Mersey (1894 ship)

Mersey
Mersey, 1908, near Sydney

The Mersey was a 1,829 ton[clarification needed] iron-hulled sailing ship with a length of 270.7 feet (82.5 m), beam of 39 feet (12 m) and depth of 22.5 feet (6.9 m). She was built by Charles Connell and Company of Glasgow, named after the River Mersey in north-western England and launched on 18 May 1894 for the Nourse Line. Nourse Line used her primarily to transport of Indian indentured labourers to the British colonies, a so called, Coolie ship.[1][2] Details of some of these voyages are as follows:

Destination Date of arrival Number of passengers Deaths during voyage
Suriname 10 April 1896 661 n/a
Trinidad 20 October 1897 668 11
Suriname 28 January 1902 678 n/a
Fiji 13 June 1903 585 n/a
Trinidad 8 February 1906 665 5

In 1908 the Mersey was sold to the White Star Line for use as a training ship for 60 cadets, making six voyages to Australia as a White Star training ship, traveling around the Cape of Good Hope outbound and Cape Horn inbound. In 1910 she became the first sailing ship to be equipped with a radio. She was also the first sailing ship aboard which an operation for appendicitis was performed on a cadet. In 1915 the White Star Line gave up their training scheme due to the war and sold the Mersey to Norwegian owners. She changed hands a number of times and her name was changed to Transatlantic then to Dvergso. She was scrapped in 1923.

See also

Citations

  1. ^ "The Coolie Ships". Guyana Chronicle. 5 May 2009. Retrieved 9 December 2022.
  2. ^ Wajid, Sara (19 November 2013). "Journey of the 'coolie' women in the history of the British empire". the Guardian. Retrieved 9 December 2022.

References

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