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Centesima
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Official Number
95403 |
The Centesima was a four-masted steel barque, launched
from the
Workington shipyard of R.Williamson & Son in September 1893. She
was the 100th vessel built by the Williamsons, explaining her name. She
loaded her first cargo, of coal, at Newport the following month, and
then departed for Bombay on the 7th November, under the command of
Capt.Thomas Brown Peters. She left Bombay for Amsterdam on 6th June the
following year, and by December had arrived at Philadelphia. Like her
sister ship Iranian, she was operated
by her builders.
On the 25th May 1896 the Centesima berthed at Dundee, having
brought a cargo of 21,750 bales of jute from Calcutta. She had departed
on the 17th January, endured a three day cyclone, and then on the 1st
February, the death of her master, Capt.Mundle, of an apoplectic shock.
He was a native of the Isle of Man, a resident of Liverpool and had had
his wife and daughter aboard. He was buried at sea, and the first mate,
Charles Torrible, took command for the rest of the voyage.
The next voyage for the Centesima was to San Francisco. She
loaded 2000 tons of pig iron and a large amount of marble and other
goods at Dundee, then went to Newcastle-on-Tyne to be loaded up
with coke. She made the run to San Franciso in 145 days, arriving in
early December 1896. Whilst under tow and in the charge of a pilot, the
vessel grounded on the Potato Patch, outside the bar of San Francisco
bay. Badly damaged and leaking, she was beached on mud flats to unload
her 4200 tons of cargo in to lighters, and was then put into dry dock
for repair. The vessel eventually returned to Liverpool (arrived 25th
February 1898), then made a voyage to New York (arrived 20th April
1898). By this time the Centesima was under the command of Captain J.Webster, previously of the Iranian.
She departed New York on the 31st May 1898 with a cargo of 51,700 cases
of kerosene, 845 barrels of
plaster, 5 tons of pig iron and 1746 reels of barbed wire. When she
arrived at Melbourne on the 10th September the local newspaper
described her as "the largest sailer, along with the Liverpool,
that had ever been seen in these waters" and stated that she could cary an "immense cargo". The Centesima went
to Newcastle, NSW, in ballast, and there loaded a cargo of 4480 tons of
coal. She sailed for San Francisco on the 29th November 1898, and
arrived there on the 19th February 1899. Whilst at her berth a month
later, the coal was found to have ignited, but the fire was quickly
extinguished. She had also struck a rock coming into the port, and had
a long delay before she was able to depart, as descibed in the
following report:
From the Sausalito News, 26th August 1899 :
" Centesima Sails for Liverpool - The British ship Centesima was
longer in port than any vessel that has come here of late. She struck
on Centesima Rock comlng in and had to be repaired. This was in
February last, and when she was fixed up she was taken to Sausalito and
lay here until she was chartered. Last Tuesday she sailed for Liverpool
with one of the largest and most valuable cargoes that has left this
port in many a day. She is 2796 tons net burden, and took away nearly
5000 tons of merchandise. The canned goods in the cargo would make a
good load for an ordinary sized vessel, while the remainder of the
goods would fill another vessel. Among her cargo she had 111,550 cases
of canned fruit, 7065 cases of canned salmon, 1260 cases of canned
apricots and 268 cases canned asparagus. The bulk of these goods went
to Liverpool, but there were consignments also for London, Belfast,
Manchester, Edinburgh and Glasgow. Besides these the Centesima carries
1099 centals of barley, 3600 barrels of flour, 11,221 centals of
wheat and a lot of breadstuffs, tallow, wine and cotton of the value of
$410,023. Everything in the cargo except the cotton was the product
of the Pacific Coast. "
In 1901 the
barque was purchased by the Visurgis Shipping Company, of Bremen, who gave her the new name, Nauarchos. The vessel sailed for eight more years until
she suffered a fire at Antofagasta in 1909 and was hulked.
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Name
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Year Built
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Gross Tons
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Length (feet)
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Breadth (feet)
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Depth (feet)
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Masts
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Figurehead
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Stern
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Lloyd's Classn.
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Centesima
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1893
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2949
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308.0
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46.2
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25.8
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4
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100 years A1, Special Survey
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Sources :
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The
Maritime History Virtual Archives
- Voyages in her early career from newspaper shipping intelligence reports. For Australian newspaper reports, see National Library of Australia website, and for reports from San Francisco see the California Digital Newspaper Collection website.
- Lloyd's Register of Shipping 1896-7: Centesima, steel
4-masted barque, 2949 grt, official no.95403, signal letters NFBL,
owned by R.Williamson & Son, registered at Workington, master
Capt.J.Webster.
- "Eventful Voyage of a Calcutta Liner" from the Dundee Courier and Argus, Monday, 26th May 1896, page 4.
- "Within an Ace of Total Loss" from the San Francisco Call, 15th December 1896.
- Lloyd's Register of Shipping 1898-9: Centesima, same data as 1897.
- Sale reported in the Sydney Morning Herald, 19th August 1901.