Built by the yard of Short Bross, Sunderland for John Patton Jr.& Co., London.
Launched as the HESPERIDES.
Tonnage 1,401 grt, 1,338 net, dim. 236,7 x 37.8 x 22.6ft.
Ship rigged.
1876 Delivered.
After delivery she made first two voyages to Australia under command of Captain Morris Upton with cargo and emigrants. She was chartered by the Government of South Australia.
13 May 1875 she left from Plymouth with on board cargo and 396 emigrants and a crew of 47, bound for Adelaide, Australia.
Captain Upton stayed on board till1887.
She was mostly used under his command in the eastern trade, took jute to New York or coolies to Demerara and Trinidad.
1887 Command was taken over by Captain R.S. Waron.
Around 1889 was she sold to J. Stewart & Co., London, not renamed.
Her fastest voyage she made in 1896 when she under command of Captain J, Watson left Frederickstadt, Norway on 23 October 1896 loaded with timber, her Norway pilot was landed in Brixham, U.K. on 1 November, she met bad weather in the North Sea.
19 December she rounded Cape of Good Hope.
15 January she arrived off Cape Otway and the next day she came at anchor inside the Heads off Melbourne, the passage from Frederickstadt she made in 85 days.
1899 She made under captain P.S. Young a voyage from Sydney to Island of Wight in 89 days.
1904 She was sold to Norway, can not find where.
1910 Disappears from the registers. Fate unknown.
Tristan da Cunha 1998 45p sg645, scott626.
Source: Lloyds Registers. The Last of the Windjammers by Basil Lubbock.
http://www.plymouthdata.info/Emigration-1875.htm gives:
The following account of the sailing from Plymouth of the "Hesperides" on Friday May 14th 1875 has been transcribed in full from the "Western Morning News". As usual with newspaper reports in those days the text was not paragraphed but has been here to help make it easier to comprehend.
DEPARTURE OF EMIGRANTS FROM PLYMOUTH
A large company of emigrants for Australia left Plymouth yesterday on board the Hesperides, a very fine newly-built ship, of 1,330 tons register, classed 100 A 1 (the highest class) at Lloyd's, commanded by Captain Upton.
The Hesperides is the property of Messrs John Patton, jun., and Co., of White Lion Court, London, and is chartered by the Government of South Australia to take out emigrants to Adelaide. She is a full-rigged iron vessel, built by Messrs Short Brothers, of Sunderland, from whose yard she was launched but a few weeks ago. She is constructed on a very fine model, and it is believed will be a very fast sailer.
For the last fortnight the Hesperides, having previously taken in a general cargo at London, has been lying in Plymouth Sound fitting for her living freight, under the superintendence of Mr. T. F. Smith, the dispatching officer for the Agent-General of the Colony.
The married quarters 'tween decks are fitted with the portable folding berths, for which Mr Johnson, of 38, Canton-street, London, E., is patentee, and a detailed description of which appeared some months ago in the Western Morning News. On Mr Johnson's system, it may be remembered, the berths are arranged fore and aft, and a constant current is air is supplied to them; while at the same time each married couple have, as it were, a cabin to themselves, and the strictest privacy is secured. The whole 'tween decks is unusually high, and the arrangements for the cleanliness and health of the inmates have been most carefully carried out.
Indeed, Captain Stoll, R.N., the Government emigration officer, after making his final inspection, expressed the most perfect satisfaction with the ship, and said that he had never seen one better fitted out for the conveyance of emigrants. The emigrants consist of persons who have assisted or free passages, and many of them have been selected by the Plymouth agents, Messrs W. T. Weekes and Co., from the counties of Devon and Cornwall.
The emigrants number in all 396. There are 38 married couples, 146 single men, 121 single women, 17 boys under 12, 26 girls under 12, and 10 infants. They are under the medical charge of Dr. Blood, surgeon-superintendent of the ship. An excellent matron has been found for the single women's department in Mrs Rogers, who has now started her eighteenth voyage in this capacity.
Captain Upton has under his command a promising crew of forty-seven men. He is in great hope of making the passage to Adelaide in seventy days. To accomplish this, however, it will be necessary that he should have more wind than accompanied the starting of the ship.
At half-past one yesterday afternoon the anchor was hove up, the sailors accompanying their work with the usual merry chorus, and the Volunteer tug towed the Hesperides as far as the Eddystone, a party of visitors accompanying the captain on his voyage to that distance, after experiencing the hospitality of the chief owner, Mr. Patton, jun., in the magnificent saloon with which the Hesperides is furnished.
The body of emigrants seemed in uncommonly good spirits, and they appeared already to be falling into their nautical mode of life. If truth must be told, there was not quite so much gazing after the receding shores of Old England as is popularly connected with the departure of an emigrant vessel; but in many cases persons were looking forward to joining friends who have already settled in the colony.
Many of the girls were already busying themselves with needlework as they sat on deck in the pleasant sunshine; and in connection with this occupation it is worthy of note that £138 from the Kelsall Emigration Charity has been distributed among the party by Mr. W. T. Weekes, thus enabling them before starting to lay in a stock of clothing material, of which some stood in absolute need. They will have plenty of time to make it up in their seventy days' passage.
As the vessel passed out of port the Achilles, which is now lying inside the Breakwater, gave her the customary salute; and when, after some hours towing, the Eddystone was passed, the Volunteer cast off the tow rope, and the visitors returned to her, a ringing cheer was sent up by the passengers, who evidently intended that their final farewell to the old country, as represented by the steamer and her few passengers, should be a heart one.
It may be interesting to Plymothians to learn that there is a growing tendency on the part of the emigration authorities, and of shipowners, to dispatch emigrants from this port.
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Sources:
[1] "Departure of Emigrants from Plymouth", Western Morning News, Plymouth, May 15th 1875.