Nimrod (1824 ship)

For other ships with the same name, see List of ships named Nimrod.

History
United Kingdom
Name	Nimrod
Namesake	Nimrod
Builder	R & A Carsewell, Greenock
Launched	1824
Fate	Wrecked 1854
General characteristics [1]
Tons burthen	174 (bm)
Length	77 ft 9 in (23.7 m)
Beam	22 ft 8 in (6.9 m)
Depth of hold	14 ft 3 in (4.34 m)
Propulsion	Sails
Sail plan	Brig

Nimrod was launched in 1824. Ownership transferred from Port Glasgow to Leith in 1834, and then in 1839 to Sydney, New South Wales. She spent much of her subsequent career trading between Australian and New Zealand ports.

On 20 March 1840, Nimrod, of 174 tons (bm), Hay, master, arrived at Port Nicholson (Wellington), from Sydney. ^[2]

In 1840, the brig Nimrod, of 174 tons, Lancaster, master, and origin Sydney, departed on 25 October with 12 passengers for the Bay of Islands.

The Sydney Morning Herald reported on 14 November 1842 that parties in the Bay of Islands had purchased Nimrod for use as a whaler. ^[a] She went on to make 7 whaling voyages from Hobart between 1846 and 1854. ^[4]

Fate

Nimrod was wrecked off the coast of the Horne Islands, north west of Fiji in July 1854. "The Nimrod, had been lying at anchor off Horn's Island, and was getting under way, when her anchor got hooked amongst some rocks, and sail being upon the vessel, she canted and ran stern on". ^[5]

Notes

1. The authors of the book reporting this news are interested in the life of the author Herman Melville, and may be mistaking the Nimrod of the news with another Nimrod that was also a whaler and also operating in the South Pacific. ^[3]

Citations

1. The Clyde built ships.
2. McNab (1913), Chap. 22, p.360.
3. Heflin et al. (2004), p.210.
4. https://whalinghistory.org/wri/TS194
5. Courier, Hobart, 5 October 1854.

References

• Heflin, Wilson Lumpkin, Mary K. Bercaw Edwards, & Thomas Farel Heffernan (2004) Herman Melville's Whaling Years. (Vanderbilt University Press). ISBN   978-0826513823
• McNab, Robert (1913) The Old Whaling Days: A History of Southern New Zealand from 1830 to 1840. (Wellington: Whitcombe and Tombs).