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Falstaff | Official Number
70923 |
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Falstaff | Official Number
70923 |
The
Falstaff was the second full-rigged sailing ship built
by the Barrow Shipbuilding Company. She was Yard No.20 and was launched
on the 24th February 1875. She had been built for James Beazley & Sons, of Liverpool. Beazley
was already managing Barrow's first iron sailing ship, the British
Duke,
built the previous month for the British Shipowners Association. The
maiden voyage of the Falstaff was from Liverpool to Sydney, where she
arrived in August 1875, under the command of Captain John Glennie Greig (see Crew List).
The
Falstaff was commanded for one voyage only by
Capt.Thomas Yardley Powles, a well-known sailing ship captain whose
career was discussed by Basil Lubbock in "The Last of the Windjammers".
He left after the voyage noted below, to take command of the new
four-masted barque James Kerr, also owned by Beazley.
The Sydney Morning Herald, Wednesday 4th November 1891, page 6;
" A FAST PASSAGE - The ship Falstaff, belonging to Messrs.James
Beazley and Co., of Liverpool, has recently made the passage between
Iquique and Falmouth in the quick time of 81 days. Captain Powles, the
master, formerly of the John O'Gaunt, has made smart passages on this
route in other vessels of the company, one in 79 days to Queenstown,
and another in 88 days to Falmouth."
Some time soon after this voyage the Falstaff was sold by
Beazley to W.B.Jones, and was registered at Swansea. In 1903 the vessel
was under the command of Capt.Benjamin Phillips, who was lucky to
survive a voyage from London to Melbourne, described below. Despite
being refered to as a barque in this report, shipping registers
continued to describe the Falstaff as ship-rigged.
The Argus, Tuesday 9th June 1903, page 5;
" STORM-BEATEN BARQUE. AN EXCITING ENCOUNTER.
Another woeful tale of fierce gales and heavy seas was related by Captain Phillips of the British barque Falstaff,
upon the arrival of that vessel in Hobson's Bay last evening. She bore
unmistakeable signs of having passed through a severe ordeal, but,
although she sustained considerable damage on deck, her crew were all
in good health and spirits. The troubles of the vessel began and ended
in the English Channel, where she was beset for nearly four weeks by
fearful gales. She was throughout this period tossed about as if she
had been a cork, prodigous seas meanwhile rushing all over her, and
either carrying away or breaking everything of a movable nature on
deck. Several times it appeared as if the ship would succumb to the
almost overwhelming seas which visited her, and on these occasions the
master and his officers and crew were naturally filled with grave
anxiety. The climax was reached when a sea of mountainous proportions
thundered down on board, and threatened to engulf the vessel. For a
minute the barque seemed unable to cope with this onslaught, but
eventually she shook herself free of her enormous load. The captain and
second officer were together on the poop when the seas burst on board,
and it was entirely due to good fortune that they were not carried away
or injured. A lifeboat was lifted out of the davits and carried away,
whilst one of the davits was snapped asunder as cleanly as if it had
been a carrot, and disappeared over the side. This davit, which was
composed of solid iron, measured between 16 in. and 17 in. in
circumference at the spot where it was broken, and it seemed almost
incredible that the weight of water alone could have caused its
destruction. Captain Phillips states that the storm was the most severe
that he ever remembers, and he considers that the barque was lucky in
emerging from the ordeal without suffering much greater injury.
The Falstaff is built of iron, and was a famous
clipper in her best days. Recollections of the times when pirates were
a menace to merchantmen are recalled by a row of antiquated
'hammerlock' rifles, which can still be seen in the cabin. The warlike
character of the barque is increased by a couple of equally obsolete
'brass cannon guns,' but these, says Captain Phillips, are stowed away
in the sail locker, together with a score or more cutlasses, which have
grown as rusty as old hoop-iron, but which were once kept bright and
ready to hand for an emergency. Captain Phillips, who is well known in
Sydney and Newcastle, is visiting Melbourne for the first time. He
states that the Falstaff left London on the 16th February."
By 1905 the Falstaff was being used as
a coal hulk at Callao, and was owned by the Pacific Steam Navigation
Company. Together with the grounded hulls of two other sailing ships,
the Hipparchus and the County of Peebles, the hull of the Falstaff today forms a breakwater at Punta Arenas, Chile.
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