Tayleur

The Tayleur was a full rigged iron clipper built at Warrington in 1853 and launched 4 October 1853. She was the largest ship ever built at Warrington and possibly the largest commercial ship of her day.

She displaced 1,750 tons; was 230 feet in length; had a 40 foot beam. She had 3 decks and a carrying capacity was 4000 tons, in holds which were 28 feet deep. She cost £34,000 to build.

She was chartered by White Star Line and left Liverpool on 19 January 1854 for Melbourne, less than 3 months after launch.

Her compasses did not work properly because of the iron hull. They believed that they were sailing south through the Irish Sea. But they were going west towards Ireland.

The rudder was also undersized for the ship. When land was sighted she was unable to tack around Lambay Island.

The rigging faulty. The ropes had not been stretched and became slack, making it nigh impossible to control the sails.

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.

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 collape 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.

The Tayleur has been compared with RMS Titanic . Both wre RMS ships. Both were White Star Liners. Both were technically inovative, for their time. Both sank on their maiden voyages. Both were carrying emigrants. Both were claimed to be the largest ship.

External links

• http://eraoftheclipperships.com/maritimebookreview5.html
• http://www.mightyseas.co.uk/articles/tayleur.htm
• http://www.angelfire.com/ab7/issmemorials/Memorials/Eire/TayleurPortrane/tayleur.htm
• http://www.mersey-gateway.org/server.php?show=ConNarrative.88

References

Ed Bourke Bound for Australia - The loss of the emigrant ship Tayleur, A detailed look at the loss of the full rigged clipper "Tayleur" off Lambay Island. ISBN: 095230273X

See also: Tayleur, 1853, 1854, 19 January, 21 January, 4 October, Ariel (clipper), Beam, Blackadder (clipper)