The Euterpe / Star of India: A Living Reminder of Nineteenth-Century Trans-Oceanic Migration

In the early afternoon of Saturday 14 November 1863, a new vessel slid down the ways and into the muddy waters of the River Sulby at the port of Ramsey, on the Isle of Man. Dressed with festive flags and a bright new coat of grey paint, Euterpe exemplified for the onlookers’ Manx shipbuilding at its finest. Her destiny however, would lie not with the robust seafarers of this island, but rather with distant lands and peoples. Just under six weeks later Euterpe, bound for Liverpool, departed the Isle of Man never to return. Her designers and owners had envisaged her primarily as a vessel for the transport of cargo on the India run, and this service occupied the first eight years of her working life.

In 1871 Shaw Savill and Company purchased Euterpe with the intention of using her to capitalize on the enthusiasm for the migration of skilled immigrants to Australia and New Zealand. With her capacious hull and sturdy lines, she seems to have been eminently suited to this new role. The opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 effectively reduced the sea route from Europe to India by some 8,000 miles, allowing cargo-carrying steam vessels to make the run in a matter of weeks rather than months. Their advent relegated Euterpe and other large sailing vessels to longer sea routes where speed was not considered vital. Thus was born her second career.

Euterpe’s entry into the immigrant trade coincided with a significant shift of populations from Europe to distant regions, largely facilitated by the use of the oceanic sailing ship as a means of transportation. The story of mid-to-late nineteenth-century immigration to the islands of New Zealand would be inconceivable without this type of vessel. From 1871 to 1897, Euterpe sailed from Europe to Australia and New Zealand 21 times, each voyage with the purpose of transporting immigrants and much needed supplies. In 1840 the European population of New Zealand numbered around 2,000. By 1881, thanks largely to Euterpe and other sailing vessels like her, this population had increased to 500,000.