''Gananoque'' was a wood-hulled
clipper ship
A clipper was a type of mid-19th-century merchant sailing vessel, designed for speed. Clippers were generally narrow for their length, small by later 19th century standards, could carry limited bulk freight, and had a large total sail area. "Cl ...
of 785 tons, built in
Quebec
Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...
in 1857, that made a number of emigrant voyages to New Zealand. She had two serious collisions with icebergs in the North Atlantic, the second of which caused her loss.
History
''Gananoque'' was built at
Lauzon, Quebec
Lauzon is a former city in southern Quebec, Canada, located on the St. Lawrence River northeast of Lévis. Founded in 1867 as a village it became a town in 1910, Lauzon had a population of about 14,500 when it merged with Lévis in 1989. The th ...
in 1857 by
George T Davie & Sons and sold the following year to Thomas Bailey of
Newcastle upon Tyne
Newcastle upon Tyne ( RP: , ), or simply Newcastle, is a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. The city is located on the River Tyne's northern bank and forms the largest part of the Tyneside built-up area. Newcastle is ...
.
In May 1858 he sold a one-eighth share in the ship to Archibald Morris who became her commander.
New Zealand trade
She made four voyages to New Zealand in the 1860s under contract to the provincial governments.
The ship was first chartered by Willis, Gann & Company for a voyage from London to New Zealand in 1860 and then for three more by
Shaw, Savill and Company. The first three carried government
immigrants
Immigration is the international movement of people to a destination country of which they are not natives or where they do not possess citizenship in order to settle as permanent residents or naturalized citizens. Commuters, tourists, a ...
; the fourth voyage was solely with cargo:
* 9 February 1860 departing London, arriving
Lyttelton on 9 May 1860.
* 7 July 1861 departing London, arriving
Auckland
Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The most populous urban area in the country and the fifth largest city in Oceania, Auckland has an urban population of about ...
on 18 October 1861.
* 7 December 1862 departing London, arriving
Port Chalmers
Port Chalmers is a town serving as the main port of the city of Dunedin, New Zealand. Port Chalmers lies ten kilometres inside Otago Harbour, some 15 kilometres northeast of Dunedin's city centre.
History
Early Māori settlement
The origi ...
, Otago on 12 March 1863.
* 16 May 1864 departing London, arriving Port of
Bluff
Bluff or The Bluff may refer to:
Places Australia
* Bluff, Queensland, Australia, a town
* The Bluff, Queensland (Ipswich), a rural locality in the city of Ipswich
* The Bluff, Queensland (Toowoomba Region), a rural locality
* Bluff River (New ...
on 5 September 1864.
Later history
In 1867 ''Gananoque'' was sold to William Johnson of Newcastle upon Tyne. On 11 July 1874, on a voyage from Quebec to Newcastle, she struck an iceberg off Cape Race. Crew abandoned ship and all but one were rescued.
However, the ship did not sink, was found abandoned and taken derelict to St John's, Newfoundland,
She was subsequently repaired, re-sheathed and re-rigged as a
barque
A barque, barc, or bark is a type of sailing vessel with three or more masts having the fore- and mainmasts rigged square and only the mizzen (the aftmost mast) rigged fore and aft. Sometimes, the mizzen is only partly fore-and-aft rigged, b ...
, and was offered for sale in 1876.
''Gananoque'' again collided with an iceberg on 10 May 1881 four miles off Bird Rocks,
Magdalen Islands
The Magdalen Islands (french: Îles de la Madeleine ) are a small archipelago in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence with a land area of . While part of the Province of Quebec, the islands are in fact closer to the Maritime provinces and Newfoundland th ...
on a voyage from Belfast to
Miramichi and sank quickly.
[ ] The crew landed on Bird Rocks, and were picked up from there on 12 May.
Case law
The first voyage to New Zealand resulted in a High Court of Admiralty case ''"The Gananoque"'', a dispute between the ship's captain Archibald Morris and the other owners over contract payment terms. The judgement was "The law will presume that the terms of a master's engagement for one voyage extent to a succeeding voyage performed without a new agreement express or clearly implied."
References
Further reading
*
{{1881 shipwrecks
1857 ships
Ships built in Lévis
Maritime incidents in May 1881
Shipwrecks in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence
Passenger ships of New Zealand