Bark Roslin Castle

["William S. Buehler" <roslinne@fone.net>]

Ian, 

You ask: "If anyone could possibly shed any more light on this ship, that would be a bonus, but otherwise I thought I would share this with Sinclair cousins in case it is new information."

Just a minor technical point but probably more important to a professional historian: a "bark" is not a "ship"...a significant distinction in the days of sail. A "ship" has 3 or more masts, square rigged on each mast, while a "bark" has at least 3 masts and is fore-and-aft rigged on the mizzen (aftermost mast). ROSLYN CASTLE would still have been built of wood and have had 3 masts in those early days. The bark would not be fast but could point nearer the wind and use a smaller crew. Just a guess, but for the long hauls to Australia the captain might have rerigged her as a ship. 

I can find about a dozen names of "Castle" ships and these were apparently built on orders by the London firm of R. and H. Green, one of the 5 firms carrying on the defunct East India Company. Their ships apparently mainly sailed in the Blackwall Line (not the Blackball, a different one). I find a reference to "Messrs. Green's Blackwall Line of Passenger Ships" in advertising MELBOURNE, a frigate built Indiaman of 1,857 tons, iron hull, launched in 1875. I don't find a reference to a "Castle Line" however there may have been one; I doubt it. 

Bill Buehler
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Ref: "The sheets show various ships listed by year, and "Roslin Castle" appears to have been a 450 ton bark, built in Bristol UK in 1819.  It apparently made trips to Australia in 1833 and 1834, although it seems there may have been more."