Engineering:Lalla Rookh (1848 ship)

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Short description: 1848 Scottish built clipper

Lalla Rookh (1848 ship)
History
Name: Lalla Rookh
Port of registry: ?, Sydney
Route: Australasia, East Indies, Pacific
Builder: Peterhead, Aberdeenshire
Launched: 1848
Fate: Broken up 1898 in Sydney.
General characteristics
Class and type: Brig
Length: 98 feet (30 m)
Draft: 12.2 feet (3.7 m)

Lalla Rookh was a clipper/brig variously recorded as 184 tons[1] and 147 tons,[2] built in Peterhead, Aberdeenshire, Scotland in 1848. She was described as one of the "new Aberdeen clippers".[3]

She took settlers to the colony of Natal (now part of South Africa) in 65 days, the fastest passage thus far achieved.[3] She was used for trading among the Australian colonies, including several journeys between Port Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney and Newcastle, New South Wales.[4]

She left Deal, Kent under Captain Henderson for Port Natal on 24 February 1849.[5]

Lalla Rookh, described as a 155/6-ton brig, was recorded under Captain P. Milner arriving from Mauritius in January 1850,[6] is subsequently mentioned in several shipping reports in New South Wales and Victoria until late 1852[7][8][9] and in 1853 under Captain Twomey (one to Wellington, New Zealand).[10][11] A few passengers are listed for all of these voyages.

In October 1856 she sailed from Sydney in ballast (empty of cargo) to Calcutta under Captain Orr,[12] and is shown arriving from Calcutta on 2 March 1857,[13] with goods including patna rice.[14] She traded the East Indies, Mauritius and West Coast(?) for a period, the ship was advertised for sale in the Geelong Advertiser in May 1859, after having been overhauled, refitted and recoppered. Her tonnage at this time was "184 tons register, 270 burden".[1]

She departed for Fiji in October 1859,[15] and is recorded as arriving in Hobson's Bay, Melbourne, in April 1860.[16] On 19 November 1860 the brig, sailing under a New Zealand flag, was driven ashore and damaged at Port Albert, Victoria, on a voyage from Wellington to Melbourne, but was able to be refloated.[17][lower-alpha 1]

In May 1865 she left Sydney for the South Sea Islands,[18] and in December 1868 for New Caledonia.[19]

According to the Australasian Underwater Cultural Heritage Database (AUCHD), after catching fire on 30 November 1897, Lalla Rookh (then registered in Sydney) was broken up in 1898 at Kerosene Bay (now Balls Head Bay) in Sydney Harbour. The AUCHD record describes her as a 147-ton brig, 29.9 metres (98 ft) long.[2] However, in April 1898 Lalla Rookh was reported as having sunk in 25 feet (7.6 m) of water after striking a dolphin near the head of Darling Harbour. Before this she had been used as a lighter in the coal trade up and down the coast, owned by a Mr Byrnes. Her tonnage was reported as 220 tons in this report.[20]

Footnotes

  1. See also List of shipwrecks in November 1860.

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 "Advertising". Geelong Advertiser (Victoria, Australia) (3,955): p. 4. 25 May 1859. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article150078655. 
  2. 2.0 2.1 "View Shipwreck - Lalla Rookh". Australian Government. Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment.. http://www.environment.gov.au/shipwreck/public/wreck/wreck.do?key=1058.  (Creative Commons 4.0 International licence.)
  3. 3.0 3.1 Hattersley, Alan F. (2009). The British Settlement of Natal: A Study in Imperial Migration. Cambridge University Press. p. 102. ISBN 978-0-521-05232-0. https://books.google.com/books?id=8cyxmU9gESkC. Retrieved 23 January 2021. 
  4. "Lalla Rookh". 21 January 2016. https://passengers.history.sa.gov.au/node/930006. 
  5. "Shipping Intelligence: East India shipping". Caledonian Mercury (Edinburgh, Scotland) (19863). 1 March 1849. 
  6. "Shipping Intelligence". The Argus (Melbourne) II (269): p. 2. 17 January 1850. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article4770390. 
  7. "Shipping intelligence". Empire (272): p. 2. 27 November 1851. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article60125653. 
  8. "Newcastle shipping". The Maitland Mercury and Hunter River General Advertiser (New South Wales, Australia) X (840): p. 2. 21 July 1852. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article666574. 
  9. "Departures". Empire (552): p. 2. 19 October 1852. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article60132300. 
  10. "Clearance". Empire (705): p. 2. 15 April 1853. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article61323366. 
  11. "Clearances". The Sydney Morning Herald XXXIV (5137): p. 2. 7 November 1853. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article12950162. 
  12. "Clearances". Empire (New South Wales, Australia) (1798): p. 4. 11 October 1856. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article64977943. 
  13. "Shipping intelligence". Ovens and Murray Advertiser (Victoria, Australia) (209): p. 2. 17 March 1857. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article113014495. 
  14. "Mercantile and money article". The Sydney Morning Herald (New South Wales, Australia) XXXVIII (5879): p. 4. 9 April 1857. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article12994006. 
  15. "Departures—October 22". Empire (New South Wales, Australia) (2,520): p. 4. 24 October 1859. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article64091861. 
  16. "Hobson's Bay". Geelong Advertiser (Victoria, Australia) (4,218): p. 2. 4 April 1860. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article148789914. 
  17. "Shipping Intelligence". Morning Chronicle (London) (29341). 23 January 1861. 
  18. "Projected departures—May 18". The Sydney Morning Herald (New South Wales, Australia) LI (8420): p. 4. 18 May 1865. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article31124479. 
  19. "Departures—December 14". Empire (New South Wales, Australia) (5325): p. 2. 16 December 1868. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article60830147. 
  20. "Sinking of the brig Lalla Rookh". The Daily Telegraph (Sydney) (5866): p. 9. 7 April 1898. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article238378860.