Victorian plant collectors used a variety of ships, ranging from Royal Navy survey vessels to commercial steamships and merchant sailing ships
. The invention of the Wardian case, a sealed glass terrarium, significantly improved the survival rate of plants during long sea voyages, making the transport of live specimens on these ships highly successful.
Notable Ships Involved
SS Great Britain This famous passenger steamship was vital for commercial plant migration between England and Australia in the mid-1800s. Plant hunters and nursery owners used its speed to transport sought-after species like Australian ferns and orchids to Victorian Britain, and European plants (including roses, rhododendrons, and even invasive bramble) to the new colonies.
HMS Erebus and HMS Terror These were the two British naval discovery ships that undertook the Antarctic voyage (1839-1843) under the command of Captain James Clark Ross. Joseph Dalton Hooker, a prominent botanist, served as assistant surgeon and naturalist on the Erebus, collecting thousands of plant specimens from the southern islands.
HMS Beagle Though Charles Darwin's famous voyage (1831-1836) aboard the Beagle slightly predates the Victorian era (which began in 1837), his work collecting animal, plant, and fossil specimens had a major influence on Victorian naturalists. The Beagle conducted hydrographic surveys of Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego.
HMS Challenger This ship is known for the Challenger expedition (1873-1876), a major scientific voyage that collected numerous natural history specimens, though it focused heavily on marine exploration and deep-sea dredging.
HMS Resolution Francis Masson, the first official plant hunter from Kew Gardens, sailed on this naval ship as far as Cape Town with Captain Cook's second expedition in the 1770s.
Transportation Innovations
The success of Victorian plant collecting was greatly aided by the Wardian case, a mini glasshouse invented by Nathaniel Bagshaw Ward in 1833.
These cases protected plants from salt spray, harsh weather, and pests.
They created an internal microclimate, allowing plants to survive long journeys with minimal watering.
This innovation increased plant survival rates at sea from as low as 1-33% to nearly 100%, enabling the mass migration of plants around the globe.
The shift from sailing ships to faster steamships also reduced transit times, further improving the chances of live plants arriving at their destination in good condition.
Victorian sailing ship construction, exemplified by ships like HMS
Beagle, blended traditional timber framing with evolving naval needs, using strong woods like oak, intricate hull shaping (sweeps and floor timbers), and evolving rigging for surveying or warfare, transitioning from pure sail to steam-assisted iron hulls (like Brunel's Great Britain), marking a significant shift towards modern naval architecture and propulsion by the era's end.
Hull Construction
Materials: Primarily robust timbers, often oak, with planking thicknesses varying (e.g., Beagle's hull had 4-inch wale and 3-inch bottom planking).
Framing: Shipwrights used complex lines and sweeps (curves) to define the hull's shape from the keel up, with floor timbers often of uniform diameter.
Joinery: Timbers were carefully shaped (scarfed) and positioned, sometimes canted forward to save bevelling (shaping) for the hawse-pieces.
Rigging & Design
HMS Beagle (Brig Sloop): A smaller, versatile vessel with two masts, square sails (mainsail, topsail, topgallant) on the foremast, and a large fore-and-aft spanker on the mainmast, plus jibs.
Adaptation: Ships like Beagle were often refitted, like being converted from a 10-gun brig sloop to a surveying vessel.
Victorian Innovations & Transition
Iron & Steam: By mid-century, engineers like Brunel introduced iron hulls (SS Great Britain) and screw propellers, revolutionizing size and efficiency, though traditional wooden sailing ships were still built.
Armored Ships: Towards the later Victorian era (mid-1860s), ironclad warships emerged, featuring heavy armor and reduced masts, signalling the end of the pure wooden sailing warship era, as seen in debates around ships like Warrior and Black Prince.
Examples Mentioned
HMS Beagle: A classic oak-built brig sloop, famed for surveying, representing mid-19th-century wooden naval architecture.
SS Great Britain: An iconic iron-hulled, propeller-driven steamship, showcasing Victorian engineering prowess.
HMS Terror: (Though often associated with Franklin's expedition before the later Victorian period, she was a bomb ketch of an earlier design, highlighting wooden construction, but her story fits the exploration theme).
The HMS Erebus was a Hecla-class bomb vessel launched in 1826. Its construction was exceptionally robust, as it was originally designed to withstand the massive downward recoil of its 13-inch and 10-inch mortars. For its later polar expeditions, it was further reinforced with additional wooden sheathing and iron plating to survive ice pressure.
Wood Used in Construction
The ship was built using several high-quality timbers, each selected for its specific properties:
Oak: The primary material for the frames (ribs) and hulls. The frames were crafted from English oak (specifically from the Forest of Dean), which provided the essential hardness and resistance to decay needed for a warship. The hull was "double-thick," clad in four-inch thick oak planks.
Elm: Used for the keel and sections of the hull below the waterline. Elm is highly durable when permanently submerged and provides the great strength required for the ship's backbone. During polar refits, the bottom was doubled with English elm and Canada elm.
Teak: Used for the upper deck planking. Teak’s natural oils make it highly resistant to rot and ideal for exposed weather decks.
Pine: Employed for masts and sometimes for decking. Pine provided the necessary flexibility and lightness for the rigging.
Mahogany: Used for high-end interior fittings and furniture. Archeological recoveries from the wreck site have confirmed the presence of mahogany furniture legs in the captain’s cabin.
Key Construction Features
Strengthened Hull: The vessel featured an interlocking "hook and butt" planking design and massive internal oak beam braces to prevent it from being crushed by pack ice.
Copper Sheathing: The lower hull was sheathed in pure copper plates to prevent marine growth and protect the wood from wood-boring worms.
Iron Reinforcement: For the Franklin expedition, the bow was reinforced with iron plates for 20 feet on each side to help it cut through ice.