We now come to the unfortunate _Schomberg_, the only wooden ship ever built in a British yard that could in any way compare with the big Boston and Nova Scotian built ships in size.
In 1854, James Baines was so impressed by the success of the little Aberdeen tea clippers, that he gave Hall an order for a monster emigrant clipper of 2600 tons. Unfortunately, Hall had had no experience in the building of emigrant ships and the _Schomberg_ was more of a copy of Mackay’s clippers than Hall’s own beautiful little ships. The _Schomberg_ cost when ready for sea £43,103 or £18 17s. 6d. per ton. She measured:—
Tonnage (builder’s measurement) 2600 tons. „ (for payment of dues) 2492 „ „ (registered) 2284 „ Length over all 288 feet. Length between perpendiculars 262 „ Beam 45 „ Depth of hold 29.2 „
She had three skins, two of diagonal planking, and one fore and aft, the whole fastened together with screw-threaded hard-wood trunnels—a novelty in shipbuilding. She was specially heavily rigged, her mainmast weighing 15 tons, being a pitch-pine spar 110 feet in length and 42 inches in diameter. Her mainyard was 110 feet long. She crossed three skysail yards, but no moonsail.
Captain Forbes, as commodore of the Black Ball, was shifted into her from the _Lightning_, and great hopes were entertained that she would lower the record to Australia.
On 6th October, 1855, she was hauled through the pier heads amidst the cheers of a patriotic crowd of sightseers, with the boast of “Sixty days to Melbourne” flying from her signal halliards. The passage was one of light and moderate winds. _Schomberg_ was 28 days to the line and 55 days to the Greenwich meridian. Running her easting down she averaged 6 degrees daily to 130° E., her greatest speed being 15½ knots and her best run 368 miles. She made the land off Cape Bridgewater at 1 p.m. on Xmas day, the wind being fresh at E.S.E. On 27th December after two days’ tacking, with the wind still blowing fresh from ahead, Forbes went about at noon when 4 miles off shore and tacked out; at 6 p.m. he tacked in again. At about 10.30 p.m., the land being faintly visible, the wind gradually died away. It was a moonlight night. Forbes was playing cards in the saloon when the mate came down and reported that the ship was getting rather close in under the land and suggested going about. As luck would have it, Forbes was losing and, being a bit out of temper, insisted on playing another rubber of whist before tacking ship, and the danger point had been overstripped when at 11 o’clock he came on deck and gave the order to ’bout ship.