Blackwall Frigate was the colloquial name for a type of three-masted full-rigged ship built between the late 1830s and the mid 1870s. They were originally intended as replacements for the British East Indiaman in the trade between England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

, the Cape of Good Hope

Cape of Good Hope

The Cape of Good Hope is a rocky headland on the Atlantic coast of the Cape Peninsula, South Africa.There is a misconception that the Cape of Good Hope is the southern tip of Africa, because it was once believed to be the dividing point between the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. In fact, the...

, India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

 and China

China

Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...

, but from the 1850s were also employed in the trade between England, Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

 and New Zealand

New Zealand

New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

.

The first Blackwall Frigates were designed and built by Wigram and Green at Blackwall Yard

Blackwall Yard

Blackwall Yard was a shipyard on the Thames at Blackwall, London, engaged in ship building and later ship repairs for over 350 years. The yard closed in 1987...

 on the River Thames

River Thames

The River Thames flows through southern England. It is the longest river entirely in England and the second longest in the United Kingdom. While it is best known because its lower reaches flow through central London, the river flows alongside several other towns and cities, including Oxford,...

. Under different owners these yards had built East Indiamen since the early 17th century as well as warships for the Royal Navy

Royal Navy

The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...

. Whereas the traditional East Indiaman had double stern galleries the Blackwall Frigate had single galleries and was superficially similar in appearance to a naval frigate

Frigate

A frigate is any of several types of warship, the term having been used for ships of various sizes and roles over the last few centuries.In the 17th century, the term was used for any warship built for speed and maneuverability, the description often used being "frigate-built"...

. With only a single gallery, the hull-lines at the stern could be very fine and combined with relatively fine underwater lines at the bow, Blackwall Frigates were fast sailing ships, although not as fast as the clipper

Clipper

A clipper was a very fast sailing ship of the 19th century that had three or more masts and a square rig. They were generally narrow for their length, could carry limited bulk freight, small by later 19th century standards, and had a large total sail area...

 ships that appeared in the late 1840s. Another feature of early Blackwall frigates was a highly rounded hull at the bow above the waterline, such ships being referred to as "apple-cheeked". The first two Blackwall Frigates, the 871-ton Seringapatam and 951-ton Madagascar

Madagascar (ship)

The Madagascar was a large British merchant ship built for the trade to India and China in 1837, which went missing on a voyage from Melbourne to London in 1853...

launched in 1837, carried the names of two slightly larger Indian-built frigates in the Royal Navy, as did a number of their successors. This appears to have been the inspiration for the popular terminology.

Over 120 Blackwall Frigates were built by British and Indian yards before the last, the 1857-ton iron ship Melbourne, was built at Blackwall by the Green family in 1875. They were generally considered to be safe and comfortable ships and were employed in premium trades, but were the victims of some of the most celebrated shipwreck

Shipwreck

A shipwreck is what remains of a ship that has wrecked, either sunk or beached. Whatever the cause, a sunken ship or a wrecked ship is a physical example of the event: this explains why the two concepts are often overlapping in English....

s of the 19th century. These included:

• Madagascar
  Madagascar (ship)
  The Madagascar was a large British merchant ship built for the trade to India and China in 1837, which went missing on a voyage from Melbourne to London in 1853...
  
  , missing between Melbourne, Australia and London
  London
  London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
  
   in 1853 with the loss of about 150 lives,
• Dalhousie, sank off Beachy Head
  Beachy Head
  Beachy Head is a chalk headland on the south coast of England, close to the town of Eastbourne in the county of East Sussex, immediately east of the Seven Sisters. The cliff there is the highest chalk sea cliff in Britain, rising to 162 m above sea level. The peak allows views of the south...
  
   on 13 October 1853 with the loss of about 60 passengers and crew,
• Dunbar
  Dunbar (shipwreck)
  The Dunbar was a full-rigged ship that was wrecked near the entrance to Sydney Harbour, Australia in 1857 with the loss of 121 lives.The Dunbar was launched on 30 November 1853 for London shipowner Duncan Dunbar and entered the passenger and cargo trade between London and Sydney early the following...
  
  , wrecked near Sydney Heads
  Sydney Heads
  Sydney Heads , is the entrance to Port Jackson in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.North Head and Quarantine Head are to the north, South Head and Dunbar Head are to the south. Middle Head, Georges Head and Chowder Head are to the west and within the bay...
  
   on 20 August 1857 with the loss of 121 lives,
• Northfleet
  Northfleet (ship)
  The Northfleet was a British full rigged ship that is best remembered for its disastrous sinking in the English Channel in January 1873.The Northfleet was a Blackwall Frigate of 951 tons gross, 895 net registered tons on dimensions of between perpendiculars, beam and depth of hold...
  
  , run down and sunk by a steamer in the English Channel
  English Channel
  The English Channel , often referred to simply as the Channel, is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that separates southern England from northern France, and joins the North Sea to the Atlantic. It is about long and varies in width from at its widest to in the Strait of Dover...
  
   on 22 January 1873 with the loss of 320 lives,
• Cospatrick
  Cospatrick (ship)
  The Cospatrick was a wooden 3-masted full-rigged sailing ship that was the victim of one of the worst shipping disasters to a merchant ship during the 19th century. The ship caught fire south of the Cape of Good Hope on 17 November 1874 while on a voyage from Gravesend, England to Auckland, New...
  
  , destroyed by fire south of the Cape of Good Hope
  Cape of Good Hope
  The Cape of Good Hope is a rocky headland on the Atlantic coast of the Cape Peninsula, South Africa.There is a misconception that the Cape of Good Hope is the southern tip of Africa, because it was once believed to be the dividing point between the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. In fact, the...
  
   on 18 November 1874 with the loss of 473 lives.

A well known example of later Blackwall frigates was the True Briton of 1046 tons built in 1861, which made frequent voyages to Australia and New Zealand carrying passengers, convicts and cargo. Photographs of this vessel are on display in the State Library of Victoria

State Library of Victoria

The State Library of Victoria is the central library of the state of Victoria, Australia, located in Melbourne. It is on the block bounded by Swanston, La Trobe, Russell, and Little Lonsdale streets, in the northern centre of the central business district...

.

By the 1860s the main difference between Blackwall frigates and clippers was the stern gallery (which "true clippers" never had, though many "semi-clippers" did) and the residual "tumble-home" or hull curvature such that the hull was narrower at deck level than at the waterline) which was greater in a Blackwall frigate than in a clipper or semi clipper.

Both types became superseded as passenger carrying vessels by steamships during the 1870s and later sailing ships of the type colloquially called windjammer

Windjammer

A windjammer is the ultimate type of large sailing ship with an iron or for the most part steel hull, built to carry cargo in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century...

s were built for cargo carrying only.

Sources

• Basil Lubbock, The Blackwall Frigates, Brown, Son & Ferguson, Glasgow, 1922.
• Lloyd's Register of Shipping
• David Lyon, The Navy Sailing List - All the Ships of the Royal Navy built, Purchased and Captured - 1688-1860, Conway Maritime Press, London, 1993

External links

• National Maritime Museum catalogue entry for painting entitled "The Indiaman Seringapatam arriving home"
• National Maritime Museum catalogue entry for print entitled "The Seringapatam East Indiaman, 1000 Tons"
• National Maritime Museum catalogue entry for a hull model of The Seringapatam
• National Maritime Museum catalogue entry for painting entitled "The Blackwall frigate Owen Glendower at anchor off a coastline"
• National Maritime Museum catalogue entry for print entitled "The Owen Glendower, East Indiaman, 1000 Tons (Entering Bombay Harbour)
• National Maritime Museum catalogue entry for a hull model of The Owen Glendower