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. From 1897 she was owned by W. Lowden & Company, also of Liverpool.

On the 21st August 1876 the Thirlmere arrived at Sydney from London under the command of Capt.James Hewley (see Source 12).

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 collisison. Capt.Smith was asked to resign by the vessel's owners when he returned to the UK (see Source 13).

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 (see Source 14).

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.

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 (see Sources 6 and 7).
 

Sources :

1. Lloyds Register of Shipping 1877
2. "Last of the Windjammers" Vol. 2 by Basil Lubbock (1927)
3. "Shipbuilding in Whitehaven - A Checklist" by Harry Fancy, Whitehaven Museum (1984)
4. There is a photo of this ship under full sail in the Picture Catalogue of the State Library of Victoria
5. There is a photo of the Thirlmere's deck whilst under construction in "Whitehaven - an Illustrated History" by Daniel Hay, published by Michael Moon (1979), ISBN 0-904131-21-1
6. Encyclopedia of Australian Shipwrecks - gives place of wreck as Canal, Chile.
7. Norwegian Shipping History Society
8. Photo 1 and Photo 2 of Thirlmere available at the San Francisco Public Library.
9. Mystic Seaport Library Ship Register Search has shipping register details from 1875 to 1900.
10. Record of American and Foreign Shipping, 1885 - names master as Capt.Smith.
11. Record of American and Foreign Shipping, 1900 - names master as Capt.Timothy.
12. Mariners and ships in Australian Waters - Thirlmere (crew list)
13. Supreme Court of the United States - O'Brien vs.Miller. Collision also reported in the Times (Thursday, 13th Nov.1884, page 7 and Sat., 15th Nov.1884, page 10), and in the New York Times, 14th November, 1884, page 2.
14. Court case Smith vs. Labouchere reported in The New York Times, Weds., 13th March 1887, page 7, and the Times, Sat., 12th March 1887, page 5.