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White Wings Vol I. Fifty Years Of Sail In The New Zealand Trade, 1850 TO 1900

Immigrant Trade

Immigrant Trade.

In the year 1863 Messrs. Shaw, Savill secured the contract for carrying emigrants to Otago, the fares being £12 from Glasgow and £13 10/ from London. Thousands of heads of New Zealand families came out in the old ships, and it is probably safe to say that among those splendid Scots families that now people Otago there are very few that do not trace back to a Shaw, Savill passage.

The year 1883 was an important one in the history of the firm, for in that year it amalgamated with the old-established Clyde Shipping House, Patrick Henderson's Albion Shipping Company, which brought in a list of really fine ships, and in the interim the Shaw, Savill people had built several first-class ships up-to-date in every way, such as the Westland and the Crusader, two noted passage-makers, so that the new combination had a very fine fleet indeed.

When steam ousted sail the Shaw, Savill and Albion Company, as the new firm was called, was prominent in the change-over, and gradually replaced its fine fleet of sailers with steamers. One of the first was the chartered steamer, Triumph, which arrived in Auckland on November 26, 1883, and was afterwards wrecked on Tiritiri when leaving port. It will be remembered that she was got off, and towed to Auckland, and repaired in the old Graving Dock which was too small for her so that a special caisson had to be built, and even then a good deal of the vessel's stern was protruding from the dock.