RMS Tayleur
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The RMS Tayleur was a fully-rigged iron clipper chartered by the White Star Line and her fate would be a black mark on that company for years to come. Instead of sailing south through the Irish Sea, she sailed west towards Ireland. Despite dropping both anchors, Tayleur ran aground on rocks off the east coast of Lambay Island, about five miles from Dublin Bay on 21 January 1854. Tayleur sank after being washed into deeper water, claiming 380 souls.
Built at Warrington in 1853 and launched 4 October, the Tayleur displaced 1,750 tons and was the largest ship ever built at Warrington. Tayleur was 230 feet in length with a 40 foot beam. 4,000 tons of cargo was carried in holds 28 feet deep below three decks.
Tayleur left Liverpool on 19 January 1854, on her maiden voyage, for Melbourne, Australia, with a complement of 652 passengers and crew. Her crew of 71 had only 37 trained seamen amongst them, and of these ten could not speak English. However most of the crew survived.
Her compasses did not work properly because of the iron hull. The crew believed that they were sailing south, but were actually travelling west. The rudder was undersized for her tonnage, and when land was sighted she was unable to tack around Lambay Island. The rigging was also faulty and the ropes had not been stretched, becaming slack; making it nearly impossible to control the sails.
On 21 January 1854, within 48 hours of sailing on her maiden voyage she foundered after running aground in fog during a storm. Despite dropping both anchors as soon as rocks were sighted, she ran aground on the east coast of Lambay Island about five miles from Dublin Bay. She was so close to shore that the crew were able to collapse a mast onto the shore and some people aboard were able to jump onto land by clambering along the collapsed mast. But she was then washed into deeper water. She sank with the loss of 380 lives out of the 652 people originally on board. The wreck currently lies in 18 metres of water. A high proportion of women were lost, possibly because of the difficuly with the clothing of that era. Of its 558 passengers and crew, a high proportion of which were emigrants, 276 were lost.
The Tayleur has been compared with RMS Titanic . Both were RMS ships and White Star Liners. Technically innovative like the Titanic, both had a serious claim to being the largest ship of their time.
External links
- http://eraoftheclipperships.com/maritimebookreview5.html
- http://www.mightyseas.co.uk/articles/tayleur.htm
- [The Tayleur Memorial, Portrane]
- http://www.mersey-gateway.org/server.php?show=ConNarrative.88
- http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/encyclopedia/t/ta/tayleur.htm
References
- Edward J. Bourke - Bound for Australia: The Loss of the Emigrant Ship "Tayleur" at Lambay on the Coast of Ireland (2003) ISBN 095230273X
| Clipper ships, designers & builders | |
|---|---|
| British-built clippers | |
| Ariel | Blackadder | Cutty Sark | Hallowe'en | Leander | Lothair | Norman Court | Sir Lancelot | Tayleur | Thermopylae | Tsaitsing | |
| American-built clippers | |
| Champion of the Seas | Flying Cloud | Lightning | |
| British designers and builders | |
| Hercules Linton | William Lithgow | Scott & Linton | |
| American designers and builders | |
| Donald McKay | |
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