'BENTINCK'
Passengers - 102.
Cost £89,000.
15th December 1849. Sailed from Madras.
18th December 1849. Sailed from Point de Galle.
29th December 1849. Sailed from Aden.
4th January 1850. Arrived at Suez.
28th September 1850. A claim was preferred in the Supreme Court at Calcutta lately, on behalf of the commander and crew of the ‘Richard Cobden’, for salvage on the ship which had sprung a leak in the harbour of Colombo. The ‘Richard Cobden’ was one of five vessels which rendered her assistance, and for this the Court awarded 3000 rs. as her share of salvage.
20th February 1851. Arrived at Southampton from the East Indies. She has been employed for four years in running with the mails between Suez, Aden, Ceylon, Madras, and Calcutta, and has come home to receive new boilers and undergo an extensive refit prior to further service in India. She made the long voyage, principally under canvas, the full steam power not being used in consequence of the weak state of the boilers.
She had a good passage home, though, her boilers are ‘all to pieces’. She touched at Ascension, but there being only a short supply of coals at the depot and she was obliged to go to Sierra Leone for a supply.
14th July 1851. Refit completed at the Money Wigram Yard at Northam. This fine vessel has undergone a complete overhaul and refit, both of hull and machinery, at a cost of about £35,000; but the directors feel perfectly warranted in stating, that she is now a better vessel, in many respects, than when first started, her passenger – accommodation being greatly improved and extended; added to which, she is fitted with patent feathering wheels, and new boilers of a superior description.
22nd August 1851. Captain Killock, of the ‘Bentinck’, has invented a plan for preventing accidents in large ships when fidding the top-mast. Instead of the usual mode, which is liable to all sorts of accidents from slipping or carelessness, he uses a racket, by which, as the topmast ascends, it is constantly kept in its place step by step, and cannot by possibility fall.
6th December 1851. The Chairman (of P& O) had no doubt whatever on this point (was the refit justified?). He saw greatly improved speed. The speed was increased by 1½ knots; she ran from Southampton to Gibraltar in 4 days and 14 hours, the average speed being 10½ knots an hour.
7th December 1851. Sailed from Alexandria for Southampton.
11th December 1851. Sailed from Malta for Southampton.
15th December 1851. Sailed from Gibraltar for Southampton.
19th December 1851. Arrived at Southampton.
20th December 1851. Sailed for India.
11th May 1860. Sold to the Indian Government for service as a store carrier.
