Mersey (1894 ship)

The Mersey was a 1,829 ton iron-hulled sailing ship with a length of, beam of and depth of. She was built by Charles Connell and Company of Glasgow, named after the River Mersey in north-western England and launched on 18 May 1894 for the Nourse Line. Nourse Line used her primarily to transport of Indian indentured labourers to the British colonies, a so-called, Coolie ship. Details of some of these voyages are as follows:

Destination	Date of arrival	Number of passengers	Deaths during voyage
Suriname	10 April 1896	661	n/a
Trinidad	20 October 1897	668	11
Suriname	28 January 1902	678	n/a
Fiji	13 June 1903	585	n/a
Trinidad	8 February 1906	665	5

In 1908 the Mersey was sold to the White Star Line for use as a training ship for 60 cadets, making six voyages to Australia as a White Star training ship, traveling around the Cape of Good Hope outbound and Cape Horn inbound. In 1910 she became the first sailing ship to be equipped with a radio. She was also the first sailing ship aboard which an operation for appendicitis was performed on a cadet. In 1915 the White Star Line gave up their training scheme due to the war and sold the Mersey to Norwegian owners. She changed hands a number of times and her name was changed to Transatlantic then to Dvergso. She was scrapped in 1923.