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Thirlmere | Official Number
70841 |
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Thirlmere | Official Number
70841 |
The Thirlmere was an iron full-rigged ship built by the Whitehaven
Shipbuilding Company in May 1874. Her first owners were Fisher & Sprott
of Liverpool.
On the 21st August 1876 the Thirlmere arrived at Sydney from London under the command of Capt.James Hewley.
Capt.Smith was appointed to the Thirlmere in October 1883 and took her with 34 crew and 38 passengers from the UK to Sydney. On the return voyage, the Thirlmere sailed first for San Francisco, then for Queenstown. On the 20th October 1884, off the the Brazilian coast, the Thirlmere collided with the Andrew Johnson, an American ship. The Andrew Johnson, which was was bound from Iquique and Caleta Buena to Hamburg with a cargo of nitrate of soda, sank within three minutes of the collision, with the loss of 17 of her crew. The remaining 11 crew were taken aboard the Thirlmere and landed at Pernambuco on the 12th November. The Thirlmere herself was seriously damaged. The collision happened in the early evening and the Thirlmere had not yet lit her navigation lights. Required to avoid the American ship, the Thirlmere had answered her helm late and struck the Andrew Johnson. The Thirlmere was adjudged to have been wholly responsible for the collision. Capt.Smith was asked to resign by the vessel's owners when he returned to the UK.
When the accounts of the voyage were audited on behalf of the shareholders in the company that owned the Thirlmere, there was some dismay at the amount of wines and spirits consumed by the captain and crew. This accusation, first published in Cumberland newspapers, was subsequently repeated by Henry Labouchere, M.P., in his journal "Truth" (on 12th August 1886), where it was stated that the Thirlmere was a "floating grog shop" and that Capt.Smith's drunkeness was responsible for the collision. Capt.Smith subsequently received $2,000 damages from Henry Labouchere for the libel.
There is a reference in "Last of the Windjammers" to a race between
Thirlmere
and Lynton from Calcutta to Philadelphia in 1895. The Lynton
made the passage in 94 days, and the Thirlmere took one day
more.
From 1897 the Thirlmere was was owned by W.Lowden & Company, also of Liverpool.
The Thirlmere was renamed Irmgard when sold to owners
in Larvik, Norway in 1905. Bound from Streaky Bay, South Australia, to
Falmouth with 30,000 bags of wheat, she was wrecked at Corral, Chile, on
the 26th June, 1910.
The Sydney Morning Herald, Friday 1st July 1910, page 7:
" SHIP IRMGARD WRECKED -
WHEAT CARGO LOST - THE CREW SAVED - The Sydney Marine Underwriters' and
Salvage Association has received news that the ship Irmgard, which
left Streaky Bay, South Australia, for the Channel on April 30 with a
cargo of 30,003 bags of wheat, has become a total wreck at Corral, on
the west coast of South America. The crew were saved. The Irmgard is a
Norwegian ship of 1652 tons register. She was built in 1874 by the
Whitehaven Ship-building Company at Whitehaven, and was formerly
known as the Thirlmere. Her principal dimensions were: Length 206ft,
breadth 39ft 1 in, and depth 23ft 1 in. At the time of the loss the
vessel was owned by Hansen and Andersen, of Laurvig, Norway. The
Irmgard, when leaving South Australia, was in command of Captain Olsen,
who had just brought the vessel across from Buenos Ayres. The wheat was
shipped by Messrs. James Bell and Co. "
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