Built as an iron cargo-passenger vessel by Palmer’s Shipbuilding and Iron Co. Ltd., Jarrow, Newcastle-on-Tyne under supervision of Capt. Hutton for George.W. Nicoll, Sydney.
August 1884 Launched under the name JANET NICOLL.
Tonnage 779.3 gross, 496.3 net., dim. 184 x 29.2 x 13.8ft.
Powered by one compound steam engines 90 nhp. (430 ihp.), maximum speed 9½ knots. Coal consumption nine ton a day.
One deck, schooner rigged.
Passenger accommodation 16 saloon and 10 second class. Her saloon was neatly fitted up with bird’s eye maple, teak and mahogany woodwork.
She was ordered for the northern rivers trade in New South Wales, Australia, but the Nicoll brothers traded also with Fiji, that the JANET NICOLL was more often used in the trade in the South Pacific.
After 1890 till 1903 was she constantly employed in the South Seas trade.
Mrs. R.L.Stevenson cruised among the islands in the ship in 1890 and made the trip the basis of her book “The Cruise of the Janet Nicholl” published in 1915.
03 Sept. 1887 stranded at Oamaru, New Zealand under command of Capt. Robert G.Hutton, refloated with minor damage.
May 1890 sold to H.W. Henderson & MacFarlane, registered at Auckland.
Dec. 1890 sold to Union SS Co. of New Zealand, registered at Dunedin.
1903 Sold to Koe Guan & Co. at Penang.
1907 Transferred to Eastern Shipping Co. Ltd. Penang.
On a voyage from Penang to Moulmein she was lost on the easterly tip of the Kopah inlet, Siam (Thailand) about 300 miles north of Penang on 10 May 1914.
On the left of the stamp is depict a stick chart, which was presented to Stevenson by King Kabua when he visited in 1890 the islands.
Stick chart were used by the Marshall Island people in various size and shape, and used to teach navigation by the more experienced mariners of the Group. The stick chart gives wave and wind patterns in relation to the islands and atolls of the Group.
The stamp is designed by William R Hanson after photo’s taken by the Stevenson party.
Marshall Islands 1988 25c sg 181.
Source. A Century of Style by N.H.Brewer. Australian Coastal Passenger Ships by Ronald Parsons. Timaru Herald 1887.