Book:
COMMANDERS OF SAIL, by Geoffrey D Stephenson
COMMANDERS OF SAIL is an authentic account of the great sailing ship Sobraon and the role she and her long-time commander, Captain James Elmslie played in the transformation of a clutch of exuberant colonies into the new nation of Australia.
The ship Sobraon served Australia for 75 years. From 1866 to 1891 she was arguably the greatest square-rigged sailing ship trading between England and Australia. For the following 50 years she was moored in Sydney Harbour. Until 1911 she lay off Cockatoo Island operated by the NSW Government as a reformatory school ship for disadvantaged boys. Under the name HMAS Tingira from 1912 to 1927 and anchored in Rose Bay she was the training establishment for young men seeking a career in the fledgling Royal Australian Navy.
Captain Elmslie commanded the ship on 24 voyages out of London – five to Sydney followed by nineteen to Melbourne. For thousands of passengers and for the merchants whose cargoes were entrusted to them, the great ship and her popular master were inseparable.
In addition to recording the triumphant story of the Sobraon and her Captain the book reveals much about the life of mariners and their families. It also tells of the ever-present dangers of going to sea, and the frequent tragedies.
COMMANDERS OF SAIL is two books in one – the story book, and the picture book. Firstly, the text is drawn largely from original Elmslie family journals, papers, letters and diaries. These documents appear on this website under ‘Elmslie Archives’. The text is uninterrupted by illustrations.
Secondly, because of the Sobraon’s enviable reputation established over 25 years of ocean sailing, and because of her overall 75 years of service, many artists produced countless drawings, engravings, paintings and photographs depicting the ship, life on board, and the environment within which the ship operated. Fortunately many such images are preserved in libraries and museums around the world. More than 100 are reproduced in the book in full-page high-definition format, each with its explanatory notes.
Captain James Elmslie was an outstanding commander and no other ship served Australia in so many ways and for so long as the Sobraon. There is a similarity in the reflections of knowledgeable commentators, including:
Oswald Brett, May 2013:
‘It is wonderful that the famous clipper Sobraon will have a book devoted to her, and to her noted master, Captain Elmslie. The book will be a valuable contribution to British-Australian maritime history. Had the Sobraon survived the War (WWII) she, almost certainly, would have been restored to sailing condition.
Although much was gone from the Sobraon when I knew her in the 1930s, much of her greatness remained: her great structural strength and power were still most evident, and those muscular bows were yet able to invoke Masefield’s memorable lines: That splendour of fine bows which yet could stand the shock of rollers never checked by land. Her shapely quarters, and stern aft, indicated after years of neglect at her Berry’s Bay anchorage what a magnificent vessel she had truly once been. Sic Transit Gloria Mundi.’
(As a young Sydney boy Oswald Longfield Brett drew the old Sobraon in Berry’s Bay in January 1938. Later Brett gained world renown as one of the finest marine painters of the 20th century.)
Naval Historical Society of Australia, website March 2017:
‘Of all the great ships of Her Majesty’s Australian Navy, the ship which has possibly received the least acclaim, and yet the one which should receive high honours, is HMAS Tingira.’
The Sydney Mail, Wednesday 22 June 1927:
‘The last of the Sobraon: And now she goes to the breakers. She was one of the finest sailing ships ever launched, one of the most beautiful things ever seen, and may her soul rest where all beautiful things rest that have been the delight of man while serving him so well.’
COMMANDERS OF SAIL (ISBN 978-0-9923683-0-2, hard cover, 555 pages) is a mix of Australian history, British-Australian maritime history, and family and social history in approximately equal measures.
Author:
Geoffrey D Stephenson, A Mus A, B Com (Hons), MBA, FCIS, MIAMA
The author is a retired Melbourne businessman, arbitrator and mediator, an historian and musician.
Availability:
COMMANDERS OF SAIL is held in major Australian libraries and maritime museums, and is available for purchase from BookPod at http://www.bookstore.bookpod.com.au/p/8753490/commanders-of-sail.html