JAMES WATT STEAMSHIP

Memorial tobacco case...

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Thomas Shaw, 1835- Birmingham, 1837. Silver tobacco case, 85 x 58 x 22 mm.; both lid and base hallmarked, fine; inscribed: "Presented to Mr. John Taggart, commander of the James Watt Steam Ship by the Cabin Passengers as a token of their approbation and respect during her first voyage from Sydney to Port Phillip. R. I Allen Esq., for himself and Passengers. 15th July 1837". A rare memento of the earliest days of Australian steam travel. This fine silver tobacco case was presented by the cabin passengers to the captain of the James Watt to commemorate her maiden voyage between Sydney and Melbourne in June-July 1837: the first visit of a steamer to Port Phillip.

The James Watt was a wooden paddle steamer of 125 feet, built in 1824 by Humble and Henry Co., Liverpool. Commissioned as a luxury passenger craft for the Liverpool-Glasgow run, she was fitted with fine cabins of rosewood and satinwood, fresh water cisterns and bell communications for the stewards. Unfortunately her design was flawed: an excessively deep draught made the ship very slow in the water, and uneconomical to run. Unsuitable for her intended purpose, the James Watt was sold to Parramatta merchant and steamship owner Joseph Hickey Grose and his partner T. Street in 1836.

On her arrival in Sydney on 18 February 1837, the James Watt became the first interstate steamer in the colony. She made various historic voyages in 1837, becoming the first steamer to visit Hobart, Launceston, Port Phillip and Moreton Bay.

On her maiden voyage to Port Phillip, which this silver memento commemorates, the Sydney Morning Herald reported that the steamship James Watt left Sydney on Thursday 15 June for Launceston and Port Phillip, and that in addition to a number of cabin passengers was one sergeant, ten privates of the 80th regiment and twenty convicts. As well as general cargo the ship also carried five horses.

Joseph Grose, already the owner of two steamships which plied the Hunter River trade, purchased the James Watt to add to his Hunter fleet. However her deep draught prevented her from travelling north of Newcastle in the shallow waters of the Hunter River. She was redeployed to steam between Sydney and Newcastle, where cargo was offloaded onto smaller ships. Increased competition in steaming and the economic depression of the 1840s caused Grose to sell the James Watt in 1842 to the rival Hunter River Steamship Navigation Co. In 1847, only ten years after her arrival in Sydney, she was broken up by Thomas Chowne at Pyrmont, and her engine was installed in the steamer Eagle.

We would like to acknowledge the assistance of Kieran Hosty of the Australian Maritime Museum for his assistance in cataloguing this item.

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• продавец: Hordern House (AUSTRALIA)