Glenbervie, Adelaide, and Tory arriving at Port Nicholson on 8 March 1840
History
United Kingdom
Name	Glenbervie
Namesake	Glenbervie
Builder	Port Glasgow
Launched	1815
Fate	Burnt 6 August 1860
General characteristics [1]
Tons burthen	388, or 391[2] (bm)
Length	105 ft 4 in (32.1 m)
Beam	29 ft 5 in (9.0 m)
Depth	13 ft 3 in (4.0 m)
Sail plan	Barque

Glenbervie was launched at Glasgow in 1815. Initially she was a constant trader between Greenock and Demerara. In 1839 the New Zealand Shipping Company chartered her to carry supplies to support immigration to New Zealand. In the 1840s and 1850s she traded more widely, sailing to Australia, the Caribbean, and South America. A fire destroyed her in August 1860.

Career

Glenbervie first appeared in Lloyd's Register (LR) in 1815.^[2] For the next 20 or so years she sailed between Greenock and Demerara.

On 19 October 1826, as Glenbervie was returning to Greenock from Demerara, a privateer schooner under the Colombian flag fired at Glenbervie in 24°N 56°W / 24°N 56°W / 24; -56. The privateer hailed Glenbervie, demanding to know where she was coming from and where she was bound. The privateer then permitted her to proceed but remained in sight until the 22nd. Glenbervie arrived at Greenock on 15 November.^[3]

Glenbervie sailed for New Zealand in 1839 under Captain William Black. She was among a group of ships that the New Zealand Shipping Company had chartered to carry settlers. The other four vessels in the group with Glenbervie, which was serving to carry stores, were Adelaide, Aurora, Bengal Merchant, and Duke of Roxburgh. Glenbervie sailed from London on 2 October 1839. The vessels were to rendezvous at Port Hardy on Durville Island on 10 January 1840; at the rendezvous they were told their final destination. Glenburnie arrived at Port Nicholson on 7 March 1840 in the company of Tory and Adelaide. Glenbervie was carrying the Manager, clerks, and a well-lined safe which was used to set up a branch of the Union Bank of Australia, New Zealand's first bank. In total she carried seven settlers.

Glenbervie sailed to the Pacific, Caribbean, and South America during the 1840s and 1850s.

Wreck of the Glenbervie, West Indiaman at Bristol, 23 December 1848

She was wrecked on 23 December 1848, salvaged, and repaired the following January at Bristol. The Illustrated London News reported:

On Saturday morning, the 23rd, the ship Glenbervie, 380 tons register, left Bathurst Basin, Bristol, for the purpose of proceeding to Newport, there to take in a cargo of coals on a return voyage to the Havannah. The captain at first took a pilot; but the crew being all his own countrymen, and not very readily understanding English, the pilot said he must have an assistant. The captain refused to comply, and the pilot, accordingly, would not undertake the charge of the vessel; when the captain told him that he might go ashore, for he (the captain) could manage without him. The pilot then left ; but the captain had not got his vessel much below the toll-gate, when she took the mud off Acraman's works, and soon heeled over, losing her masts, and blocking up the navigation. Every effort was made to raise her, but, for a long time, without success; we learn, however, that she has since been raised, and taken into Cumberland Basin to repair. The charge for an assistant pilot would have been 3s. or 4s.: the expense of raising and repairing the Glenbervie will cost, probably, more than as many hundred pounds, to say nothing of the inconvenience and loss of time. The vessel was grounded on a slip of mud and stones, represented by the dark mass abreast of her. She remained fast, as the tide was falling rapidly: and when the tide had almost left her dry, she fell over; her masts broken off by contact with the opposite bank of the New Cut. It should be observed that she ought not to have been taken down this river, or rather the New Cut-which is not the usual channel for large vessels, but for coasters and small craft only.

— "Wreck of the Glenbervie, West Indiaman at Bristol". No. Volume: 14, Issue: 352, pages 16. The Illustrated London News. 6 January 1849. Retrieved 31 August 2021.

The last sailing reported in Australian Newspapers was in 1859 when she sailed for Guam from Adelaide on 1 March under Captain James Anderson.^[4]

Note: The Times mistakenly reported that Glenbervie had been run down and sunk in July 1843. In a later story it reported that the vessel that had been lost was Glenburnie

Fate

A fire off the Falkland Islands on 6 August 1860 destroyed Glenbervie; the British merchant ship Tigre rescued her crew. The crew were landed at Monte Video, Uruguay. Glenbervie was on a voyage from Glasgow to Valparaíso.^[5][6]

Citations