Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
The rivalry between shipping lines and individual captains in
the heyday of the clippers was intense. Record runs were proudly
announced in the newspapers and on company handbills in the hope
of attracting more business. Merchants were not slow to exploit this
competition, which could, at times, be literally suicidal. Many a cap-
tain with a reputation at stake or a bonus to earn took one risk too
many, sending ship, cargo, passengers and crew to the bottom.
The extraordinary career of James Forbes indicates the pres-
sures merchant captains were under or placed themselves under.
Forbes was a tough Scot who arrived on the Liverpool waterfront
at the age of eighteen with little sailing experience, and in thirteen
years worked his way up to command of the Marco Polo, the pride
of the Black Ball Line's fleet. He achieved this meteoric rise by being
a 'harder' man than most of his contemporaries. He drove his ships
and men to the limit and took incredible risks. He soon earned the
nickname 'Bully' and, though this sobriquet was carried by other
shipmasters, no man better deserved it. His fiery temper was le-
gendary and many were the stories told about him in ports round
the world. It was said that he stomped about the quarterdeck in the
fashion of a seventeenth century buccaneer with a brace of pistols in
his belt, and that when his ship was carrying full canvas he had the
lines padlocked to prevent any fainthearted subordinate shortening
sail. Once a group of terrified passengers appealed to him to reduce
sail. Gruffly he dismissed them, adding that it was his intention 'to
get to hell or Melbourne'.
The maiden voyage of the Marco Polo in 1852 was Forbes's
greatest triumph. He made Melbourne in 68 days and beat the
steamer Australia by a clear week. Before leaving Liverpool he had
made the boast that he would bring his ship back to the Mersey in-
side six months. One potential obstacle to the achievement of this
target was the likelihood of losing men ashore. Once they had es-
caped his clutches some of his crew were likely to disappear in the
 
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