St. Lawrence (1898/10)

Breaksea Island

Saint Lawrence (1861-1898)

Official Number: 29115
Port of Building: Newcastle-on-Tyne, UK
Year built: 1861
Port of Registration: Sydney
Rig Type: Barque (hulk)
Hull: Wood
Length: 179.1 ft (54.6 m)
Breadth: 37.4 ft (11.4 m)
Depth: 21.4 ft (6.5 m)
Tonnage: 1 131 gross, 1 019 net, 946 under deck
Date lost: November 1898
Location: Princess Royal Harbour
Chart Number: WA 1083, AUS 109, AUS 118 & BA 2619
Protection: The site when found will be protected under the general provisions of the Historic Shipwrecks Act 1976
Significance criteria: 4, 7 & 8

THE VESSEL
Described as a Blackwall frigate, and launched in March 1861 as a fully rigged ship by T. & W. Smith, the Saint Lawrence had two decks, an elliptical stern, quarter galleries, a poop 22 m long and a forecastle 12.2 m in length. Copper fastened, sheathed with felt and yellow metal, it had ‘hollow garboards, a good rise of floor, round bilges and considerable tumblehome; otherwise she was of a short and rather full-bodied model’ (MacGregor, 1988: 66). Lubbock states that the:
St Lawrence, the last of Smith’s fleet, was considered the finest and latest thing in wooden passenger construction. She had so much rise of floor that she required 60 tons of ballast to keep her upright. She was very short and beamy when compared to other ships of her year, but was a very fine sea boat, dry and yet easy in her movements …she was a beautiful ship in every way, and well upheld the reputation of the Blackwall frigates (Lubbock, 1922: 275).

The term ‘Blackwall frigate’ was a generic name given to a series of sail trading ships built in the mid 19th century for the Indian trade. They got their name because many of them were built at Blackwall on the River Thames, and ‘frigate’, because of the fine run to the hull, making them faster than other vessels of that time. During the 1860s the Saint Lawrence was used to take troops and other passengers between Britain and India. The vessel had undergone damage repairs in 1875 which included replacing part of the deck. In 1878 further damage repairs were carried out, and at this time the rig was altered to that of a barque. In May 1882 the Saint Lawrence was sold to Maklon Clarke Colishaw of Sydney, and registered at that port (No. 26/1882). Under his ownership part of the poop was removed in January 1884, reducing the net tonnage from 1 062 to 1 019 tons. Colishaw sold the vessel to James Riddle Muirhead of Sydney in March 1888.

In March 1889 the Saint Lawrence, under the command of Captain Thomas Brodie Pow with nine crewmen, was struck by a storm off Cape Leeuwin en route Newcastle, NSW, to Fremantle. Under only two topsails the barque was rolling heavily when the channels gave way, and both main and mizzen masts snapped and fell. In falling the masts smashed four of the ship’s boats and caused a considerable amount of other damage. The man at the helm was struck by some of the falling gear and injured. By luck the rest of the crew, apart from the captain, were below decks, having been sent there only three minutes earlier for coal. Had they been on deck ‘they would have been standing where the wreckage came down’ (Albany Mail, 27 March 1889: 3d). With only two sails set the Saint Lawrence turned and ran for Albany. It was sighted by the lighthouse keeper on Breaksea Island heading east early on the morning of 25 March 1889. He sent a message to Albany and the tug Jessie left port to find the distressed vessel. It was located at 10.30 p.m. that night and towed into port, arriving at 1.30 a.m. the following morning. The cargo of coal was discharged and sold locally. The barque was subsequently sold by the New Zealand Insurance Company in Perth to John Moir and Company of Albany, for use as a hulk. The hulk was hired by The Adelaide Steamship Company Limited for the period 1890 to 1893. An auction of the hulk Saint Lawrence ‘built of teak, copper fastened, well found with boiler, winch, derricks, anchors, chains, and general gear. Now at anchor at Albany’ (Albany Advertiser 1 November 1898: 2c) was to be conducted by John Muir and Company on 2 November 1898 at the Freemasons Hotel. There are no subsequent newspaper references to this auction or to the Saint Lawrence.

THE LOSS
At some unknown date in late 1898 the hulk Saint Lawrence caught fire, was abandoned and sank in Princess Royal Harbour. Given the above information it would appear that the hulk caught fire on either 1 or 2 November resulting in the loss of the Saint Lawrence, and therefore the cancellation of the auction.

EXCAVATION AND ARTEFACTS
During port dredging operations in 1977 a burnt wooden wreck was located. This was most probably the remains of the Saint Lawrence.

The binnacle from the Saint Lawrence is held by the 1st Pelican Point Sea Scouts on the Swan River at Crawley.

STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE
ARCHAEOLOGICAL (4)
The remains of the Saint Lawrence could provide valuable information on the construction of Blackwall frigates over 150 years ago.

RARE (7)
The Saint Lawrence was built as a Blackwall frigate and as such is a rare example of this type of vessel in Western Australia.

REPRESENTATIVE (8)
The Saint Lawrence is representative of the many coal hulks used to bunker the steamers calling at Albany.

REFERENCES
Albany Advertiser 1 November 1898: 2c.

Albany’s Coal Hulks, Pamphlet, Western Australian Museum.

Cairns, L. & Henderson, G., 1995, Unfinished Voyages: Western Australian Shipwrecks 1881-1900. University of Western Australia Press, Nedlands.

http://www.museum.wa.gov.au/maritime-archaeology-db/wrecks/st-lawrence

Kemp, P.K. (ed.), 1976, The Oxford Companion to Ships and the Sea. Oxford University Press, London.

Lloyd’s Register of British and Foreign Shipping 1861-62. Lloyd’s, London.

Lloyd’s Register of British and Foreign Shipping 1888-89. Lloyd’s, London.

Lubbock, B., 1922, The Blackwall Frigates. James Brown & Son (Glasgow) Ltd, Publishers, Glasgow.

MacGregor, D.R., 1988, Merchant Sailing Ships 1850-1875: Heyday of Sail. Conway Maritime Press Ltd, London.

Marshall, G., 2001, Maritime Albany Remembered. Tangee Pty Ltd, Kalamunda.

Parsons, R., 1975, The Adelaide Line: A Centenary History of the Adelaide Steamship Company Limited 1875-1975. Self published, Magill, South Australia.

The Albany Mail and King George’s Sound Advertiser, 27 March 1889: 3d.

The Inquirer and Commercial News, 5 April 1889: 2h.

The Sydney Morning Herald, 11 April 1889: 8g.

The West Australian, 27 March 1889: 2i & 18 May 1889: 2b.

Western Australian Museum, Department of Maritime Archaeology, File No. 193/79 – Coal Hulks – Albany.
The St Lawrence was a Blackwall Frigate type wooden sailing ship of 1049 tons, built in 1861 by T. & W. Smith of Newcastle on Tyne, U.K..
Blackwall Frigates were a class of wooden ship known for their fine lines and speed on long distance runs to the East and West Indies, and Australia. After 1868 the St Lawrence was trading as a cargo ship along the Australian coast, and during this time in 1889 was dis-masted off Cape Leeuwin during a gale. Two sailors were killed when the masts came crashing down, and the ship was navigated to Albany under jury rig. The Adelaide Steamship Company then used the St Lawrence as a coal hulk in Albany between 1889-1898. The St Lawrence caught fire and was abandoned in Albany Harbour in September 1898, and remains of a burnt out wooden wreck that may have been the St Lawrence were found during port dredging operations in 1977.