Elbe 1887

The full index of our ship stamp archive
Post Reply
shipstamps
Posts: 0
Joined: Fri Mar 13, 2009 8:12 pm

Elbe 1887

Post by shipstamps » Sat Sep 06, 2008 10:20 am

British full rigger ELBE of the Nourse Line of London.
Built as an iron ship under yard No 172 by Russell & Co., Port Glasgow for the Nourse Line, London.
21 June 1887 launched under the name ELBE.
Tonnage 1.693 gross, 1.616 net, 2.350dwt., dim. 257.0 x 38.2 x 23.1ft., draught 21.0ft. Ship rigged.
The Nourse Line was trading between the U.K and Calcutta and return voyages with coolies mostly to the West Indies.
1896 She grounded when under tow from London to Liverpool at Bembridge.
19 May 1897 transferred to C.A. Hampton and E. Bromehead, London.
20 March 1903 sold to James Nourse Ltd., London.
December 1907 sold for £5.660 to Cie. Gen. Transatlantique, Paris, France and dismantled.
The Fiji Post Leaflet gives:

Recruitment of Indian labourers for Fiji’s sugar cane fields began in 1879 concentrating on north-east India.
One of the ships involved in bringing these immigrants to Fiji was the ELBE, which sailed from Calcutta to Fiji in 1896 and 1900, carrying approximately 600 emigrants on each voyage. In 1903, recruitment from Madras in Southern India began and the first group was transported on the ELBE.
Most were Tamil speakers but other languages such as Telegu and Malayalam were also represented. Conditions on board were good for the time with regular nutritious food, plenty of exercise and an onboard hospital, and as a result there was an average mortality of less than one percent.
(The ELBE was) named after the longest river in Germany, the ELBE was a three-masted sailing ship built in Glasgow in 1887.

Auke Palmhof

Source: Nourse Line by Perry and Laxon. http://www.merchantnavyofficers.com/nourse.html
Attachments
Elbe.jpg

Post Reply