File:The Schomberg leaves Liverpool on her maiden voyage in 1855 (1910) (14782193872).jpg

Identifier: clippershiperaep00clar (find matches)
Title: The clipper ship era : an epitome of famous American and British clipper ships, their owners, builders, commanders, and crews 1843-1869
Year: 1910 (1910s)
Authors: Clark, Arthur Hamilton, 1841-1922
Subjects: Clipper ships
Publisher: New York : G.P. Putnam's Sons
Contributing Library: University of California Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Internet Archive

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heavy weather. Meanwhile attempts were being made by various companies to introduce steam in place of the clipper ships that had carried the passengers, mails, and specie after the discovery of gold in Australia, but these efforts were beset with many difficulties and heavy financial losses. The Australian an iron screw steamer of 2000 tons, was the first steamship to carry the mails from England to Melbourne. She sailed from Plymouth, June 5, 1852, and called at St. Vincent,St. Helena, Table Bay, and St. Georges Sound for coal, which had been sent out by ship from Eng-land to meet her. She arrived at Melbourne in 89 days from Plymouth, and returned by the Cape of Good Hope in 76 days. She arrived at London,January 11, 1853, having been 7 months and 6 days upon the voyage, a creditable but not a very brilliant performance. The Australian was soon followed by the Great Britain, Adelaide, Queen of the South, Sydney, Cleopatra, Antelope, and other iron screw steamers; but these vessels nearly ruined [Captain Forbes late of the Marco Polo and Lightning had been appointed to command her. She sailed from Liverpool on October 6, 1855... cheering crowd to see the Schomberg off, and as she towed down the Mersey, the signals reading "Sixty days to Melbourne" fluttered gaily from her mizen truck].
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[The Schomberg] Australian Clippers, 1854-1856 page 287 Note: SS Schomberg (built Aberdeen, for Messrs James Baines & Co., of Liverpool, named after Charles Frederick Schomberg, sunk 1855 at the Shipwreck Coast of Victoria, Australia. In December 1855 the clipper SCHOMBERG, nearing the end of her maiden voyage from England, was close inshore off Curdies Inlet, east of Peterborough. When the wind suddenly dropped the ship drifted onto a reef and became stuck fast. There was no loss of life, passengers were taken off by a passing coastal steamer, but attempts to refloat the SCHOMBERG were unsuccessful and she eventually broke up)

...their owners and did not greatly interfere with the clippers. In 1854 the Argo^ a full-rigged iron ship of 1850 tons register, with plenty of canvas and fitted with an auxiliary engine and screw, made the passage from London to Melbourne in 64 days and home round Cape Horn in 63 days; and though she sailed during the greater portion of the voyage, using her engines only in calms and light winds, she was the first merchant vessel using steam-power to circumnavigate the globe. This voyage is peculiarly adapted to auxiliary steam vessels, as, by following the sailing-ship track, very few strong head winds are met, and of course the screw is of great assistance in light winds and calms. The Argo was followed (1855-1856) by the Royal Charter, Istamboul, and Khersonese and other iron auxiliary steam clippers, as they were called. These vessels carried as much canvas as the clipper ships, and were more expensive to handle and not much faster; the rivalry was therefore

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