Armenian - a general history

Official No. 30675; Code Letters QSLW.

Originally built as a sailing ship she was adapted for steam. In 1870 she was converted back to a sailing ship by Apcar & Co before being sold.

Owners: 1857 Seth Arratoon, Apcar & Co (1859 Agents Ebsworth & Co, Sydney) Calcutta; 1870 David Fowler, London.

Masters: 1857-60 David Fowler (C.N. 16705 Glasgow 1857); 1860 James Walker; 1862 MacTavish; 1862 Thompson; 1862-63 David Fowler; 1863-64 John Miller Mitchell (C.N. 3639 London 1855); January 1864 Young; 1865 Alexander Day Harris (C.N. 23675 London 1861); 1866-67 David Fowler; 1867 Alexander Day Harris; 1868-70 David Fowler; 1872 A Charles.

Miscellaneous: the narrowness of the harbour at the point of launching necessitated the use of strong cable chains to prevent the vessels from striking the dock wall opposite. When Armenian was being launched her weight on the chains caused them to snap & fly into the air. One landed on the deck of the vessel on which a group of people were standing. They saw it fall & managed to get out of the way. The vessel, now with no restraints, plunged forward at a great speed & struck the dock wall, cutting into it & tearing away some of the large fender ports. The screw propeller, double fanned, had both fans cut clean off & there was serious damage to the stern & rudder posts; March 1864 John Mitchell, master, was fined 10s for failing to maintain a constant bright light while laying in the fairway of Sydney harbour; left Calcutta on 24 July 1867 for Hong Kong with cotton, saltpetre & opium. She arrived in Singapore on 7 August & sailed for Hong Kong the same day. When evidence of fire was discovered amidships on the starboard side the master put back to Singapore. On entering the harbour blue lights were burned which were observed by HMS Zebra which came to assist along with the HMS Rifleman. The fire was eventually extinguished. As Armenian had turned back to Singapore she was in a collision with the Rotterdam barque Johanna. The subsequent inquiry found that the fire had been caused by sparks falling on the cotton when it was stored at Calcutta & it had probably been smouldering for many days. The collision was found not due to the neglect of the master of either vessel but Alexander Harris, the master of Armenian was censured for becoming partially intoxicated & incapacitated for duty after the collision.

Bound from Odessa in January 1872 she was stranded which led to the master’s certificate being suspended for 10 months for great want of care. A vessel’s board of Armenian drifted up near Sandvigen on 23 January 1872. The master was probably David Fowler because after this A Charles took over the running of the vessel.

Voyages: 26 August 1857 arrived Cape Town; November 1857 arrived Calcutta ; 19 December 1857 left Calcutta for China breaking her propeller the day after she left Singapore, a new propeller was sent for & fitted but it delayed her journey to Hong Kong; 9 February 1858 arrived Hong Kong; October 1858 from Hong Kong for Singapore she encountered a severe hurricane; Calcutta via Mauritius arriving at Sydney on 7 March 1859; Port Cooper arriving at Sydney 29 April 1859; 14 October 1859 from Calcutta carrying Her Majesty’s 3rd Buffs & arrived at Singapore on 29 October 1859;  left Calcutta on 5 January 1860 & on 11 January in a storm her screw was disabled & was repaired the following day; On the same voyage she was in a collision with the steamer Jorge Juan losing her jib-boom & port anchor; In December 1863 she was chartered by the Government of India to convey troops from Rangoon via Adelaide arriving at Auckland 23 January 1864. 

Armenian left the Tyne on 9 April 1872 bound for Madras with a crew of 23. In the first two days of May 1872 there was a terrible hurricane at Madras when many vessels that were berthed were wrecked or severely damaged. Armenian which was loading was high in the water & as she drifted she fouled the Hotspur & then grounded high on the shore. Nine European ships, all of which were large, were wrecked along with 17 native vessels & dhows. The Hotspur was owned at South Shields.

An extract from a letter sent from the Governor of Madras to the House of Commons:

‘Disastrous cyclone here on 2nd of May. Following ships driven ashore and wrecked:—Sir Robert Seppings, Burlington, Ardberg, ARMENIAN, John Scott, Hotspur, Misser, Kingdom of Belgium, and Invereshie.’

An extract from the Manual of the Administration of the Madras Presidency:

‘The Invereshie was not laden sufficiently to encounter the force of the hurricane at sea; Armenian and John Scott were in a similar predicament, being in ballast trim.’

A court of inquiry held in July 1872 at Madras returned the certificate of the 1st mate of Armenian but suspended that of the master, A Charles, for 10 months (this was probably Alexander Charles b.1839 Aberdeen C.N. 90609 Dundee 1869).

The masters of some of the other wrecked vessels also had their certificates suspended. There was a good deal of outrage at these decisions but the suspensions stayed in place. Although Armenian was marked as wrecked in Lloyd’s Register 1872/73, she was listed in Lloyd’s Register of American and Foreign Shipping in 1873, 1874 and 1875 as being owned by David Fowler & registered in London but this would have been an error.

Crew lists can be found in the book Lost Ships of the Hartlepools.

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