to the water’s edge in Simon’s Bay yesterday. Crew, except captain’s son, saved.’

It seems the second fire took place on the night of 18 April 1855. The use of the same phrase as in reports of the first fire – ‘burnt to the water’s edge’ - adds to a measure of confusion arising from the vessel’s two similar but separate tragedies. Initially it was stated that the Flying Dragon had been scuttled after the damage sustained in the events of July 1854. How then could she have been about to put to sea again in April 1855?

Subsequent to the first fire, an enterprising Cape businessman by the name of Suffert had purchased the Flying Dragon’s hull and instituted extensive repairs on the vessel. The considerable sum outlaid for this work would be covered as Suffert confidently expected to make handsome profits employing the Flying Dragon in taking settlers to Australia, with James Caithness as Master.

The second fire put an end to the plan and cost the life of Caithness’s son. Although the latter is not named in contemporary accounts, this was in all likelihood Alfred Douglas Caithness, at twelve old enough to be learning the ropes crewing aboard his father’s ship. The boy had been involved in the Sea Gull wreck the previous July but had emerged unscathed. Now James endured the loss of a child in awful circumstances as well as the bitter disappointment of losing another ship. It’s not impossible that this double blow hastened James’s own early death, at the age of forty-five, five years later.** 

Suffert apparently continued his interests in ocean transport: in 1858 he sent the Colonial Office a tender for conveying emigrants to Melbourne.***

The Flying Dragon press reports dispel any doubts that it was James Caithness who was captain of the Sea Gull in July 1854 and there is a hint that James’s acquaintance with Suffert may well have been linked to the Sea Gull’s carrying passengers to Australia, though the gale prevented that particular voyage. 

Reference to the death of Captain Caithness’s son in the second Flying Dragon fire, the presence of the same boy in the Sea Gull incident, together with the absence of a burial record for Alfred Caithness are all strong pieces of evidence underpinning this chapter of the Caithness story.

Scrimshaw Flying Dragon

*      i.e.  with no cargo loaded

**    it is a guess that the boy was Alfred, but it's significant that no records of Alfred’s burial have been found;
       James jnr (christened James Edward) was the eldest son, then aged 16, but he did not die young.
***  Messrs H and E Suffert of Cape Town; the Suffert brothers were in partnership

Coastal Ships, Mariners & Visitors: Cape 19th c 6

JAMES RAMSEY CAITHNESS

Overview St Mary's Cemetery: eGGSA

In St Mary’s Cemetery, Port Elizabeth, lies Captain James Ramsey Caithness: his gravestone, despite much weathering, reminds us that he died in August 1860* ‘after a painful illness’. He is not the only mariner buried in this cemetery, nor is his the only Caithness grave. Another is to Douglas Sturgess Caithness (1855-1883), a son of James Ramsey's second marriage.

http://www.eggsa.org/library/main.php?g2_itemId=1060012

Although J R Caithness did not die at sea, the seafaring life eventually took its toll and he had had his share of misfortune particularly during the 1840s.

WRECKS AT ALGOA IN THE 1840s

Algoa Bay was well-known to Portuguese navigators who put in there on their voyages round the Cape: they called it Alagoa, which means lagoon. Either their visits were made in good weather or they were referring to some other feature of the landscape, because ‘lagoon’ conjures up a calm and peaceful vision. Algoa Bay was anything but calm and peaceful when the seasons were changing and the wind was in the south-east.

Surf-boat at Algoa Bay; Illustrated London News

The 1840s were disastrous for ships at Algoa Bay as local newspapers testify. In 1843 a British snow (similar to a brig) Laura, under Captain Crockley, was wrecked on 25 August during a typical south-easterly gale. It became a double drama because the larger brig, Sea Gull, under Captain J Murray, drifting after her cables parted, struck the jetty and cannoned into the Laura. There were five drowned. The Sea Gull had been built in 1841, the Laura in 1824.**

1844 saw the wreck of the schooner Trek Boer at Algoa on her way back from Ceylon, carrying a cargo of rope; a boy was drowned. Her captain, T Cobern, had commanded the Conch in the days before Bell took her circa 1836-7. Trek Boer was an old acquaintance of Bell’s friend George Cato. Colonial maritime circles were an extended family with press reports keeping everyone abreast of who was sailing which vessel, where and for whom – and were they still afloat? One can almost hear the gossipy chats over coffee with the latest edition’s news.

In March of the same year, 1844, Captain James Ramsey Caithness had lost his schooner Mary at Algoa on the way back from Mauritius and four years later the brig Lady Leith then under his command fell victim to Thunderbolt Reef. Such were the vicissitudes of a mariner’s existence. A descendant asks if Caithness was 'accident prone': perhaps that would be a little harsh. The stretch of coast between the Cape and Natal was positively malevolent (the 15th c Portuguese  would  agree). Algoa Bay could be a death trap when the seasons were changing and the south easterlies blowing. Caithness was unlucky but certainly not the only mariner to come to grief. Twice in a lifetime does seem unfair.

Update 12 Oct 2013: further research has since shown that James Caithness lost a total of six ships during his career. See http://molegenealogy.blogspot.com/2013/09/mariners-caithness-ships-and-family.html 

http://molegenealogy.blogspot.com/2013/06/wreck-of-lady-leith-1848.html

The notorious south-easterly gales brought a flurry of wrecks to Algoa Bay in 1846: the Susan, in March (Captain H Ager) - one body washed up, grimly, a fortnight later; the Mona (Captain P Sayers) on 28 October, the same day as the Palestine (Captain Collier) whose crew members were ill; the following day, 29 October, both the barque Resolution (Captain Clark) and the Sophia, a schooner (Capt Sillands). Reports on these wrecks appeared in the Eastern Province Herald.

BELL

William Bell would have been all too aware of these outward manifestations of the risks taken daily by his colleagues and their ships, not to mention by their passengers. In 1842 the Grahamstown Journal, on the topic of immigration, referred in passing to a wreck which had taken place at Mouille Point on 4 September 1841. The vessel was the British barque Prince Rupert under Captain Ramage. She had been bound for New Zealand from London carrying cargo.

'We direct the careful attention of those interested in the subject of Immigration etc.... The following additions have been made to our population this year by immigrants or discharged soldiers: per Conch, the wrecked passengers ex Prince Rupert, 28 [in number].’

Presumably the passengers were grateful to be conveyed by Bell after their escape from shipwreck. History doesn’t relate who paid him for their passage on Conch. Bell, with a wife and growing family, had to earn a living but recompense for his services was not foremost in his mind when the schooner Conch, after a voyage from Table Bay, lay at anchor in Algoa Bay at the beginning of June 1842. Captain William Bell was about to have his moment of glory and to write his name in the history books.

*Caithness, James Ramsey Death Notice
 KAB MOOC Vol No 6/9/92 Ref 8138 (1860) 

** Grahamstown Journal: Thursday September 14 1843: 'This morning the body of the unfortunate nephew of Capt. Crockley (late of the 'Laura') was picked up and will be buried this afternoon. This makes the fourth body recovered, namely the mate of the 'Laura', one seaman and ?. Also the carpenter of the 'Sea Gull'.
http://www.eggsa.org/newspapers/index.php/grahamstown-journal/71-gj-1843-jul-sep

To read the entire series on Coastal Ships, Mariners and Visitors: Cape 19th c start at the first post:
http://molegenealogy.blogspot.com/2013/06/coastal-ships-mariners-and-visitors.html
and continue in sequence. You could also click on June in the Blog Archive at right and select each separate post in the series.

Thank you for reading! This series has been very popular and there is more to come.

Coastal Ships, Mariners and Visitors: Cape 19th c 5

SOUTH-EAST GALES AT ALGOA BAY

In the 1830s a number of ships were wrecked in Algoa Bay. They included the Kate in 1834 (Captain E Cattell), Cape Breton 1835, and Fee Jee 1837 (Captain W Bewley). All these wrecks were the result of south-easterly gales, a reminder that in the face of on-shore winds, sailing vessels within a harbour were at the mercy of the elements, frequently lost their anchors and were driven ashore. An additional problem was that some ships were in poor condition with rusted cables and other defects.

The 1840s were equally disastrous, reports of shipwrecks in Algoa Bay being a regular feature of the Graham’s Town Journal. Captain James Caithness of the schooner Mary lost his ship in March 1844 during a south-easter on her way back from Mauritius. Her cargo of sugar, rice and dates was saved as were all on board, but Caithness was an unlucky mariner for he also lost the Lady Leith four years later. See:
http://molegenealogy.blogspot.com/2013/06/wreck-of-lady-leith-1848.html

Shipping Intelligence: South
African Commercial Advertiser
16 December 1837
Note mention of Conch and Bell
and numerous other ships.
Click on pic to zoom.

COASTAL MARINERS

Why men like the Caithnesses, Scorey and Bell should choose such an unpredictable and dangerous career as that of mariner along the beautiful but deadly coast of South Africa is an unanswerable question. Perhaps they were born sailors. No matter how skilled and experienced they may have been, they couldn’t control the weather or make the wind blow in the right direction – if it blew at all. Many a ship was wrecked when the wind failed and this is what happened to the Conch in 1847 when she came to grief at Port St Johns. Bell was not in command of the schooner at the time (a Captain W Moses had that dubious honour).

From 1837, when Bell first appears in the records as captain of the Conch, his life was packed with incident and adventure, not to mention domestic events such as marriage in 1838 followed by the baptisms, at regular intervals, of his numerous progeny. It is uncertain how Bell managed to support this brood as a maritime career wasn’t lucrative and was subject to fluctuating circumstances.

EXTERNAL INFLUENCES

Contributing factors were not only the weather and the usual hazards of a coastal mariner’s existence. It’s important to remember that an ancestor did not live in a vacuum. Beyond his private and professional life there was the Big Picture: the backdrop to his own small drama. In Bell’s case, matters beyond his control included the Colony’s economic well-being and the state of trade, politics and Government, and whether there was Peace or War. Since – and indeed before - the arrival of the British immigrants now known collectively as the 1820 Settlers, there had been continual unrest on the Colony’s eastern frontier and this showed no sign of diminishing as that decade, and then the next, passed.

Troops on the Eastern Cape Frontier

Between 1834 and 1835 the Sixth Frontier War was on the boil; hundreds of homesteads were burned and cattle driven away, ruining the Albany settlers’ hopes and chasing them and other refugees into towns. Coastal ships were vital for transporting goods, particularly guns, ammunition and troops, and Bell and fellow mariners frequently carried such cargo. J O Smith and similar agents no doubt found war an excellent business opportunity. Civilians as well as soldiers would rather face an uncomfortable sea voyage than the mountain passes and indigenous tribes of the frontier lands, so there was plenty of work for mariners and their ships.

H G Caithness, as captain of the Fame, was recorded in the Cape Frontier Times, published at Graham’s Town, in November 1840 carrying from Table Bay to Algoa Bay the following passengers: Colonel MacPherson, Captain and Mrs Lonsdale and family, 29 Soldiers, 10 women and 28 children. The rank and file (i.e. ‘29 soldiers’) were as usual not named, though their officers were as was the Captain’s wife. All these would have been part of the military establishment. Considering that the Fame was a schooner, the passage – which in this case took 8 days so the weather can’t have been in their favour - was doubtless an uncomfortable one for the 70 souls packed on board (not including the crew). The responsibility of Caithness as master on such a voyage can be fully appreciated.

The increased volume of shipping at Cape ports would continue during the Seventh Frontier War (the War of the Axe) in 1846-7. Meanwhile, from 1834 the move away from the Cape of about 15,000 Afrikaner frontiersmen, later called the Voortrekkers, was in progress. Bell could not have foreseen how this exodus would impact his own career.

CALM SEAS

William Bell and Conch continued to ply the coastal ports during the early 1840s and it is possible to track their activities by references in local newspapers.

In September 1841 the Cape Frontier Times mentions, ‘Conch schooner, W Bell, (departing) Table Bay 5.9.1841, (arriving) Algoa Bay 7.9.1841 (a remarkably quick run); Passengers: Rev Mr and Mrs Taylor, Mrs Stonelake, Mr and Mrs Ziervogel, Mr Scorey, Mr Matthew, 2 children and 6 in steerage. (Note the habitual omission of names of steerage passengers.) The inclusion of Scorey tells us that Bell apparently wasn’t averse to carrying on board members of his wife’s family: this individual may have been James Scorey, uncle of Mary Ann Bell and master of the schooner Flamingo during the 1820s and early 1830s, though the Cape Government Gazette at the time also referred to other Scoreys, initials S, F and G. It is an unusual surname and they were all likely to have been related.

Schooner

A more important personal event was the birth of William and Mary Ann’s first son, William Douglas Bell (usually called Douglas to avoid confusion with his father); all seemed well on the domestic front. However, the comparatively calm waters in which Bell was then sailing were threatened by some unexpected storms ahead. All of Bell's courage and experience were to be put to the test.



To read from the beginning of this series of posts go to:
http://molegenealogy.blogspot.com/2013/06/coastal-ships-mariners-and-visitors.html

Souvenir Saturday: Bell/Caithness/Scorey

Mary Ann Bell nee Caithness (1820-1899) ca 1860s

Mary Ann Caithness, daughter of James Ramsey Caithness and Ann Scorey, was born at Marchwood, Hampshire, 20 March 1820. She married William Bell at Port Elizabeth 29 June 1838. Their children were Mary Ann Elizabeth Pamela, Douglas William, Ellen Selwyn Sophia (d in infancy), Ellen Harriet, James Colquhoun, Sarah Scott, Sturges Bourne, Eliza Ann, Jessie MacGregor, George John Head, Alfred Thomas Payne, and Alice Millican Bell.

Coastal Ships, Mariners and Visitors: Cape 19th c 3

THE WRECK OF THE THORNE 1831

Table Bay 1834

On Wednesday 18 May 1831 the 251 ton British brig Thorne, a frequent visitor to the Cape, sailed out of Table Bay destined for London with a cargo of colonial produce. When the vessel was near Robben Island, a sudden, dense fog arose making visibility impossible. Shortly afterwards the Thorne struck a rock on the western side of the island. Boats including the Northwester and Messrs Sinclair’s and others were immediately sent out to assist. The Port Captain was first on board the stricken ship but ‘he found the rudder unhung and the water up to the hold-beams’ and there was no hope of saving her.

The following evening, the boat Northwester took off part of the Thorne’s cargo of beef, hides and skins. Mr Sinclair superintended the landing of goods on Robben Island. The passengers’ baggage was saved, as were the passengers and all members of the crew.

A report on the wreck made the front page of the South African Commercial Advertiser on Saturday 21 May, smugly mentioning that the Cape Underwriters could congratulate themselves ‘on their fortunate escape … not a single policy, either on the Thorne or her cargo, was affected at the Cape. The insurance of both was done in England and Calcutta.

The parties insured, however, will have to wait about 12 months for the settlement of their various claims, a fact which speaks most powerfully in favour of Colonial Underwriting.’

It had been a disastrous year for the Thorne. In June 1830, on her way to Table Bay, she had experienced severe gales which had washed away her bulwarks and caused other damage to the ship, forcing her to put in at Plettenburg Bay. At that time she was commanded by William Johnson (or Johnston). The Thorne was not a coastal vessel, but sailed further afield to India, England and Mauritius as well as the Cape ports, carrying a variety of cargo (on the Mauritius to Cape run she carried sugar, from Knysna she carried timber), passengers and mail.

Johnson was still her captain in January 1831 when she made a voyage from Table Bay to Algoa Bay. However, on 25 March of that year, the Thorne arrived in Table Bay under W Poole who had taken over command when Captain Johnson died during the voyage. The South African Commercial Advertiser announced on Saturday 26 March 1831, the death on 21 March, of Mr William Johnston [sic], master of the bark Thorne, aged 30 years.’

Poole continued as captain of the Thorne for the succeeding months and it was under his command that the brig struck the rocks at Robben Island in May 1831.

The press reported that young Poole was ‘plunged into utmost grief and distress of mind; but from all we can collect, it appears no blame attaches to him – the heavy fog and the darkness of the evening assisted perhaps by the current, being the immediate causes of the misfortune.’

Despite Poole’s youth and inexperience as a master, he probably was not responsible for the loss of the Thorne. Fog was a common cause of shipwreck along South Africa’s coastline, vessels running on to islands or reefs, and sometimes into each other. Early 19th c mariners relied on visibility as well as on charts which might not be entirely accurate. Navigation at night was particularly difficult when instrument readings could not be followed up by clear observation of the area, and depending on date there may not have been lighthouses to help delineate hazards.

The Robben Island lighthouse was not in commission until 1865, thirty-four years after the wreck of the Thorne, though Jan van Riebeeck apparently thought it important enough in 1656 to select personally a suitable site on the Island for making signal fires – this was the highest point on Robben Island, known as the Vuurberg, and the present lighthouse stands on the same site.

Robben Island Lighthouse

Archival records held in the Cape and local newspaper reports allow us to track the Thorne in some detail. In February 1828 she left Bombay bound for London; arrived in Simon’s Bay 3 June, left 8 June; with a cargo of sundries and two passengers. The following year she left the Downs (England) bound for Cape Town, arriving Table Bay 13 August, left 28 September; agents were Thomson and Co.; cargo sundries and 1 passenger; brought mail. On 4 May 1830 Thorne left Mauritius bound for Cape Town; arrived at Table Bay 29 Jan, left 3 March.; agents were still Thomson & Co., cargo sugar & passengers; brought a small mail. The significance of these activities, which were all in a normal day's work for this type of ship in the 19th c, becomes clear as we pursue the Thorne’s story.

In June 1830 the vessel was damaged during severe gales. The following year, in March 1831, her captain, Johnson, died at sea, and two months later the Thorne was wrecked. Superstitious mariners might at that stage have described her as an unlucky ship.

However, for me, as well as for other interested descendants, the Thorne has a redeeming feature: she was responsible for the arrival at the Cape of our ancestor William Bell and the start of his career as a mariner in the coastal waters off South Africa.



Thanks to Anita Caithness (family historian, friend and archivist for references to Thorne), Sue MacKay (newspaper transcriber and provider of many Bell and Conch references), Harold Williams (the lighthouse man) and Malcolm Turner (the shipwreck man).

Coastal Ships, Mariners and Visitors: Cape Colony 19th c

A DANGEROUS COAST

On 18 June 1830, the brig Thorne, bound for Table Bay, put in at what was then called ‘Plettenburg’s Bay’ in distress, having suffered ‘considerable damage in her upper works’. The report in the South African Commercial Advertiser mentioned that those on board were in ‘a miserable condition’ but were given assistance by Captain Harker (of Plettenburg’s Bay) whose ‘humanity and kindness’ were highly commended.

Severe weather prevailed along the coast that month, for another vessel, the Usk, arrived in Algoa Bay on 20 June, without her stern-boat and divots; part of her bulwarks had also been carried away.

About a year later the Thorne, a frequent visitor to Table Bay, was wrecked at Robben Island. (We’ll return to her story in due course.)

These incidents and numerous total wrecks are a reminder that the southern coastal waters off Africa could be extremely perilous and though the voyages between ports might be of relatively short duration, mariners needed skill and experience to avoid disaster. Passengers required courage to venture on board sailing vessels of 100 tons or less. Sometimes a successful arrival at a destination was accomplished more by guess than by God, as shown in the circumstances described below.

WILLIAM CORNWALLIS HARRIS

The hunter and traveller William Cornwallis Harris in 1836-37 undertook a ten month expedition from the Cape into the interior and later recorded that he and his companion William Richardson:

'... embarked on 2 July in a small schooner bound for Algoa Bay, one of our fellow-passengers from India accompanying us to the pier, unable to persuade himself, until the boat had fairly pushed off, that we really intended to venture upon a second voyage in such a craft so immediately after the troubles we had undergone. In addition to a mate, a cook, and a Mozambique negro … our crew consisted of three men and a boy; our fellow passengers being two adventurers who occupied the berth opposite to our own in the only cabin, and a tailor with his wife and nine daughters, some marriageable, others at the breast. This unfortunate family, every member of which was sea-sick during the whole voyage, located themselves in the steerage, an apartment about eight feet square, ventilated only by the hatch way.  

The passage up the coast at that season seldom occupies more than three days, but the fates decreeing that our progress should still be opposed, adverse winds had taken the place of the north-wester, which had been blowing without intermission during the preceding six weeks, and which, had it but continued a day longer, would have wafted us to our destination. 

HAZARDS OF COASTAL SAILING

The little vessel was usually gunwale under. Stormy seas breaking over her obliged the tailor to seal up his family hermetically; heavy lurches during the night ejected us from our narrow precincts, and more than once brought my companion and myself into awkward and violent collision, whilst the rolling during the day repeatedly swept the table and deposited the viands in our laps.

Being the whole time within sight of land, no observations were taken, and on the afternoon of the eighth day we entered St Francis’ Bay, in mistake for that of Algoa, not discovering our error until we were about to let go the anchor. The tailor, who had made the voyage before, courageously ascended the mast-head … to make an attempt at recognition and regaining the deck gravely assured us that we were in Plettenburg’s Bay, nearly 2 degrees to the westward.  The chart was produced, and being satisfied that we were close to Cape Recif [sic], a dangerous reef of rocks, we advised the ship to be hove to …. but we contrived to weather the point and having narrowly escaped foundering on the Bird Islands floundered into the harbour of Port Elizabeth’. (i.e. Algoa Bay)

Map shows Algoa Bay

Sable Antelope by Cornwallis Harris

[Extract from Cornwallis Harris’s volume, initially entitled Narrative of an expedition into Southern Africa during the years 1836, and 1837, from the Cape of Good Hope through the territories of the chief Moselekatse, to the Tropic of Capricorn etc.,  later known, more simply, as Wild Sports of Southern Africa. The first edition was illustrated with 26 plates of the author’s beautiful paintings of the local fauna.]