the Otago and James Nicol Fleming, two sister ships, were built in 1869 by Duncan, of Glasgow, for Patrick Henderson,

the Otago, Sister Ship to the James Nicol Fleming, anchored at Gravesend.

to carry immigrants for the New Zealand Government to Dunedin. When Henderson amalgamated with the Shaw, Savill Company the Otago sailed under that firm's house, flag, and she was painted with ports along the side, a style adopted in all the Shaw, Savill Company boats. the Otago was a vessel of 993 tons, fitted up especially for the comfort of passengers. Like the James Nicol Fleming, she made consistent runs out and home, and most of the passages were below the average. Her best run out was on her second voyage, in command of Captain Stuart. She left London on June 23, 1871, and reached Port Chalmers September 9, after an exceptionally good passage of 78 days—anchorage to anchorage. During this run scarcely any westerly breezes were met with while running down her easting, the general parallel of which was latitude 44S.

In 1887 and 1888 the Otago, when bound for Lyttelton, met with exceptionally heavy weather. Captain Norman sailed the ship in 1887, and on arrival reported that on May 14, during a hurricane, the upper main topsail yard was carried away, while heavy seas came aboard, flooding the berths and lazarette, also washing everything movable on deck overboard, while the ship scudded under low canvas with oil bags on either side.

Captain Peebles.

In the following year the Otago, under Captain Falconer, on May 8, again met with boisterous weather. A violent gale sprang up suddenly, and the vessel was almost immediately thrown on her beam ends, although at the time she was under lower topsails and foresail only. Heavy seas swept the decks and rushed below, damaging all stores and doing considerable damage. Fortunately the gale soon passed, the vessel was righted, and she proceeded on the voyage.

the Otago in 1887 came out rigged as a barque in command of Captain Norman. Subsequently the ship was sold to a Portuguese firm and renamed the Ermilla. She was torpedoed and sunk during the late war.

Ship Otago's Passages.

Following is a list of the passages made to Port Chalmers and Lyttelton:—

A Smart Namesake.

Patrick Henderson's ship must not be confused with a small iron barque of 345 tons, named the Otago, and built in 1870. This little vessel made a remarkable passage from Liverpool to Port Chalmers in 1871, taking only 85 days from land to land. Captain Cameron brought the barque out. Her log proved she was a fast sailer, as on one occasion she covered 306 miles in 24 hours. She left Liverpool on April 16, taking her final departure from the land on April 22. She crossed the equator on May 22, and ran down her easting on a general parallel of 46 degrees, with thick, cold weather. She sighted Tasmania on July, 15, and shortly afterwards a terrific cyclone was battled with, commencing at north and veering west to south. The South Cape of Stewart Island was made on July 19, and Port Chalmers on July 25. On her maiden voyage she sailed from England to Adelaide, thence to Sydney, San Francisco and home again, the round trip occupying 12 months 15 days. During this time she had four cargoes.

I believe no other ship trading to New Zealand has a record equal to the James Nicol Fleming for regular and consistent passages. She made nine complete voyages between Glasgow and Dunedin, and three from London to Dunedin, and the average of the outward passages was only 86½ days!

the James Nicol Fleming was a beautiful composite clipper ship, close on 1000 tons register. As already stated, she was a sister ship to the Otago—built on exactly the same lines—but she did better work than the Otago, as only on two occasions did she exceed 90 days. In 1873, as will be seen from her records, she ran out to Dunedin from Glasgow in 71 days, anchorage to anchorage, or 69½ days land to land. This places the Fleming third on the list for the record passage to Dunedin, the Westland coming first, and Scimitar (Rangatiki), second.

The "Otago Daily Times," referring to the ship's arrival in 1873, said:—"Patrick Henderson's clipper ship has astonished even her well-wishers by making the passage out in 69 days and 11 hours from the time she parted with the pilot off Inistrahull to rounding the Snares. Her greatest run was 320 miles in one day, and for two days off the pitch of the Cape she logged 632 miles. She crossed the equator in 21 days, and the S.E. trades proved favourable until losing them on May 21, in latitude 23.40 S., when strong southerly winds delayed her for six days—the ship making an average of 80 miles per day. The Cape was passed on June 4, and Cape Leeuwin on the 20th. The easting was run down on a parallel of 43 S. until passing Cape Leeuwin, when a more southerly course was shaped, the ship going down to 47 S. until reaching the Snares on Junepage 157 29." On this occasion the ship brought 280 passengers.

The Fleming was credited with having made some remarkable runs from Port Chalmers to the English Channel.

Change Of Name.

In 1879 the James Nicol Fleming's name was changed to Napier. This change came about as a result of the notorious failure of the City of Glasgow Bank in September, 1878. Many people will remember the sensation this and other bank failures in Great Britain caused at the time. The Glasgow Bank failed for several millions of pounds, and thousands of people were ruined. Fleming was one of the directors, and when the smash came he levanted to Spain, but some time afterwards returned to Scotland and gave himself up, as he was wanted on charges in connection with the bank's affairs. He was sentenced to a term of imprisonment, serving one year, I think, and in the latter days lived at Campbelltown, a broken and ruined man. If I am not mistaken, the ship Margaret Galbraith bore his wife's maiden name.

Following is the record of the ship's voyages to New Zealand, the port of departure being Glasgow, except where mentioned in parentheses:—

The last two passages were made after the ship had her name changed to Napier.

There was another vessel bearing the name of Napier which arrived at Auckland on the 16th February, 1865. She was a barque of 571 tons, in command of Captain Petherbridge. The barque also visited Nelson, arriving there on December 8, 1863, with Captain Pether-bridge in command. She was then a new iron vessel, and she made the passage in 83 days, the quickest run of any vessel to Nelson at that date. She landed 70 pairs of partridges, skylarks, blackbirds, thrushes, and goldfinches for the Provincial Government.