WILLIAM MILES
THERE WERE TWO VESSELS WITH THE NAME
OF ' WILLIAM MILES ', BOTH OWNED BY MILES & CO OF BRISTOL ( NOT AT THE SAME TIME ) THE
FIRST WILLIAM MILES WAS BUILT IN 1808 IN BRISTOL AND SEEMS TO HAVE UNDERGONE A MAJOR
RE-BUILD IN 1816 WHEN HER TONNAGE WAS INCREASED FROM 324 TONS TO 577 TONS. SHE WAS
REGISTERED IN LONDON. SHE WAS A BARQUE AS OPPOSED TO A CLIPPER VESSEL. IN 1853 SHE WAS
SOLD TO J DE WOLF & CO OF LIVERPOOL. IN 1854 SHE UNDERWENT ANOTHER RE-BUILD WHEN SHE
WAS LENGTHENED. IN 1864 SHE WAS SOLD TO G & J ROBINSON. IN 1883 WHILE ON A
VOYAGE FROM LE HARVE TO SWANSEA, IN BALLAST, SHE STRANDED ON PORTHCAWL SANDS IN THE
BRISTOL CHANNEL AND WAS LOST. HER CAPTAIN AT THIS TIME WAS CAPTAIN LAUGHLAN AND HER OWNERS
AT THE TIME WERE G & J ROBINSON OF LITTLEHAMPTON. THE PICTURE IS OF THE WILLIAM MILES
BUILT IN 1808. WHETHER OR NOT THE IST WILLIAM MILES WAS CHARTERED BY SHAW SAVILL & CO
I AM UN-CERTAIN OF, QUITE POSSIBLY NOT.THIS VESSEL WAS ALSO USED AS A PRISON SHIP,SHE MADE
AT LEAST ONE VOYAGE DOWN TO HOBART,TASMANIA FROM ENGLAND IN 1828 WITH 192 CONVICTS
ONBOARD, SEVEN OF WHOM DIED DURING THE VOYAGE.THERE'S A FEW IRREGULARITIES HERE AND ITS
DIFFICULT TO TRY AND SEPARATE THESE TWO VESSELS AS THEY WERE BOTH A FLOAT, WITH THE SAME
NAME AT THE SAME TIME AND BOTH AT ONE TIME HAD BEEN OWNED BY MILES & CO OF BRISTOL.
MORE RESEARCH NEEDS TO BE DONE ON BOTH VESSELS.
THE SECOND WILLIAM MILES WAS BUILT IN QUEBEC IN 1854 AND WAS A VESSEL OF 1224 TONS AND WAS
ALSO OWNED BY WILLIAM MILES. UP UNTIL 1906 IT WAS POSSIBLE FOR SEVERAL VESSELS TO BEAR THE
SAME NAME, AFTER THIS DATE THE MERCHANT SHIPPING ACT WAS MEANT TO BE ENFORCED, PREVENTING
THE USE OF DUPLICATE NAMES SO IF MILES & CO HAD SOLD THEIR FIRST WILLIAM MILES TO J DE
WOLF & CO IN 1853 IT WOULD HAVE BEEN LOGICAL FOR THEM TO NAME THEIR NEW SHIP IN 1854
WILLIAM MILES ALSO ( MILES BEING THE COMPANY NAME AFTER ALL ) AND THERE WOULD BE NO
REASON FOR J DE WOLF & CO TO RE-NAME HIS VESSEL UNLESS HE WANTED TO.
WILLIAM MILES WAS LOADED BY SHAW SAVILL & CO AT LEAST ONCE AT BRISTOL FOR A VOYAGE
DOWN TO OTAGO AND CANTERBURY CARRYING 300 PASSENGERS, ABOUT 200 OF THE PASSENGERS WERE
IMMIGRANTS SELECTED FOR EMIGRATION BY A MR FITZ-GERALD ON BEHALF OF THE GOVERNMENT OF
CANTERBURY THERE BEING A CONTRACT BETWEEN MILES BROTHERS AND THE GOVERNMENT OF CANTERBURY
FOR THIS PURPOSE.
THE FOLLOWING INFORMATION SUPPLIED BY MELISSA FROM NEW ZEALAND :-
"In 1860 she arrived at
Lyttelton on August 21, from Bristol, after a
passage of 108 days, in command of Captain Lilley, landing 170 Government
immigrants; and in 1864 she paid another visit to Lyttelton, arriving on
October 22 after a passage of 111 days, in command of Captain Babot, brining
out 142 Provincial Government immigrants."
The William Miles left
Gravesend on 29 July 1862 and arrived in Auckland,
New Zealand, 106 days later on 12 November 1862. Commanded by Captain James
Brinsden and carrying 322 passengers, the 1,103-ton William Miles was the
third ship of the Albertland colonisation movement, the first two being the
Matilda Wattenbach and Hanover, which both departed England two months
earlier on 29 May.
The Albertland colonisation movement was an organised settlement scheme
aimed at creating a classless, non-conformist society within New Zealand on
land surveyed around the Arapaoa, Otamatea and Oruawharo Rivers at Kaipara
Harbour's Port Albert, after which the Albertland settlement area was named.
Sponsored by the Albertland Special Settlement Association, which was
established in Birmingham in 1861 by English journalist William Rawson
Brame, the movement was apparently the third and last church-sponsored
settlement scheme in New Zealand.
The more than three-month long voyage to New Zealand aboard the William
Miles was apparently a rather unpleasant one, marked by bad weather, leaks,
crowded quarters and less than ideal sanitation levels. So poor were the
conditions aboard the ship that 97 passengers submitted a joint letter of
complaint to Captain Brinsden regarding "the wretched state of the vessel,
arising from leakage's and influx of water into the sleeping berths." The
letter went on to attack Shaw, Savill & Co. "for sending the ship out in a
state so utterly unfitted for the healthy abode of so vast a number of
passengers as now crowd her decks."
MORE DETAILED INFORMATION REGARDING THE WILLIAM MILES & OTHERS CAN BE FOUND ON THE BELOW LINKS
http://www.pycroft.co.nz/wm-miles/wmmilesabout.html
http://www.pycroft.co.nz/familypages/shiplist.html
http://www.pycroft.co.nz/waitangi/waitangiindx.html
