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Life of the Ayrshire

The Ayrshire was a Canadian softwood built, barque rigged vessel of 625 tons built in Quebec from oak, elm, tamarac and red pine in about 1845. The barque rig was considered a basic form of rig. It was easy to man and therefore economical to run, offsetting the fact that it was not the best rig for speed.

The history of the Ayrshire highlights the life cycle of a typical mid nineteenth century merchant vessel that formed the backbone of world trade. Initially the vessel was an international trader, but then declined after changing hands a number of times to end its days on more limited routes hauling bulk cargoes.As such she represents a part of British merchant marine history when such foreign built vessels were bought by British shipping companies for commercial reason. Whilst the industrial revolution led to large amounts of iron being used in many industries, this was not the case in shipbuilding. Iiron working requires a large industrial infrastructure, thus the number of ship yards that could produce and service iron ships was limited. That this infrastructure was not available at sea or in remote ports meant that wooden ships, which could undertake major structural repairs on board, were at a major advantage in a world were industrial dockyards were few and far between.

Timber supplies for ship building in Britain by the 19th century had become exhausted and much of the timber used had to be imported from America and the Baltic. The Duty on imported timber was exorbitant making it more economical to build the vessels themselves, often of inferior timbers, in North America and sail them across the Atlantic for sale in the UK. In 1847 the cost of building a vessel of imported timber was 66% higher than building it out off timber from the country of origin.

The soft wood construction of these vessels limited their useful life as reflected in Lloyds only granting them A1 certificate for 5 years. Lloyds Register of British and Foreign shipping at this time used a classification system to describe a vessels condition. A indicated a ship of the 'first description of the first class' ? indicated a 'first class vessel of the second description'. 1 indicated well found, 2 otherwise. Softwood vessels classed at 10 years or less, hard wood vessel were often rated much higher than this. The Ayrshire's classification meant it was sound and could carry a cargo dry. Below this rating the vessel was considered sea worthy, but the cargo could be wet on arrival. In most cases this was sufficiently long to provide sufficient return for their investment. After the freight rates dropped in the mid 1850's most of these foreign built vessels were broken up.

Originally owned by Brown and Co., registered in Bristol and commanded by a Captain J R Brown the Ayrshire's maiden voyage was from Bristol to Calcutta. The Ayrshire stayed in the ownership of Brown and Co., until 1859 when ownership reverted to Hudson and Co., and the port of registration became Sunderland. By this time the Ayrshire's hull classification was reduced from A1, the highest, to AE 1, most probably a reflection of wear and tear of the long voyages between; London, Cardiff, Liverpool and Calcutta, Bombay, Aden and China.

The Ayrshire ended her days in the ownership of W Corner., registered in London and under the command of W. Terry. It was during her final voyage, between Quebec and Liverpool with a cargo of timber, that she encountered a storm and was wrecked on the southern end of Muckle Roe, Shetland, c. 1866.

The Ayrshire and Canadian Imigration

An intriging insite in to the early workinglife of the Ayrshire can be found on the website here and here

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