'Stirlingshire' and HMS 'Acheron' sailing ship art

The painting by Roger Morris shows the Stirlingshire and HMS Acheron as the latter departs for Waiheke. Rigging of the Stirlingshire is well advanced with John Gillies’ schooner Vivid alongside. A few weeks later, in January, 1849, the Stirlingshire, under the command of Captain Arthur Devlin, sailed her to Auckland and then Hobart. Eventually it was sold to Launceston business interests and began a series of annual voyages between there and London until 1855 when it was sold and from then, traded to many parts of the globe. It ended its days in 1887 as an ice hulk for the herring fleet in Kinsale, Ireland before being towed offshore and sunk where its remains presumably lie to this day.

The Stirlingshire was built first by Robert Menzies and then by Captain John Gillies for William Abercrombie at Nagles Cove, on the west coast of Great Barrier Island, during the 1840s and launched in November, 1848. Rigging and other items required were delivered in 1841 by the brig Porter direct to the building yard. At 109 ft long, it was the largest sailing ship ever built in New Zealand. Its building was interrupted by a deep but brief recession.

HMS Acheron, commanded by John Lort Stokes, who had previously sailed on the famous HMS Beagle, was in the process of carrying out the first comprehensive survey of the New Zealand coast, and its chart of the Nagles Cove area was used up until recently.

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