The _Thyatira_ was bought by J. W. Woodside & Co., of Belfast, in 1894.
In July, 1896, when bound from London to Rio with general cargo, she
was wrecked at Pontal da Barra.
The _Ascalon_ was bought by Trinder, Anderson & Co. in 1881. They ran
her for nine years and then sold her to the Norwegians. She was wrecked
on 7th February, 1907, at Annalong, when bound from Runcorn to Moss.
The second _Centurion_ left Sydney for Newcastle, N.S.W., on 17th
January, 1887; at 1.30 a.m. whilst off the Heads, the tug’s line
carried away: the ship drifted on to the North Head, struck and then
sank in 18 fathoms, barely giving her crew 15 minutes to get clear.
The _Aviemore_ was bought by the Norwegians. In October, 1910, she
left Sandejford for the South Shetland where she was converted into a
floating oil refinery. Later she was resold to the Norwegians, and I
have a snapshot of her taken in Bristol in 1915, rigged as a barque
with a stump bowsprit.
Duthie’s Ships.
Another well-known Aberdeen firm which was a pioneer in the Australian
trade was Duthies. They were builders as well as owners. The original
William Duthie started his shipbuilding business over 100 years ago.
Besides owning many of the ships he built, he was also a large timber
merchant, and kept some vessels in the North American timber trade.
He was also one of the first to send ships to the Chinchas and Peru
for guano. He eventually turned over his shipbuilding business to his
brothers John and Alexander, but retained his interest in some of the
ships.
The first of Duthie’s ships of which I have any record is the _Jane
Pirie_, of 427 tons, built in 1847 for the Calcutta trade and commanded
by a well-known skipper of those days, Captain James Booth.
The next vessel to be launched by Duthie was the _Brilliant_ in 1850.
She measured 555 tons, and, commanded by Captain Murray and sailing
under Duthie’s house-flag, she became a very popular passenger clipper
in the time of the gold rush. On her first outward passage she went
from London to Melbourne in 87 days, and this was about her average.
She generally loaded wool for the London market at Geelong, and made
the homeward run in under 90 days.
Few ships came home from the Antipodes in those days without gold dust
on board; and the _Brilliant_ on one occasion brought home 7 tons of
gold, giving Captain Murray an anxious time until he had it safely
handed over to the Bank of England. After a dozen years as a first
class passenger and wool clipper the _Brilliant_ was debased to the
guano and nitrate trades, being finally lost at sea when homeward bound
from Callao with a cargo of guano.
The next of Duthie’s ships was the _James Booth_, of 636 tons, named
after the celebrated captain. She was launched in 1851 for the Calcutta
trade.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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