FAMOUS SHIPS

The "NORTHFLEET"

This ship is remembered for her bad ending to her career, but she was also a very fine wooden passenger ship, numbered among the best of these ships sailing in the ‘fifties between London and the East. She was a first class London ship, run Blackwall fashion, but also had a good turn of speed and ran with the first flight of sailing tea clippers.

The NORTHFLEET was a lucky ship right up to the moment when the fates struck her a foul blow which sent her to the bottom with 293 souls -- men, women and children.

The first few voyages of the NORTHFLEET were spent in trooping to the Black Sea in the Crimean War. Her commander was Captain Benjamin Freeman, who took her over in the spring of 1855. He was already a famous captain for his exploits while in command of the PYRENEES.

In 1856 she was sent to Hong Kong with troops. It was on this voyage that she made her first tea passage, She sailed from Whampoa and reached London only 126 days out. She then took troops at Woolwich and made the run to Hong Kong in 88 days. Captain Freeman then left Hong Kong after loading tea up the Canton River on August 8th and anchored in Plymouth Sound on October 29th, only 82 days out. This was the fastest voyage of her career and proved that she was a very fast ship indeed!

The NORTHFLEET came to the rescue of the crew of the little brig Hebe on November 13th, 1858 while sailing back to Plymouth. The Hebe was fallen in with in a very heavy, stormy sea. She had been struck by a heavy sea and had three or four feet of water in her hold, having had her decks swept clear of everything, including caboose, boats and bulwarks. The rescue required superb seamanship. The NORTHFLEET was sailed to windward of the sinking brig and hove-to; the long-boat, with five volunteers, was lowered, and veered down on the wreck at the end of a hawser. A line was thrown aboard the Hebe from the boat which was used to haul the crew, one by one, through the raging sea to the boats side. They were taken aboard the NORTHFLEET from the boat by using a whip secured to the end of the spanker-boom. Mr. Knight, the second mate of the NORTHFLEET and the man in charge of the boat, was given a telescope as a reward for his rescue efforts -- the crew each having received a monetary reward of two pounds.

The NORTHFLEET had many fine passages in the Eastern trade throughout the ‘sixties. On her outward voyage to Hong Kong from London in 1862 she was badly pooped. There was a very strong sea with furious squalls and a very high sea. At 4:20 a.m. on Friday, 13 June, she was pooped by a heavy sea resulting in washing the man from the wheel, carried away the stern boat and filled the decks and cabins with water, injuring the stern in the process. At 9 a.m. she was pooped again. This time her stern deadlights and frames were stove in, breaking all the joiner work inside the cabins, filling them with water and washing out and destroying all captains and passengers effects. Almost all the moldings and decorations on the stern were carried away. Starboard topgallant bulwark smashed and main bulwarks very much injured. Repaired damages as best as possible under the circumstances.

It must have really been something to have experienced a period at sea such as is described above. It was extremely rough on the men -- imagine the reaction of the women and children! On this same voyage, the NORTHFLEET left Macao with tea on September 7th, 1862, and raced home against the crack Aberdeen liner BALLARAT from Shanghai. These two ships raced neck and neck all the way to London. Some of the 24 hour runs of the NORTHFLEET during this time were 236, 267, 263, 244, 269, 273 and 246 miles. Both ships arrived in London within a few minutes of each other.

About this time Duncan Dumbar passed away, and Captain Freeman purchased his old ship from the executors, placed her under the command of his chief officer, William Symington, and retired from the sea.

The NORTHFLEET continued to sail the China trade. In 1866 she successfully weathered out a typhoon. In 1868 it appears that the NORTHFLEET is now owned and commanded by Captain A. Pearson, but by 1871 she had again changed hands, coming under the flag of J. Patton, Junior, and commanded by Captain T. Oates.

The tragic end came in January, 1873. With her ‘Tween- decks crammed with emigrants for Tasmania, consisting mostly of railway navvies and their wives and children, she sailed down the Channel under Captain Knowles, who had his newly-married wife with him. A strong westerly gale compelled the ship to bring up under the shelter of Dungeness. Here, while she lay at anchor on a comparatively clear and fine night, the sailing ship was cut down to the water’s edge at 10:30 p.m. by the Spanish steamer MURILLO.

Everyone was asleep aboard the NORTHFLEET. The anchor watch did not even have time to cry out before the steamer backed out and disappeared in the darkness. Water immediately poured into the ship, and the navvies, many who had never seen the sea before, panicked and rushed the boats. Captain Knowles, with smoking pistol in hand, fought manfully to save the women and children while his chief officer tried vainly to block up the gaping wound forward.

By the most determined use of his revolver, Captain Knowles managed to get a boat away containing his wife and a number of other women, but there was no time to do more, for within twenty minutes of the collision the NORTHFLEET was on the bottom. The only men saved were found clinging to her upper masts and yards, which were above water.

The widow of the heroic Captain Knowles received a pension from the Civil List. The MURILLO was tracked down in a Continental port with her bow stove in. She had no name-boards forward on her bow (so that no one on the NORTHFLEET could identify her) which resulted in the Board of Trade passing a law compelling all British ships to paint their names on either bow.

Beautifully built of imperishable wood, the NORTHFLEET, though twenty years old at the time of her destruction, was still in her prime, and would no doubt have made a name for herself in the Australian emigrant trade had she survived.

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