Pleaides (1869)

Date: 1 Oct 1886 to 6 Jan 1887
Location: [unknown]
Surname/tag: New_Zealand

via New Zealand Electronic Text Collection

This page refers mainly to the voyage that sailed from Glasgow, 1 October 1886.

Other wikitree pages for voyages made by this ship can be seen here.

A list of other voyages made by the ship can be seen here.

Contents 1 The Ship 2 The Voyage 3 Passengers 4 Sources

The Ship

The Ships List gives the following information:

1,210 gross tons, length 63,89m x beam 10,10m, three masted, iron hulled, ship-rigged vessel. Built by A. McMillan & Son, Dumbarton in 1869. Acquired off charter in 1873 by Shaw, Savill & Co, she was wrecked on the east coast of New Zealand on 31st Oct.1899. Caught by a gale on a lee shore, her captain had to beach her, and although undamaged, she could not be refloated. Brief details of the PLEIADES from Merchant Fleets, by Duncan Haws, vol.10, Shaw, Savill & Albion Line. ^[1]

The Voyage

In October 1886, the Pleiades sailed from Glasgow, Scotland to Port Chalmers, New Zealand commanded by Captain Setten. It arrived at its destination in January 1887.

One of the passengers, Robert Ferguson, wrote a ship-board diary of the 1886-1887 voyage.^[2] (A transcript can be found on the New Zealand Yesteryears website - http://www.yesteryears.co.nz/shipping/diaries/pleiades1886.html) Ferguson claims to have joined the ship on the 2nd of October and sailed that afternoon whereas all official reports give the 1st of October.

Started from St Caroch’s Station Glasgow at 5am on Saturday October 2nd 1886 to join the good ship Pleiades at Greenock bound for Otago New Zealand. We arrived at Greenock at 12 o’clock noon thence per tug from Princess Pier to our sailing home for a time. Bad Adieu to our friends on pier and started at 12.30 p.m.

According to Ferguson's record, 37 adult passengers AND 10 children set off from Glasgow. The newspaper reports at the time seem to discount the children and give only the number of adults as passengers. He notes there were '20 of a crew' and also names Mr Finlay (Chief Officer), Mr Chissell (Second Officer) and Mr Morrison (Third Officer); as well as Mr Bailey Steward and Mr Dovy Cook. (One of the passengers was the captain's wife, Mrs Setten.)

A list of other voyages made by the ship can be seen here.

Passengers

Evening Star, Issue 7103, 6 January 1887, Page 3

Passengers listed in The Evening Star upon its arrival in Port Chalmers on the 6th of January 1887 were:

Saloon- Mrs Selten, Misses Morrison and Smith, Messrs Simpson, Miller, Macfarlane, Turner and Logan (2). Steerage-Mr and Mrs Frost and child, Mr and Mrs Reid, Mr and Mrs Ferguson, Mesdames, Currie, Murray, Lacey and two children, Allan and family (7), Misses Currie, Murray, Vallance, Gray, McIntosh, McDougall, Messrs Paterson, Cameron, Vallance, Dunn, Baker, and McAulay.^[3]

The 'Mr and Mrs Reid' recorded were my ancestors, Alexander Gibson Reid and Janet Reid (nee Hunter)

Timaru Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 3827, 7 January 1887, Page 2

During the voyage, James Allen, died from consumption. He had been travelling with his wife and seven children - referred to as 'Allan and family (7) above'.^[4] Robert Ferguson writes of the death and subsequent 'sea burial' in his shipboard diary.^[2]

Sources

1. ↑ TheShipsList.com (http://www.theshipslist.com/ships/descriptions/ShipsP-Q.shtml)
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1} 'Ship-board Diary of Robert Ferguson', 1887 (http://www.yesteryears.co.nz/shipping/diaries/pleiades1886.html)
3. ↑ The Evening Star, Issue 7103, 6 January 1887, Page 3 (https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/ESD18870106.2.35)
4. ↑ Timaru Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 3827, 7 January 1887, Page 2 (https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/THD18870107.2.3.2)

See also:

• WHITE WINGS VOL I. FIFTY YEARS OF SAIL IN THE NEW ZEALAND TRADE, 1850 TO 1900, Henry Brett, The Brett Printing Company Limited, 1924, Auckland (via New Zealand Electronic Text Collection