Clipper ship Sobraon, Gravesend, England, ca. 1875
Sobraon was designed as a combination steam-sail ship, but plans to integrate a steam-powered propulsion system were cancelled while the ship was being built.[1] Under full sail, Sobraon could use up to 2 acres (0.81 ha) of sail, and could achieve 16 knots (30 km/h; 18 mph).[1] The ship's hold was 27 feet (8.2 m), and there was provision for livestock.[1] The hull was of composite construction - teak planking over an iron frame.[1]Sobraon was the largest composite-hull sailing vessel ever built.[1][2][note 1]
Allexander Hall & Sons built Sobraon at Aberdeen, Scotland.[1] She was given the yard number 239.[3] The ship, named after the Battle of Sobraon,[1] was launched on 17 April 1866.[2][4]
Operational history
Sobraon
The ship was built for Shaw, Lowther, Maxton & Co., but was initially operated by the firm Devitt and Moore, who purchased the vessel in 1870.[3][5]Sobraon was used on the England to Australia migration route, and made one trip per year from England.[1][3] Her maiden voyage departed London on 9 November and Plymouth 21 November 1866, reaching Australia on 4 February 1867.[6][7] Initially, voyages ended in Sydney, but from 1872 onwards, Sobraon began sailing to Melbourne instead.[3] The ship's high speed, along with onboard facilities like a water condenser, 3-tonne (3.0-long-ton; 3.3-short-ton) ice chamber, and fresh milk daily from onboard livestock, made Sobraon one of the more popular migration ships.[1] On the first three return voyages, Sobraon would take on a cargo of Indian tea and race other ships back to England to deliver the first cargo.[5] After the third voyage, the ship was instead loaded with cargoes of Australian wheat and wool for the return leg.[5]
Sobraon in her original configuration as a passenger clipper
On 14 October 1890, Sobraon sailed on her final voyage to Australia.[5] She reached Melbourne on 4 January 1891, was sold later that month to the New South Wales Government, then towed to Sydney.[5] In the hands of the colony's government, Sobraon was assigned to the State Welfare Department and refitted for use as a reformatory ship, where delinquent boys were trained in the skills for a maritime career.[5] Moored off Cockatoo Island and operated under the designation "Nautical School Ship Sobraon", over 4,000 boys were hosted and trained across a 20-year period.[5]
HMAS Tingira
The Australian federal government purchased the ship in 1911 for use as a training ship for the fledgling Royal Australian Navy (RAN).[5] She was refitted, commissioned into the RAN as HMAS Tingira (an Aboriginal word for "open sea") on 25 April 1912, and moored in Rose Bay.[5] Up to 250 boys between the ages of 14½ and 16 could be trained at any time, although the trainee complement rarely exceeded 200.[5] Between 1912 and 1927, 3,158 boys were trained for naval service.[5] As Tingira was immobilised, the steam yacht HMAS Sleuth was attached to the training ship as a tender, and used to provide seagoing experience to recruits.[8]
Watercolor of Sobraon by Charles Collinson Rawson
Fate
Tingira was paid off on 30 June 1927, and laid up in Berry's Bay.[5] In 1929, the ship was sold to a private owner, but he did not put her to any use before passing away in 1935.[5]Tingira was then purchased by Major Friere (a retired British Army officer) in 1936, who was working with Louisa Ankin to preserve the ship as a national relic.[9] Two years later, the ship was sold to a ship breaker by mortgagees; Friere and Ankin attempted to repurchase the ship, but were unsuccessful.[9]Tingira was broken up in 1941.[9]
Teenage trainees at the RAN's Junior Recruit Training Establishment (which operated at Fremantle naval base HMAS Leeuwin from 1960 to 1984) wore shoulder flashes bearing the name "Tingira" as a historical link with the training ship.[9] Tingira Memorial Park, a small park on the Rose Bay waterfront, commemorates HMAS Tingira.[10] The park was established in two phases; the first opening in 1962, the second completed in 1977.[10]
Citations
^ abcdefghiBastock, Australia's Ships of War, p.63.
^ ab"Launch of the Australian Clipper "Sobraon"". The Aberdeen Journal. No. 6171. Aberdeen. 18 April 1866. p. 5.
^The Aberdeen Journal compared Sobraon with the ship Schomberg, from the same builder in 1855. The latter was length 288 feet, breadth 45 feet, depth of hold 29 feet; 2400 register tons (the measurement system changed and under the old system was 2600 tons), burthen 3000-4000 tons; but she was not a composite vessel.
Further reading
Wikimedia Commons has media related to HMAS Tingira.
Stephenson, Geoffrey D (2014). Commanders of Sail - The Story of James and Alexander Elmslie and the Ships 'Cospatrick' and 'Sobraon'. South Melbourne, Victoria: author. ISBN978-0-9923683-0-2.
