Flora Kerr Explained

The Flora Kerr was a barque launched at Glasgow in 1840 built by Hedderwick & Rankin for Thomas Mitchell.[1] In the 1850s she carried settlers to the Australian colony. She caught fire and was wrecked in 1858.[2]

History

She was surveyed by Lloyds in 1840.[3] She carried both cargo and passengers. She mostly sailed to Dutch East Indies, India, Singapore, Philippines and Australia. She carried general cargo such as grain, oats, sugar, jute, hemp, indigo, rice, horn tips, rattans, hides and herring.[4] On at least one occasion Guano from Chile.[5]

Her first master was Captain Thomas Donaldson until his death in 1841[6] followed by Captain Hickman[7] and Captain James McNidder.[8] [9] She was coppered in 1852.[10] By 1854 she was registered at Dartmouth, Devon, to Charles Vincent, and in 1856 to J Paul in Dundee.

In 1854 she was supplied with faulty pumps before sailing to Australia. The captain tested the pumps in dock and found them faulty otherwise they could have resulted in the loss of the ship.[11]

She sailed from London on 17 November 1854, and Dartmouth 24 November to Port Adelaide, arriving 4 March 1855. Among those arriving on the Flora Kerr under Captain Symons was Charles Burney Young.[12]

Fate

On 28 March 1858 on the voyage from Berbice, Guyana, to London carrying a cargo of sugar and rum the ship caught fire off the Western Isles and was abandoned. Her crew were rescued by War Cloud.[13] [14] [15] [16]

Name

The Flora Kerr was named by Thomas Mitchell after his first wife, Florence 'Flora' Kerr, whom he married 9 October 1826 in Glasgow.[17]

External links

Notes and References

  1. News: 25 April 1840 . Launches . Shipping and Mercantile Gazette . 3 . Glasgow April 20. Launched from the building-yard of Messrs. Hedderwick & Rankin, at Kelvin Haugh, this day at half-past three o'clock PM, a splendid barque, named the Flora Kerr. She has a full poop, and will bear a comparison with any of our Clyde ships. She Registers 416 tons (N.M.) and takes the berth for Singapore..
  2. Web site: FLORA KERR . 3 February 2024 . Clyde Ships.
  3. Web site: 30 May 1840 . Report of survey for Flora Kerr . 8 February 2024 . Lloyd's Register Foundation.
  4. News: 5 June 1847 . Imports . 6 February 2024 . Liverpool Mercury . British Library Newspapers.
  5. News: 6 December 1855 . Peruvian Guano . Fife Herald . 1 . British Library Newspapers.
  6. News: 11 October 1841 . Births, Deaths, Marriages and Obituaries . 8 February 2024 . Caledonian Mercury.
  7. News: 22 March 1844 . Marriages . Liverpool Mercury.
  8. News: 8 April 1844 . Ship News . Morning Post . British Library Newspapers.
  9. News: 18 August 1848 . Launch at Dumbarton . 5 February 2024 . Glasgow Herald . British Library Newspapers . 4753 . She is to be commanded by Captain James McNidder (late of the Flora Kerr)..
  10. News: 6 December 1853 . The fine A1 British-built Barque FLORA KERR . Shipping and Mercantile Gazette . 1 . Has a spacious poop, with superior accommodation for passengers. This ship is in fine order, and can sent to sea at little expense, having been coppered with heavy metal in November last. Carries a large cargo, and sails fast. For particulars apply Glasgow to Thomas Mitchell, Esq..
  11. News: 29 January 1855 . How Ships are lost in a storm . British Library Newspapers . Mr. Pelham, the solicitor, of Arbour-square, denounced in strong terms the rascality of a tradesman furnishing ships with so essential a safeguard as pumps in a state unfit for their purpose. It was no wonder, he observed, that we so often read the harrowing details of a shipwreck, and that the pumps became choked, when engines of plaintiff's make were resorted to in the last extremity. He should be able to show that, had the Flora Kerr gone to sea with these pumps, the first storm she got in on her passage to Australia would have sent her and her helpless crew and passengers to the bottom. The defendant's witnesses positively swore that, had not the captain tried the pumps in dock, if caught in a storm, the Flora Kerr would not have reached Port Phillip..
  12. Web site: Overseas Arrivals to South Australia - early 1855 . 8 February 2024 . LocalWiki.
  13. News: 12 April 1858 . Loss of Flora Kerr . Liverpool Albion . 22 . On the 28th March, at nine, a.m., in lat. 43 N., lon. 28 W. On getting abreast, saw the barque with the ensign up, (union down,) and smoke apparently issuing from the fore-hatch. At 10:30, am, on nearing the barque, found her to be the Flora Kerr, of Dartmouth, from Berbice for London, with a cargo of sugar and rum, on fire. Got the first portion of the crew on board, they having abandoned the ship as the flames were rushing up strongly from the fore-hatch. I immediately sent away my chief officer, and five of my crew, to assist in towing the long boat alongside with the remainder of the crew of the ill fated ship. At noon received them all on board in safety..
  14. News: 10 April 1858 . Disaster at sea . Morning Post . 5 . British Library Newspapers.
  15. News: 13 April 1858 . SHIPPING INTELLIGENCE . Northern Daily Times . 7.
  16. News: 10 April 1858 . Shipping Intelligence . Liverpool Mercury etc . Liverpool . 3166.
  17. Web site: Thomas Mitchell (1798-1871) . 3 February 2024 . Grace's Guide To British Industrial History.

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