Persian Empire Technical Specification

Completed November 1865; Official No. 52829; Code Letters HGJT.
Owners: George Duncan & Co, London; 1900 (bought for £6,000) Bendix J Grefstad, Grimstad-renamed Cinco.
Masters: 1868-69 David Murray; 1870-87 John T Watson; 1887-88 JRH Ward; 1890 Storey; 1890-94 Charles William Hay; 1895-96 A Young.

Miscellaneous: 25 May 1884 Alexander Proctor, able seaman of Dundee drowned at sea; September 1885 Walter Power, chief steward was fined for concealing tobacco; 23 August 1887 from Melbourne for Newcastle-on-Tyne she collided with the Liverpool vessel Victoria Regina off Wilsons Promontory, five miles west of Hogans Island.  The Persian Empire suffered severe damage to her hull & rigging. A hole was patched with bedding, bagging & other material & then boarded with planks. The cargo was shifted so she had a slight list to starboard keeping the hole above the wash of the waves. In this manner she limped back to Port Phillip & was then towed to Melbourne by the tug Albatross. The Victoria Regina was undamaged & sailed away without ascertaining if the collision had caused damage to the other vessel; 30 March 1890 John & Mary Hutley & Emma Keans went for a sail in a dinghy which capsized in Auckland Harbour about 30 yards from the Persian Empire. Harry Goodwin, Henry Thomas, & Henry Talbot jumped in to save them. The former two reached John Hutley & relieved him of the two girls before they were all carried away by the strong tide. They were then all picked up by the ferry steamer Britannia. Talbot was sucked under the paddle wheels of the Britannia & killed; 12 November 1891 able seaman Stephen Jellis, aged 31 from Portsmouth, fell from aloft & was dead before he hit the water; 21 January 1892 able seaman George Crusei, aged 38 from Holland, died at sea; 1892 Robert Lewis, steward, broke his leg when it became entangled in the mizzen braces; 18 September 1895 Wilfrid Ferris, apprentice, aged 17 fell to the deck while loosening the main royal & broke his neck. He was the son of TBB Ferris, vicar of St Matthews, Nottingham;  left the Thames at the end of November 1897 bound for Table Bay & was caught in severe gales & driven to the Downs. On 1 December, whilst at anchor, the Carlisle City of West Hartlepool drove into her cutting her down to the waterline on her port bow. The following day the Persian Empire was taken in tow to proceed to the Thames for repairs but encountered the full force of the SE gale & broke free of her tow off the North Foreland. She was drifting onto the Goodwin Sands when the Margate boats, Quiver,& the surfboat Friends of all Nations went to her assistance.  The surfboat capsized in the darkness & nine of the 13 crew were drowned. Tugs eventually managed to take the Persian Empire in tow to Dover but there was insufficient water to get her into port so she was towed to Sandgate Roads where she remained in charge of the tugs until the weather abated. On 3 December 1897 she was towed by the tugs Conqueror & Challenge to Higham Bight at Gravesend from where she would be taken to Tilbury Dock. Her hull was badly damaged & her sails were in tatters.

Voyages: 3 September 1885 arrived Gravesend from Calcutta; 16 February 1889 arrived Mauritius from Hartlepool.
Now renamed Cinco she sailed on 3 November 1900 from Barry Dock bound for Table Bay with a cargo of coal & a crew of 20. She encountered bad weather shortly after her voyage started & was thrown on her beam ends about 100 miles off the Scilly Islands. The ship was beginning to sink when the Spanish steamer Pedro Menendez came in sight. The two remaining undamaged ship’s boats were launched in which the crew reached the steamer. The crew were landed at Glasgow.

Crew March 1890: