Hereford (ship)

Date: 1869 to 1 Apr 1907
Location: Glasgow

Hereford was a 1456-ton iron sailing ship with two decks and one cemented bulkhead which was built in 1869 by J. Elder & Company at Glasgow for the Merchant Shipping Company of London. She was chartered by the New Zealand Shipping Company in the 1870s and made three voyages to Lyttelton, New Zealand with approximately three hundred emigrants each time.

• 1874 - Under Captain Elsden, R.N.R. Sailing on April 18, she arrived on July 14, making the passage in 81 days from Start Point, and 87 from port.

• 31 October 1977 - From Plymouth under Captain McCarthy, making a fine run of 80 days, port to port. arriving in Lyttelton on 19 January 1878.

• 6 October 1879 she left England arriving in Lyttelton, New Zealand on 30 Dec 1879.

In 1881, she was stranded on Ingleby Reef near Port Phillip Heads, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, and had to be towed off on 12 March 1881 by a tug. (pictured)

1882, the Hereford was purchased by the Nourse Line.

• 1883 , She sailed from Plymouth, England, arriving in Townsville, Australia in 101 days, with 451 passengers, including 1 Fare paying, 113 Assisted and 337 Free.

In the following years she mostly carried Indian indentured labourers, making trips between, India, the Carribean and Fiji. In 1898 she was sold to Norwegian owners and and on 1 April 1907 was wrecked at Hatteras Island, North Carolina, en route from Pensacola, Florida, to Buenos Aires, Argentina, with the loss of 3 of her crew. Survivors were rescued by the steamship Olivebank.

Sources

• Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand Electronic Text Collection, WHITE WINGS VOL II. FOUNDING OF THE PROVINCES AND OLD-TIME SHIPPING. PASSENGER SHIPS FROM 1840 TO 1885, 1857, accessed 19 June 2023.

• Wikipedia contributors, "Hereford (ship)," Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Hereford_(ship)&oldid=1098949392 (accessed June 19, 2023).