'Our little vessel'

Over the Christmas break I managed to complete my research into William and Catherine Ward's shipping interests. When I say finished, I may find an excuse to re-open this chapter of the story if I ever get to spend time in the Sydney maritime archives which may contain details that have escaped me to date.

I keep going back to the stories written by Ephraim Ward (William and Catherine's son). He wrote a series of articles for the Woy Woy Herald in 1922 remembering his youth growing up at Killcare and Kincumber. The articles were written under the pen name 'Boora Boora', but there is no doubt that they were written by Ephraim Mitchell Ward (not to be confused with Manasseh Ward's son Ephraim McGreggor Ward). 

I have seen three articles referenced so far, but think there may be more. Some were also re-published in the Gosford Times, which is where I have found the two I have. Ephraim writes very well and he paints evocative pictures of life on Brisbane Water. I keep finding phrases in his stories that are familiar from later writings by Charles Swancott and Joan Taylor, so I am certain that these stories by Ephraim were important sources for previous historians.

Two quotes that relate to my shipping research:

At this period, things were bright in the timber trade, and our little vessel averaged a trip a week. The cargoe [sic] was small — about 7000 feet super. — and was principally delivered to a Mr. J. Booth, who had a timber yard at the foot of Margaret Street, Sydney; my father and he were friends.

About '66, mv father sold the little ship and bought the 'Leisure Hour' — so named on account of having been built at odd times. 

 I had already discovered that the Magnet had been registered in the name of E.M. Ward in 1849 and was probably sold to John Booth in 1861. I asked myself was the 'little vessel' mentioned by Ephraim the Magnet? If so, he was a little off on the timing of the sale.

• The Magnet is registered as a 17-ton cutter, meaning she was rated to carry 17 tons of cargo;
• Blue gum has a dried weight of 920 kg/cubic metre (I am a woodworker and know how to find such trivia);
• Allowing that the timber would not have been fully seasoned, lets assume 1 cubic metre of sawn hardwood might weigh about one ton (yes I know I am mixing imperial and metric here, but this allows for the small difference between imperial tons and metric tonnes); 
• 7,000 super feet of hardwood is about 16.6 cubic metres or 16.6 tons.

It is therefore reasonable to assume that the 'little vessel' mentioned by Ephraim was the Magnet and his 'my father sold the little ship' confirms that William was the owner, not Ephraim as the registration said. Ephraim was a few years out in his estimate of when it was sold but that is also reasonable, because he was remembering events from 60 years before! I think it is also highly possible that the Magnet continued to carry Ward timber to John Booth's timber yard. Booth remained the owner until 1873.

I am not sure that William acquired the Leisure Hour immediately after he sold the Magnet but the sale probably marked William's retirement from the commercial shipping trade. He would have been in his early 60s by then. He may not have retired completely, but was possibly slowing down and Catherine and his children were becoming more involved in the timber business. Manasseh would have been 10 when the Magnet was sold, and would probably have started full time work 4 or 5 years after that.

I have now loaded my research notes on William Ward's shipping interests onto my website. Look under the 'resources' heading on the 'Ward', where I have named the file '1840-ward-wm-shipping-research-notes.docx'. You may have to scroll the file window to find it.