SAIL TO STEAM

Wairarapa Times-Age, 9 May 1940, Page 9

SAIL TO STEAM

course, in the early days, concerned largely with the carrying of emigrants, a traffic to which the gold discoveries in Otago and Westland gave great impetus. Messrs Shaw. Savill and Company commenced activities by chartering vessels, but as the trade to New Zealand increased by leaps and bounds, very soon the Shaw Savill fleet numbered 15 fine vessels.

The Company's sailing ships became famous in the early days for their fast passages. In the seventies they had put on the run Monarch, one of the largest of Green’s Blackwall frigates. In Bluejacket, 75 days Gravesend to Canterbury. the company had one of the fastest vessels; and Margaret Galbraith was one of the finest sailing ships of her day.

The Shaw. Savill and Albion Co’s flag was formerly the National emblem of New Zealand. “The flag of the Southern Cross” was selected on March 20, 1834. at a meeting of the New Zealand Chiefs held at the Bay of Islands, and remained the National ensign of New Zealand until it was superseded by the Union Jack after the Treaty of Waitangi, signed in February, 1840.

When steam began to oust sail, the Shaw Savill Company was prominent in the changeover, and gradually replaced its fine fleet of sailers with steamers. Early steamers of the company were the Tainui, Arawa, Gothic, Maori and Aotea. The company has always been especially identified with the development of the frozen meat trade from New Zealand, a traffic which means so much to Britain at the present time. In 1882 the company pioneered the industry by fitting up the first sailing vessel with refrigerating machinery and successfully carrying a cargo of frozen lamb from Port Chalmers to London. In coniunction with the New Zealand and Australian Land Co., Ltd., ‘of Edinburgh, the company chartered the sai]jng ship Dunedin, and equipped her with freezing plant. There being then no refrigerating works in the Colony, the meat was frozen on board ship. After an initial mishap the experiment succeeded and some 5,000 carcases of sheep, lambs, pigs, etc., were landed in good condition at the London docks after a voyage of 98 days. The freight rate was 2}d per lb. which included the initial freezing of the carcases on board ship.

The latest motor vessels of the Shaw Savill and Albion fleet, namely the Waipawa, Waiwere, Wairaugi and Waimarama. are each capable of lifting over. 250.000 frozen carcases of lamb in addition to large quantities of general cargo. Nearly 40 years after the establishment of the refrigerated meat trade, the shipment of New Zealand apples in cold chambers was begun. The initial enterprise of shipping 3400 cases in 1920 grew in a comparatively short time to a million cases a year. The next important development was the successful shipment of chilled beef by the gas method of storage. Today chilled beef and frozen mutton may be seen being discharged at the Royal Docks from the same vessels. The year 1882 was an important one in the history of Shaw, Savill and Co., for in that year it amalgamated with the old-established Clyde Shipping House, Patrick Henderson's Albion Shipping Company, and the new company was registered in the name of Shaw Savill and Albion Co., Ltd., the activities of the combined lines coming into operation on January 1, 1883. The first chairman was Mr C. T. Ritchie, M.P., who became Baron Ritchie of Dundee, father of the present Lord Ritchie, Chairman of the Port of London Authority. The transport of frozen foodstuffs having become a "prodigious fact” the business was developed in partnership with the White Star Line and large steamers were scheduled to run from the Royal Albert Docks instead of East and West India Docks. The Coptic, the first White Star steel ship, was taken off the North Atlantic service and put on the Shaw Savill and Albion New Zealand run, founding the famous “ic” class of vessels which continue to this day in the Ceramic and Zealandic to trade out of the Royal Docks. One of the Company’s notable ships was > the Gothic, 7755 tons gross. She was 490 ft long, had four masts and a single | funnel, and at that time was the biggest vessel to visit the Port of London. The ship was open for public view in London for charity and made the record passage to Wellington in 37 days at an average speed of 14.16 knots. In 1932 the company acquired the assets and fleet of Messrs Geo Thompson and Co., Ltd.. (The Aberdeen Line), a company with a notable record in the Australian trade dating back to 1825. Mention of the Aberdeen Line bring to mind such famous sailing ships as the Thermopylae, which in 1868 sailed from London to Melburne in 60 days. In 1933 the Shaw Savill Company became Joint Owners with the P. and O. Group, and also Managers, of The Aberdeen and Commonwealth Line. Ltd., a company formed to purchase from White Star Line, Ltd., the Bay and Dale steamers which were originally operated by the Australian Government.

Today the fleets of the Shaw Savill and Albion Company consist, of .30 vessel! totalling 400.000 gross tons, including the 27.000 tons Dominion Monarch, the largest motor vessel trading between London and- New Zealand. Whereas in the early days the passage to New Zealand occupied anything from 75 to over 100 days, the new motor-vessels of the fleet have completed the journey to New Zealand through the Panama Canal in 28 days. As during the last war the company’s ships, their officers and crews, are playing a vital part in the present struggle by maintaining supplies of foodstuffs for the troops of the Expeditionary Force and the people of Britain.