''Ganges'' was the first of three

Nourse Line Nourse is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: *Alan E. Nourse, (1928–1992), American science fiction author and physician *Alice Tisdale Hobart, Alice Nourse (1882–1967), American novelist *Amos Nourse (1794–1877), American me ...

ships named for the

Ganges river The Ganges ( ) (in India: Ganga ( ); in Bangladesh: Padma ( )). "The Ganges Basin, known in India as the Ganga and in Bangladesh as the Padma, is an international river to which India, Bangladesh, Nepal and China are the riparian states." is ...

in northern India. The first Nourse Line ship was the 839-ton sailing ship ''Ganges'' built by William Pile of

Sunderland Sunderland () is a port city in Tyne and Wear, England. It is the City of Sunderland's administrative centre and in the Historic counties of England, historic county of County of Durham, Durham. The city is from Newcastle-upon-Tyne and is on t ...

and launched on 9 July 1861. ''Ganges'' was considered a large vessel for her time and had a figurehead beneath the bowsprit represented ''Mother Ganges'' a symbol of fertility. She was the first of many Nourse Line vessels to be named after rivers. Immediately after being built, ''Ganges'' sailed to India to commence trading between Calcutta and Australia where James Nourse hired her out to

Sandbach, Tinne & Company Sandbach, Tinne & Company, together with its associate firms McInroy, Parker & Company and McInroy, Sandbach & Company, was a business whose roots can be traced back to 1782. Having begun business in the cotton trade, the firms moved into sugar pro ...

, who were involved in the transport of

sugar Sugar is the generic name for sweet-tasting, soluble carbohydrates, many of which are used in food. Simple sugars, also called monosaccharides, include glucose, fructose, and galactose. Compound sugars, also called disaccharides or double ...

, coffee, rum and

molasses Molasses () is a viscous substance resulting from refining sugarcane or sugar beets into sugar. Molasses varies in the amount of sugar, method of extraction and age of the plant. Sugarcane molasses is primarily used to sweeten and flavour foods ...

, and

indentured labourers Indentured servitude is a form of labor in which a person is contracted to work without salary for a specific number of years. The contract, called an " indenture", may be entered "voluntarily" for purported eventual compensation or debt repayment ...

. As the Nourse Line went into the business of transporting Indian indentured labourers to the West Indies, ''Ganges'' made four voyages to Trinidad. On the first, on 9 April 1872, she transported 408 labourers, six of whom died on the voyage. The second trip on 11 May 1874 transported 383 labourers, with five deaths. The third voyage, on 10 February 1876, carried 379 passengers, with three deaths. The fourth, on 5 February 1878, carried 477 passengers, with 14 deaths. She also made a trip to St Lucia and on the return journey in 1867 brought 451 repatriated labourers back to India. She was a fast ship, covering the distance between

British Guiana British Guiana was a British colony, part of the mainland British West Indies, which resides on the northern coast of South America. Since 1966 it has been known as the independent nation of Guyana. The first European to encounter Guiana was S ...

and Cape Town in 42 days. However, lengthening her by and increasing her tonnage from 839 to 1161 reduced her speed. On 14 October 1881, she was wrecked on Goodwin Sands off Kent, en route from Middlesbrough to Calcutta with railway iron. Three people died in the wrecking.Guyana: Land of Six Peoples
/ref>

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References

{{coord missing, Atlantic Ocean History of Australia (1788–1850) History of Australia (1851–1900) Indian indenture ships to Fiji Individual sailing vessels Victorian-era passenger ships of the United Kingdom Shipwrecks in the English Channel Maritime incidents in October 1881 1861 ships Ships built on the River Wear hif:Ganges II

See also

Citations

References