PERICLES and BRILLIANT in Ocean Races

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Anatol
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Joined: Sun Apr 12, 2009 2:13 pm

PERICLES and BRILLIANT in Ocean Races

Post by Anatol » Mon Apr 05, 2021 9:26 pm

PERICLES (1877-1923), 1,598 registered tons, length 259ft 9 in, beam 39ftm 4in, depth 25ft in. Constructed of iron by Duthie & Co, Aberdeen, for George Тhompson's Aberdeen White Star Line. She was one of the last passenger sailing ships built for the Australian trade. Built alongside BRILLIANT, she had a 56ft long poop stretching beyond the mizzen mast. In ten voyages to Sydney the average passage time was was 84 days. After Sydney, in 1882 she went to Calcutta for a cargo of jute for New York, and she made several trips to San Francisco to pick up wheat cargoes. In 1904, she was sold to Norwegian owners who reduced her sail plan and used her for carrying timber to Melbourne. She continued her steady voyaging without incident through World War I with a name change to SJURSO. She was sold to the ship breakers in 1923.
BRILLIANT (1877-1916), 1,613 registered tons, length 254ft 8in, beam 39ft 7in, depth 24ft 2in. Of iron construction built by Duthie & Co, Aberdeen, for J. Duthie, Sons & Co. She had a smart appearance with black sides and with a brass bulwark rails along the length of the ship. Like all Duthie ships she was in the Sydney trade via the Cape of Good Hope and returning around the Horn. The Aberdeen White Star clipper PERICLES was `built in the same yard alongside her and there was an intense rivalry between them. The latter tending to win the outward passages loaded mainly with passengers while BRILLIANT had a full cargo but losing on the return with BRILLIANT loaded with wool. She is listed by Basil Lubbock in "The Colonial Clippers" in Wool Fleet from Sydney between 1877-1890 on five occasions - 1880-81,1885-86, 1887-88, She often however loaded over 8,000bails of wool right up 1904-05 when she was sold to Italian owners and renamed NOSTRA SIGNORA DEL CARMINE. In 1916, bound for Genoa with a cargo of coal from Norfolk, Virginia, she was surprised by a submarine and sunk in the Gulf of Lions after the crew had taken to the boats and towed towards land by the submarine.
BASIL LUBBOCK: "The Colonial Clippers"(excerpt)
“Brilliant " and “Pericles."
«Duthie's Brilliant and Thompson's Pericles we built alongside of each other and launched on the sam tide; and both ships being in the Sydney trade there was naturally great rivalry between them. The two clippers proved to be very evenly matched and it is difficult to award the palm. Pericles usually took emigrants out, Brilliant being loaded deep with general cargo, and they both loaded wool home. The two captains, Davidson of the Brilliant and Largie of Pericles^ usually had a new hat on the result of each passage. Pericles with her light load line generally won the hat going out, but the Brilliant was always very hard to beat on the homeward run, and Captain Davidson, more often than not, got his hat back again.
On her maiden passage Brilliant went out to Sydney in 78 days without clewing up her main royal from the Bay of Biscay to Sydney Heads. Down in the roaring forties she made three consecutive runs of 340, 345 and 338 miles by observation, a performance which I do not think any iron ship has ever beaten. Her best homeward passage was 79 days to the Channel in 1888, but her wool passages were so regular that she was rarely allowed more than 85 days to catch the sales. Brilliant was a specially handsome ship; painted black with a white under-body, and with a brass rail along the whole length of her topgallant bulwarks, she was always the acme of smartness, being known in Sydney as '* Duthie's yacht.*'Taking the average of 16 outward passages under Captain Davidson, we find Brilliant's record to be 85 days, her rival Pericles had an average of 84 days for 10 passages; this was considerably helped by a very fine run of 71 days in 1886.
In 1888 Captain John Henderson took the Pericles for three voyages, leaving her to take the Samuel Plimsol L.He took the Pericles across the Pacific to San Francisco and made three passages home from the Golden Gate with wheat, his first being the best, 110 days to Falmouth. Thompson's sold Pericles to the Norwegians in 1904, whilst Brilliant was sold to the Italians in the following year. Brillianty I believe, was broken up in Genoa about 10 or 12 years ago, but Pericles, until recently at any rate, was still washing about the seas disguised in the usual way as a barque .» The design stamps is made after paintings of Jack Spurling.
Burundi 2020;500f. S. Tome and Principe 2020; Db 25000.
Source: http://www.spurlingandrouxwatercolours. com/mpwc.html. Basil Lubbock: "The Colonial Clippers"
Attachments
Clipper PERICLES.jpg
pericles.jpg
Clipper MS BRILLIANT.jpg
brilliant.jpg

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