The Schooner Brigantine HIBERNICA

Introduction

The family history of my father, Nicolas Francois de Ste Croix describes how he came to Canada in 1888 on a sailing ship to work for the William Fruing Co. The ship was called the Hibernica.

The fact that my father left his home and family in Jersey at the age of 16 to come to Canada on a sailing ship has always impressed me and I have wanted to learn more about this ship.

Search for Information

Recently I found that the Island of Jersey had an excellent web page on the Internet (http:\\www.jersey.co.uk). On this web page I found the e-mail address for the Jersey Maritime Museum where I sent a request to the Curator Jon Carter for information and hopefully a picture of the Hibernica.

It is interesting to me that my request for information about a sailing ship that sometimes took almost a month to cross the Atlantic Ocean was by e-mail and could travel so quickly. I received an answer back from Mr. Jon Carter the next day to say that the museum would try to find some information about the ship and a picture if possible.

Later I received a letter from Claire Follain, the Assistant Curator of the Jersey Museum with some particulars of the ship and that a search was continuing for a picture.

The Schooner Brigantine Hibernica

The schooner brigantine Hibernica was built by James Henry at Shippagan, New Brunswick and was launched on July 1863 for the owner W. Fruing & Co. The official number was 46623 and its signal letters were UKGD. The ship was 104 feet 5 inches long and 22 feet at its widest point. The tonnage was 165 tons. The ships captain for a long period of time was John Francois Le Gresley from Jersey

A Brigantine is a two masted sailing ship with a square rigged foremast and a fore-and-aft rigged mainmast.

The William Fruing and Company operated from 8 Caledonia Place, Jersey and was established in 1831 by two brothers Philip and William Fruing. At one point the company owned 30 vessels including the Hibernica. In 1874, the Fruing company was announced en desastre (bankrupt) and was transferred into the name of J.P. Tocque, a director of Fruing and Co. and a ship owner in his own right. The company continued to trade under the name of W. Fruing for many years after this. The Hibernica remained the property of J.P. Tocque and remained with this company until 1905. Both the Fruing company and the J.P. Tocque company used the same house flag, a triangular shaped flag with a red background and a white circle in the middle. The 1890 issue of the Jersey Almanac lists the Brigantine Hibernica at 165 tons and owned by J.P.Tocque.

My father made two trips back to Jersey on sailing ships probably not on the Hibernica. On one trip back to Jersey my father remembered that it took almost a month and they were given up for lost. When they did reach Jersey the only food left were hard tack or ships biscuit. His final trip back to Canada was on a steamship from England at the time of Queen Victoria's diamond jubilee.

The Hibernica Painting

After further research at the Jersey museum, a painting of the Hibernica was found in the art collection. It is an original watercolour painting of the Hibernica (dated 1870). The painting is unsigned but of typical English painting style. It is good condition and is 42 cm high and 60 cm wide.

The museum catalogue information for this painting includes the following: "Schooner Brigantine, Tonnage 165. Owner W.Fruing & Co. Master, John Le Gresley. Built 1863. Entering Bay of Naples. In 1885 did the journey from Gaspé to Jersey in the record time of 11 days 18 hrs. Gouache. 16" x 24"." The Oxford dictionary describes gouache as painting with opaque pigments ground in water and thickened with gum and honey.