| History | |
|---|---|
 United Kingdom | |
| Name | Poonah |
| Owner | Tyser & Haviside |
| Builder | William Pile, Sunderland |
| Launched | 1867 |
| Renamed | Lief. Drammen |
| General characteristics | |
| Tons burthen | 1199 tons |
The Poonah, named after the city of Poonah in western India, was a three masted sailing ship of 1199 tons, owned by Tyser & Haviside and was built in 1867 by William Pile at Sunderland. [1]
She was used as an indenture ship in the West Indies, carrying 306 passengers to St. Lucia in 1885 [2] and 387 passengers to Trinidad on 22 February 1869, of whom 5 died. [3]
The Poonah made two trips from India to Fiji. Its first arrival at Suva was on 17 September 1882 with 476 passengers on board, and the second was on 18 June 1883, with 515 passengers. During the first trip, the Lascar crew refused to go on deck during a severe storm and the ship was almost lost, and during the second trip there was an outbreak of cholera and smallpox. There were 26 deaths during the trip from cholera and another death of one of the passengers in Fiji. [4]
The Poonah made trips from India to South Africa carrying indentured labourers who ended up working on the sugar cane plantations, in the hotels and as merchants in Durban, Tongaat, Stanger and in many other parts of South Africa. The Poonah left Calcutta in early 1878 with a full complement of indentured Indian labourers and crew on board and she docked in Durban harbour in July 1878.
She was later sold and renamed Lief. Drammen [5]
Leonidas was a labour transport ship (schooner) that played an important role in the history of Fiji. She had been earlier used to carry indentured labourers to the West Indies, having transported 580 Indian indentured labourers to St Lucia in 1878. Captained by McLachlan, the ship departed from Calcutta, India on 3 March 1879 and arrived at Levuka, Fiji, on 14 May that year. The indentured labourers who disembarked were the first of over 61,000 to arrive from the Indian subcontinent over the following 37 years, forming the nucleus of the Fiji Indian community that now numbers close to forty percent of Fiji's population.
The Syria was a 1,010 ton, iron sailing ship with a length of 207.7 feet, breadth of 34.1 feet and depth of 20.8 feet. She was built by William Pile of Sunderland for the Nourse Line, named after the Syria River in Karnataka, India and launched in 1868. She was primarily used for the transportation of Indian indentured labourers to the colonies.
The Berar, named after a region in western India, was a sailing ship of 902 tons, owned by Tyser & Haviside and was built in 1863 by William Pile at Sunderland.
Newnham was the first steamship to bring Indian indentured labourers to Fiji, arriving at Suva on 23 July 1884 carrying 575 passengers. The 1296 ton steamer took only 38 days to reach Fiji as it was able to take the shorter route through the Timor sea.
The Howrah was an iron hulled sailing ship of 1,098 tons, built at Sunderland in 1864 by Pile, Spence and Company. She arrived in Fiji on 26 June 1884 carrying 575 passengers.
Pericles, named after the Athenian leader Pericles, was a 1,598 ton, iron hulled, three masted sailing ship, that was built by W. Hood & Co of Aberdeen, and launched in July 1877 to transport wool for the Aberdeen Line.
Ganges was the first of three Nourse Line ships named for the Ganges river in northern India.
Boyne was a 1,403 ton, Nourse Line sailing ship that T.R. Oswald of Southampton built in 1877. She was referred to as the "Hoodoo Ship" for the number of mishaps that occurred to her. She wrecked in 1886.
Hereford was a 1456-ton iron sailing ship with two decks and one cemented bulkhead which was built in 1869 by J. Elder & Company at Glasgow for the Merchant Shipping Company of London. She was chartered by the New Zealand Shipping Company in the 1870s and made three voyages to Lyttelton, New Zealand with approximately three hundred emigrants each time. The first voyage in 1874 took 87 days, and the second took 80 days, arriving in Lyttelton on 19 January 1878. In 1881, she was stranded on Ingleby Reef near Port Phillip Heads, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, and towed off on 12 March 1881 by a tug.
Bayard was a three masted, 67 metre long, 1,028 ton, sailing ship built by T. Vernon and Son, Liverpool for the Hall Line in 1864. In 1868 she was transferred to Sun Shipping Company and in 1881 sold to Foley and Company.
Danube, a 1,459-ton sailing ship named after the second longest river in Europe, was built in 1890 for the Nourse Line.
Jumna was a 1,048 GRT iron-hulled full-rigged ship that was built in England in 1867 and went missing in the Atlantic Ocean in 1899. For most of her career she was in the fleet of James Nourse.
British Peer was a 1428-ton three-masted iron sailing ship built for the British Shipowners Company at the Harland and Wolff yards in Belfast, Ireland, in 1865. She was 247.5 feet (75.4 m) long, 36.4 feet (11.1 m) wide and 22.5 feet (6.9 m) deep. She was bought by the Nourse Line in 1883, and was the fastest vessel in their fleet until British Ambassador was commissioned. In 1878, however, British Peer's sailing power was compromised when alterations were made to increase her tonnage by lengthening her hull by 32 feet (9.8 m), and she was never as fast again. She carried a crew of 23, including her master.
The SS Vadala was a 3,334-long-ton (3,388 t) steamship with a length of 340 feet (100 m), breadth of 43.1 feet (13.1 m), and draught of 26 feet (7.9 m). She was built by William Denny and Company, Dumbarton, for the British-India Steam Navigation Company (B.I.S.N.) in 1890. She had quadruple expansion, 315 nhp, steam engines. She was one of the early B.I.S.N. ships to use telemotor steering gear.
SS Virawa was a 3,334-ton steamship. She was built for the British-India Steam Navigation Company in 1890. She was one of the early B.I.S.N. ships to use telemotor steering gear.
SS Fazilka was a 4,152 GRT steamship with a length of 366 feet (112 m), breadth of 48.2 feet (14.7 m) and draught of 26.5 feet (8.1 m). She was built by William Doxford and Sons for the British-India Steam Navigation Company (B.I.S.N.) in 1890. She had triple expansion, 462 nhp, steam engines with a top speed of 12.5 knots.
Ganges was the second Nourse Line ship to be named Ganges. The first Ganges was built in 1861 and wrecked in 1881. Ganges was a 1,529-ton iron barque, built by Osbourne, Graham & Company of Sunderland and launched on 25 March 1882. She was 241 feet (73 m) long, with a beam of 37.2 feet (11.3 m) and a draught of 22.5 feet (6.9 m).
SS Ganges was a 3,475-ton steamship, built for the Nourse Line by Charles Connell and Company of Glasgow and launched on 9 March 1906. She made seven trips carrying Indian indentured labourers from Calcutta and Madras to Fiji, ten trips to Trinidad and also trips to Surinam.
Indo–Saint Lucians or Indian–Saint Lucians, are Saint Lucians whose ancestry lies within the country of India, primarily the modern-day Indian states of Bihar, Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh in Northern India. In 1859, the British began transporting indentured workers from British India to work on plantation estates in Saint Lucia, which had become a British colony in 1814. The first ship carrying 318 indentured workers from India, the Palmyra, arrived in Saint Lucia on 6 May 1859, and the last ship carrying Indian indentured workers, the Volga, arrived on 10 December 1893.