Some time ago I bought this picture of a ship. It is in quite poor condition but I was intrigued by the handwritten note on the back: "Ship Copenhagen 876 tons Regr Captain Cowie / London to Bombay Kurrachie and Persian Gulf / 1871"
I could find nothing on the internet but had more luck with British Newspaper Archive. The Shipping and Mercantile Gazette of 4 May 1871 reads:
BOMBAY direct. — Under engagement H.M.’s Council for India. The fine Clipper Ship COPENHAGEN, A1 fifteen years. 876 tons register, Cowie Commander is now loading in the East India Dock, and will be despatched 15th May. For freight or passage apply to the Brokers, GOBMAN and SM1TH. 144, Leadenhall-street, EC.; and J. and R. GRANT. 13, Fenchurch-Street.
View of the East India Dock. Source: Green and Wigram, following p.38.
We also catch glimpses of her in prior years. The Sun of 21 May 1861 included the following report:
The ship Copenhagen, 876 tons, Capt. J. B. Godfrey, belonging to Messrs. D. Dunbar and Sons, 109 days from Melbourne, has passed up Channel.
She has 51,000 ounces af gold-dust, valued at £204,000, and a cargo of wool, copper ore, and hides.
The Copenhagen brings 25 cabin passengers, including Mrs. J. B. Godfrey, Mr. and Mrs: M'Kin-non, Mr. and Mrs. Seale, Mr, and Mrs. Holland, Mr. and Mrs. Murray, Mrs. Harte, Mrs. Haines, Mr. Eiloart, Miss Burke, ind Miss Eliza Weston.
She left Melbourne Jan. 30, rounded Cape Horn March 13, crossed the line April 11, and passed the island of Carvo May 3. In the South Pacific four icebergs were observed. After passing the Western islands easterly winds prevailed, On Sunday morning, at 11 o'clock, the Lizard bore north 1/4 west, distant five miles, and the Copenhagen was then tacking up Channel under all plain sail, against a light north-east wind.
Icebergs in the South Pacific, that is, ice that has broken away from the Antarctic shelves, could be a real shipping hazard, and can still occur today. But the Copenhagan was apparently not in any danger. In July 1861 (only two months later), she was back in Australia with a big and diverse cargo of beer, wine, brandy, books, malt, starch, railway chairs (iron brackets for attaching the rails to the sleepers), wooden felloes (rims for cart wheels) and much more.
In July 1862 she was in London about to depart for Calcutta (Kolkata) and advertising superior First Class cabins. The following month she embarked 172 men and 3 officers from the Royal Artillery at Woolwich and 32 from the Indian Engineers at Chatham all bound for Calcutta.
In July 1863 she sailed from Cork in Ireland to Calcutta with 257 soldiers aboard. Several ships were involved in sending troops new troops to India, probably to replace those regiments which had served during the late Mutiny.
In August 1867 she arrived in French Guiana carrying labourers from India. This was in stark contrast to the ship's normal routes and cargoes, and is of particular interest. Sunanda Sen explains that after the abolition of slavery, and despite the ongoing attempts to enforce it, a system of indentured labour was introduced which effectively replaced it, since the individuals concerned were so severely restricted as to be essentially "unfree" (35). Thousands of Indians were transported under the now much-deplored system. Clearly, Copenhagan was playing a role in this large-scale movement of labour with its far-reaching cultural consequences.
In June 1868 Copenhagen visited Godfrey (South Australia) and Port Philip (Victoria) with a cargo of books, bottled beer, paper, rum, almonds, felt hats and raisins. On the way home to London she called in at St Helena in September having taken 77 days from Madras (modern Chennai) and 36 from Mauritius.
In May 1882 she was about to leave Coconada (now Kakindada) on the east coast of India bound for London with a full load of jaggery. Jaggery is a form of unrefined sugar which is still popular in Asia and Africa.
Incredibly in November 1883 the Copenhagen was still in service and the secrets of her longevity are revealed in a post in the Shipping and Mercantile Gazetteer. She was built of teak in Moulmein in Burma in 1855 and in 1870 had been refurbished, "copper fastened and sheathed with yellow metal." These two measures were a means of protecting the wooden hull which was otherwise liable to be eaten by marine organisms (although teak ships were far less vulnerable than most woods).
By 1883 the vast majority of ships operating from British shores were steam-powered. There is no mention of her after 1883.
Sadly we know very little about Captain Cowie except that he was also an officer in the Royal Navy Reserve. However we do know that he was popular. His miltary passengers wrote him a letter in 1864, on reaching South Africa, which was printed in the Naval and Military Gazette of 4 February 1865:
10th: Ist Batt.—The troopship Copenhagen arrived in Simon’s Bay with the head-quarters of this Battalion. The Copenhagen left Kingstown on September 26. The passengers have presented Capt. Cowie with the following letter of thanks:— Ship Copenhagen, Dec. 14, 1864.— Dear Captain Cowie,— Ere we separate on the termination of our voyage, we beg you will accept our cordial thanks for the uniform kindness and courtesy you have shown to us all while on board the ship under your command. Your unremitting watchfulness and the skill you have at all times evinced in the navigation of your vessel have elicited our unqualified admiration. Our voyage, although prolonged beyond the period we might have anticipated by a succesion of contrary winds and adverse calms, has been a most agreeable one, and we shall ever retain a lively recollection of the pleasant days we have passed on board the Copenhagen. With every wish that you may meet with the success you so richly deserve, we beg to subscribe ourselves, Your sincere friends, &c
The artist of the painting I purchased must have thought he was portraying a veteran ship. His inclusion of a steam powered paddle tender alongside pointed to the dawn of a new era. He could never have imagined that the Copenhagen would last another dozen years. In her long career the Copenhagen seems to have made at least one voyage out east every year. 29 return passages (if my calculations are correct) represented over five times the average of the old pre-1834 Indiamen of the East India Company. Manufactured goods and creature comforts were shipped out east whilst essential raw materials were sent to Great Britain. Soldiers and administrators and their families were transported in both directions. Her cargoes reflect the fact that ships like the Copenhagen were the very sinews of the Victorian empire.
Links to Related Material
- Of Intelligence, an Assassination, East Indiamen and the Great Hurricane of 1808
- The Wreck of the Alexander on the English Coast (1815)
- The Twilight of the East Indiamen
- New Passages to India
- Slavery and the Anti-Slavery Campaign in Britain
Bibliography
Bowen, H.V. et al. Monsoon Traders. London: Scala, 2011.
British Newspaper Archive. https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/
Green, Henry, and Robert Wigram. Chronicles of Blackwall Yard Pt I. London: Whitehead, Morris & Lowe, 1881. Internet Archive, from a copy in the University of California Libraries. Web. 5 September 2024.
Sen, Sunanda. “Indentured Labour from India in the Age of Empire.” Social Scientist 44, no. 1/2 (2016): 35–74. http://www.jstor.org/stable/24890231
Created 6 Sepember 2024