“MARCO POLO.”Larger image(219 kB)
“MARCO POLO.”
Larger image(219 kB)
TheMarco Polowas built by Smith, of St. John’s, N.B., and is described by those who remember her as a common six-year Quebec timber ship, “as square as a brick fore and aft, with a bow like a savage bulldog,” a big thick lump of a black ship with tremendous beam, a vessel you could carry on to glory in, even to sporting lower and topmast stunsails in a strong gale.
The story goes that on her maiden voyage she arrived in Liverpool from Mobile with a cargo of cotton. Old Paddy McGee, the rag man and marine store dealer, bought her cheap and resold her at a great profit to James Baines, who refitted her from stem to stern for the emigrant trade.
It is hard to say whether there was really a touch of genius in the designing ofMarco Polo, or whether she owned most of her reputation for speed to the wonderful driving power of her famous skipper. I am inclined to give James Baines credit for possessing a good eye for a ship, and this opinion is strengthened by the following description taken from theIllustrated London Newsof 1852.
The distinguishing feature of theMarco Polois the peculiarity of her hull. Her lines fore and aft are beautifully fine, her bearings are brought well down to the bilge; thus, whilst she makes amidships a displacement that will prevent unnecessary “careening,” she has an entrance as sharp as a steamboat and a run as clean as can be conceived. Below the draught line her bows are hollow; but above she swells out handsomely, which gives ample space on the topgallant foc’s’le—in fact, with a bottom like a yacht, she has above water all the appearance of a frigate.TheMarco Polois a three-decker, and having been built expressly for the passenger trade is nothing short in capacity or equipment. Her height between decks is 8 feet, and no pains have been spared in her construction to secure thorough ventilation. In strength she could not well be excelled. Her timbering is enormous. Her deck beamsare huge balks of pitch-pine. Her timbers are well formed and ponderous. The stem and stern frame are of the choicest material. The hanging and lodging knees are all natural crooks and are fitted to the greatest nicety. The exterior planking and ceiling is narrow and while there has been no lack of timber there has been no profusion of labour.The length of theMarco Polofrom stem to stern (inside measurement) is 185 feet; her beam is 38 feet; her depth of hold from the coamings 30 feet. Her registered tonnage is 1625, but her burthen will considerably exceed 2000 tons.On deck forward of the poop, which is used as a ladies’ cabin, is a “home on deck” to be used as a dining saloon. It is ceiled with maple and the pilasters are panelled with richly ornamented and silvered glass—coins of various countries being a novel feature of the decorations. Between each pilaster is a circular aperture about 6 feet in circumference for light and ventilation; over it is placed a sheet of plate glass with a cleverly painted picturesque view in the centre with a frame work of foliage and scroll in opaque colours and gold. The whole panels are brought out slightly by the rim of perforated zinc, so that not only does light from the ventilator diffuse itself over the whole but air is freely admitted.The saloon doors are panelled in stained glass bearing figures of commerce and industry from the designs of Mr. Frank Howard. In the centre of the saloon is a table or dumb-waiter made of thick plate glass, which has the advantage of giving light to the dormitories below. The upholstery is in embossed crimson velvet.The berths in separate staterooms are ranged in the ’tween decks and are rendered cheerful by circular glass hatch-lights of novel and effective construction.
The distinguishing feature of theMarco Polois the peculiarity of her hull. Her lines fore and aft are beautifully fine, her bearings are brought well down to the bilge; thus, whilst she makes amidships a displacement that will prevent unnecessary “careening,” she has an entrance as sharp as a steamboat and a run as clean as can be conceived. Below the draught line her bows are hollow; but above she swells out handsomely, which gives ample space on the topgallant foc’s’le—in fact, with a bottom like a yacht, she has above water all the appearance of a frigate.
TheMarco Polois a three-decker, and having been built expressly for the passenger trade is nothing short in capacity or equipment. Her height between decks is 8 feet, and no pains have been spared in her construction to secure thorough ventilation. In strength she could not well be excelled. Her timbering is enormous. Her deck beamsare huge balks of pitch-pine. Her timbers are well formed and ponderous. The stem and stern frame are of the choicest material. The hanging and lodging knees are all natural crooks and are fitted to the greatest nicety. The exterior planking and ceiling is narrow and while there has been no lack of timber there has been no profusion of labour.
The length of theMarco Polofrom stem to stern (inside measurement) is 185 feet; her beam is 38 feet; her depth of hold from the coamings 30 feet. Her registered tonnage is 1625, but her burthen will considerably exceed 2000 tons.
On deck forward of the poop, which is used as a ladies’ cabin, is a “home on deck” to be used as a dining saloon. It is ceiled with maple and the pilasters are panelled with richly ornamented and silvered glass—coins of various countries being a novel feature of the decorations. Between each pilaster is a circular aperture about 6 feet in circumference for light and ventilation; over it is placed a sheet of plate glass with a cleverly painted picturesque view in the centre with a frame work of foliage and scroll in opaque colours and gold. The whole panels are brought out slightly by the rim of perforated zinc, so that not only does light from the ventilator diffuse itself over the whole but air is freely admitted.
The saloon doors are panelled in stained glass bearing figures of commerce and industry from the designs of Mr. Frank Howard. In the centre of the saloon is a table or dumb-waiter made of thick plate glass, which has the advantage of giving light to the dormitories below. The upholstery is in embossed crimson velvet.
The berths in separate staterooms are ranged in the ’tween decks and are rendered cheerful by circular glass hatch-lights of novel and effective construction.
This mid-Victorian account of a passenger ship and her internal decorations is interesting in more senses than one, but I fear that in these days when everyone seems to be an expert in the artistic merits of old furniture and house decoration, many of my readers will shudder at theMarco Polo’scrimson velvet cabin cushions, stained glass panels and richly ornamented pilasters. However, at the time all these fittings and arrangements for passengers were considered a great advance on anything previously attempted.
Marco Polo’sfirst commander was the notorious Captain James Nicol Forbes, who had previously commanded with great success the Black Ball shipsMariaandCleopatrain the Australian trade.
Bully Forbes is one of the best known characters in the history of the British Mercantile Marine. His career was as meteoric as his owner’s and had as sad an end. By two wonderful voyages in theMarco Poloand a still more wonderful one in theLightning, he rushed to the head of his profession. Then came his eclipse in the wreck of theSchomberg. A life of Captain Forbes was printed in Liverpool at the time of his triumphs, but it is very scarce and practically unobtainable, and thus the history of this remarkable man has become shrouded in legend and fairy tale, and at this length of time it is difficult to separate the fact from the fiction.
He was born in 1821, a native of Aberdeen. In 1839 he left Glasgow for Liverpool without a shilling in his pocket; but he was a man who could not be kept down and he soon gained command of a ship; and at once began to astonish everybody by the way in which he forced indifferent ships to make unusually good passages. One of his first commands appears to have been an old brig, in which he made two splendid passages to the Argentine. His success with the Black Ball shipsMariaandCleopatra, which were neither of them clippers, gave him the command ofMarco Poloand his chance to break all records.
In character Captain Forbes was a most resolute man, absolutely fearless, of quick decisions, but of a mercurial temperament. It goes without saying thathe was a prime seaman—his wonderful passages inMarco PoloandLightningare proof enough of this. And with regard to theSchomberg, I have little doubt in my own mind that Forbes was disgusted with her sluggishness and by no means sorry when she tailed on to the sandspit. But he evidently failed to foresee the bad effect her loss would have on his own reputation. In Liverpool, at the many banquets in his honour, he had been rather too ready to give wine-tinted promises as to what he would do with theSchomberg, and the chagrin of this, his first failure, was the real cause of his downfall.
After the wrecking of theSchomberg, he sank into obscurity, for though he was acquitted of all blame by the Court of Inquiry, he could not weather the disgrace. For some time he remained in Australia, a “very sad and silent man,” the very opposite of his usual self. However, in 1857 he obtained command of theHastings, but lost her in December, 1859. All this time his star was setting, and for a while he was regularly “on the beach” in Calcutta. Then in 1862 we find him home again and acting as agent for the owners of a Glasgow ship called theEarl of Derby, which was in distress on the Donegal Coast. Soon after this in 1864, in the time of the cotton famine, he bobbed up in Hongkong in command of a ship called theGeneral Wyndham, one of Gibbs, Bright & Co.’s, and there loaded cotton for Liverpool. He is described then as being a seedy, broken-down looking skipper, with the forced joviality of a broken-hearted man. He discussed the passage down the China Seas (it was S.W. monsoon time) with some of the tea clipper captains, and displayed all his old bravado, declaring that hewould “force a passage.” However in spite of his big talk, he took 50 days to Anjer.
I have come across one characteristic story of his visit to Hongkong. He was insulted by two Americans on the Water Front; in a moment he had his coat off and did not let up until he had given them a good thrashing.
He commanded theGeneral Wyndhamtill 1866, and that was the end of his sea service. He died at the early age of 52, on 4th June, 1874, in Westbourne Street, Liverpool. His tombstone is in Smithdown Road Cemetery, and on it is carved his claim to fame, the fact that he was “Master of the famousMarco Polo.”
As long as square-rig flourished, Forbes was the sailor’s hero, and of no man are there so many yarns still current in nautical circles.
He is the original of the story, “Hell or Melbourne,” though it has been told of Bully Martin and other skippers. The yarn goes that on one of his outward passages, his passengers, scared by the way in which he was carrying on, sent a deputation to him, begging him to shorten sail, and to his curt refusal, he added that it was a case of “Hell or Melbourne.” His reputation for carrying sail rivalled that of the American Bully Waterman, and the same methods are attributed to him, such as padlocking his sheets, overawing his terrified crew from the break of the poop with a pair of levelled revolvers, etc.
Captain Forbes was a very lithe, active man, and one day, as the result of a challenge, he crawled hand over hand from the spanker boom end to the shark’s fin on the jibboom, not such a difficult feat, though not a usual one for the master of a ship. Whilst on theLightning, it was his custom to go out on the swingingboom when the lower stunsail was set, and to calmly survey his ship from the boom end, when she was tearing along before the westerlies. The danger of this proceeding can only be realised by an old sailor. If a man at the wheel had brought the ship a point or two nearer the wind, the probability is that Forbes would have been flung into the sea as the boom lifted or perhaps the boom itself would have carried away, as that was the usual way in which lower stunsail booms were smashed up.
Every man is supposed to have a lucky day, and Bully Forbes’ lucky day was a Sunday. On his record voyage inMarco Polo, he left Liverpool on a Sunday, sighted the Cape on a Sunday, crossed the line on a Sunday, recrossed the line homeward bound on a Sunday, and arrived back on Liverpool on a Sunday. After this you may be sure that he took care to start his second voyage on a Sunday.
Onher first voyage to AustraliaMarco Polowas chartered by the Government Emigration Commissioners. She took out no less than 930 emigrants, these were selected with care and reported to be nearly all young and active Britishers. The married couples were berthed amidships, single women aft, and single men forward. There was a special hospital or sick bay and she also carried two doctors. In ventilation and comfort she was far ahead of any previous emigrant ship; on deck there were even provided large tubs, lined with lead, which the women could use for washing clothes. And the proof of her great superiority in arrangements for emigrants was at once proved on her passage out when she only had two deaths of adultson board, both from natural causes, and only a few of children from measles, this at a time when ships carrying half the number of emigrants arrived in Hobson’s Bay with from 50 to 100 deaths aboard.