Readers Questions Answered

Question No 1. Mr. David Thomson of Southport Queensland Australia writes, did any of the Blue Anchor line ships avoid the Cape of Good Hope by using the Suez Canal on their way to Australia and did they carry enough coal for the journey?

Answer Question 1, Yes only a small number of his ships came via the Suez Canal which were packed with cargo which required each ship to take on coal after leaving London at Las Palmas, Aden,  and at Diego Garcia after Lund had established a coaling station there, then at Adelaide. This enabled his ships to carry more cargo by reducing the coal capacity, the voyage from London to Adelaide via the Cape was 11,780 nautical miles and via the Suez 11,100 miles a saving of 688miles or 5.8% of the voyage. William Lund was a very astute business man and knew that the Suez Canal shortened the routes to India  and Australia which meant that a greater volume of shipping were using these routes and all requiring coal along the way. In 1881 the H.M.S ECLIPSE visited the island of Dieago Garcia in the Indian Ocean to survey the island for use as a coaling station for steamships operating from the Suez Canal to Australia. Prior to this the Lund steamer Delcomyn in January 1881 on a voyage to Australia visited the island and reported its suitability as a coaling station back to Lund in London. William Lund obviously must have got wind that the British Government was interested in the island and decided to move quickly (he was at the time secretary of Lloyds). He immediately negotiated a 50 year lease with the British Crown Colony of the island of Mauritius who administered Dieago Garcia and gained a section of the island in order to set up a coaling station.

           DIEAGO GARCIA CENTRAL INDIAN OCEAN IDEAL SPOT TO COAL SHIPS TO THE FAR EAST.

                                                THE ACTUAL LAGOON OF DIEAGO GARCIA.
Lund had the following letter published in every major newspaper through his agents advertising his new coaling enterprise.

Dear Sir,- I notice in Lloyds list of yesterday a description of this island and for the information of your committee and members, I wish to give you a few more details.
In January, 1881 the 'Delcomyn" on her voyage from London to Australia, visited the island and found the harbor all that is now described by the Orient Steam Navigation Company. In July 1881 I dispatched the barque "Eleanor," with coals from London direct to the island, where she arrived on October 30th, and there and then established the first coaling depot on that island, under the superintendence of Mr. George Worsell, who has been in my employ since 1874. H.M.S. "Ready" was supplied with the first coal by me at Dieago Garcia on October 31st 1881, and was the first ship that ever coaled there. On January 16,1882, I further dispatched the barque "Talavera", also from London with coals arriving there on May 10,and both these vessels are now stationed at East Point as store ships, and connected with the shore by a landing stage. Since then the "Northam Castle" and
"Mary Fry" have arrived out on June 6th and September29th respectfully, and with the ship "Superb" from Cardiff (on August 26) on the way I shall have a stock of about 4,000 tons of coal to supply my own, as well as other boats in the Australian trade.
Like Eastern and middle islands, held by the Orient Steam Navigation Company, so has Western Island, which command the entrance to the harbor, been leased to me by the Mauritius Government for fifty years, and as the deep water channel enters close by this island, I have erected a flagstaff on it for the guidance of ships masters (a large Blue Anchor Line flag was flown). Although the surf rolls very heavily at times, there is no danger whatever in entering the harbor, after which Mr. Worsell has placed buoys, at intervals, as far as East Point; and on entering, should keep the buoys on the starboard side all the way. The distance from West Island to East Point is from 7to 8miles, and in proof of the easy progress up the harbor, I would mention that the sailing ship "Northam Castle" beat against a South East Monsoon in 11 tacks from West Island to East Point. Ballast is plentiful and easy worked by the iron lighters and good  fresh water and fish is abundant. The climate is healthy, and hurricanes are not known. 
The following steamers have coaled at East Point coaling depot:- "Delcomyn "5 times, "Yeoman", "Sorrento", "Woden", "Catania", and "H.M.S. Ready"; and the following steamers have received coaling orders:- "Gulf of Carpentaria," "Europa," "Glendower," Glen Ochill Explorer," Sikh," "Afgan," "Gulf of Suez," and "Essex."
Am willing to give you any information,
Dear Sir,
Yours Truly,
W. Lund
The secretary for Lloyds.

This letter appeared in the Australian Newspapers on January 4th 1883.. 

                    LUND'S FIRST COALING SHIP AT DIEAGO GARCIA THE ELEANOR .

                       LUND'S SECOND COALING SHIP AT DIEAGO GARCIA THE TALAVERA.

The Orient Steam Navigation Company set up its own coaling station after W.Lund owing to the fact they were having to many disputes at the Aden coaling station and were running 12 steamers via the Suez canal to Australia and could not afford hold ups to their sailing schedules.

                                          SOME BREVITIES FROM DIEAGO GARCIA.
October 29th 1883, The Orient steamer Lusitania puts in for coal. However, so many of the labourers of the Orient Company were absent and refused to do extra work even with the enticement of more

money. James Spur (Manager) for the Orient Company had to hire labourers from the rival company Lund&Company.  

1883 Labourers at the East Point coconut plantation, armed with knives and clubs staged an insurrection, which was put down by Mr. Le Comte (manager) by brandishing his revolver. Mr. Le Comte blamed the 45 labourers working for the Lund Company as the cause of the trouble since they were "without women and made overtures to the women of the plantation workers.

1884 Captain Raymond, of the sailing ship Windsor Castle, which had arrived with 1,334 tons of  coal for the Lund depot, gets drunk, lands at East Point with 16 armed sailors, takes pot shots at what he thought was Spurs house (Manager for the Orient coaling depot), the house was unoccupied at the time. He nailed the Union Jack to a palm tree and claims the (already British Island) for Great Britain. Two days later he sobers up and sails away.

   
                                                                      WINDSOR CASTLE.
William Lund was heavily entrenched in the coal industry and was the Director and Chairman of the Wallarah Coal Company of New South Wales with the head office in Pitt Street Sydney. Even as late 1909 the year the Waratah was lost , he purchased two barques  for the company these being the iron barque Fortuna of 1,965 tons. The second Barque was the Macquarie which cost 3500 pounds.

 
                                                                       THE FORTUNA.

                                       
                                                                   THE MACQUARIE.

Readers questions answered.

Question No 1, Mr. Mark Dreyfus of Elizabeth  South Australia writes, that after reading  blogs on the Waratah, he wanted to know if it was it weak rivets that snapped under stress after the Waratah grounded at Adelaide and was her circumstances similar to that of the R.M.S Titanic as mentioned in the blogs, rivets (may) have snapped, creating a zipper-type effect where a seam of rivets snap successively between hull plates, opening up a gash in a force driven domino effect? 

Answer Q 1, No this is only supposition by the writer who tends to compare what happened to the Titanic in her construction and the subsequent collision with an iceberg by which he assumes a similar effect could have occurred with the Waratah. To compare the Titanic or any other ship with their own set of dimensions or even their problems to that of the Waratah is incorrect, the Waratah was a ship  specifically designed by her owners for a particular trade route and therefore must be treated independently when investigating her demise.

                        R.M.S. Titanic there is no comparison to the much smaller Waratah.

It is now known that the Titanic's steel plates were brittle and cracked easily in ice cold water under impact. There was also a shortage of steel rivets (some 3,000 000 million were required weighing about 1,500 tons), so a lower grade of wrought iron was used to make up the shortage, these rivets proved under impact much more brittle than the ships plates. The difference between the building of the Titanic and the Waratah was that the Titanic was not under Lloyds rules but the British Board of trade rules and therefore was never classified 100A1plus with Lloyds. The Waratah was built under Lloyds survey and every stage of her construction was monitored by a Lloyds surveyor. Any ship being built that required a Lloyds classification, had to use materials from steel mills  which was then tested on site and approved by a Lloyds surveyor,(in this case SIEMENS-MARTIN mild steel was used).   

                      EXTRACTS FROM LLOYDS RULES REGARDING MATERIALS.

                                         

HULL RIVETS

THE TIMES LONDON

                                                                  

With regards to the Waratah grounding at Adelaide she had no forward motion whatsoever and was secured to the wharf while loading cargo, she was heeling to starboard slightly but still had floatation, it was noticed that  her bilge keel was touching the bottom which consisted of soft mud. Captain Ilbery was not happy with situation that his ship would have to sit on a mud bottom due  to the fact he had to take in a great deal of more cargo. He insisted that his ship be taken to the Outer Harbour Wharf which was a much deeper berth allowing him to complete his loading there and  to sail on completion rather than being stuck in the mud at Ocean Steamers Wharf, were he would be forced to wait for a spring tide to float the Waratah off which would result in putting him behind in his schedule. On the 4th of July 2017 I wrote an article (Waratah Arrives At Adelaide) dealing in part with the ship touching the mud at her berth.

              LARGE STEAMERS AT THE DEEP OUTER HARBOUR WHARF ADELAIDE.

              WARATAH  UP RIVER AT THE  OCEAN STEAMERS WHARF PORT ADELAIDE