Page 32 - Captain William Strike of Porthleven
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October 3, the Falmouth  Port Entry log notes an arrival from San Jose, ‘Ready Rhino’
              being on passage to Antwerp. The San Jose referred to here is the Uruguayan  port on
              the Santa Lucia river, which drains into the River Plate. Earlier in the year – in April –
              ‘Ready Rhino’ had been trading into Montevideo.  A very similar pattern occurred in
              1880, with the middle part of the year taken up with trading in the Rio Grande. A return
              from the southern hemisphere  is recorded in Fox’s Register of Arrivals and Sailings, for
              Falmouth.  On July 30 ‘Ready Rhino’ is recorded as arriving with a cargo of hides, bound
              for Hamburg  though somewhat confusingly  the consignees  are stated to be the London
              firm of Knowles and Fisher. This must have been one of William Strike’s last voyages on
              ‘Ready Rhino’ as his son John took command.

              Retirement

              The year of 1881 was the year that saw William Strike retired from the sea at the age of
              67. Once again, ‘Ready Rhino’ spent much of the middle part of that year trading down
              to the Rio Grande while the first part of the year, up to the end of April, was spent trading
              down to Cadiz and Seville.

              The following year – 1882 – records coastwise passages  to Hull, Goole and Nantes
              again under the command  of the Norwegian,  Rasmusson.  John Strike seems to have
              had command for the voyages down to the Rio Grande, which occupied most of the
              period from May to October. A considerable  number of passages  were to Pernambuco,
              which may suggest that the Strikes had secured a lucrative part of the sugar export trade
              from that port.

              In 1883, command  is again shared though at least two voyages to the Rio Grande, in
              January and February,  and again from July through to October, suggest that John Strike
              wanted one last bite at the lucrative freights which applied to this part of the world. Late
              in 1883 John Strike exercised  his power of sale. The power of sale granted was
              constrained  so that any purchase price should be not less than £500 whether the vessel
              was sold in South America or on the Continent of Europe. In the event, John Strike sold
              ‘Ready Rhino’ to John Stephens of Feock. It appears that William Strike’s son was well
              funded for the purchase of the ‘Elizabeth  Stevens’ in the following year, 1884, even
              though part of the purchase price was funded through mortgage finance. That chapter of
              John Strike’s sea-going  life was described  previously.

              The golden age of sail

              There is no doubt that the period 1860 to 1890 was something  of a golden age for sail in
              world trade. In the case of South American  trade, smaller vessels like ‘Ready Rhino’
              were able to take advantage  of good freight rates for a variety of reasons, not least the
              fact that docking facilities in the ports of the Rio Grande were slow to develop in order to
              accommodate  the larger, steam driven vessels.

              Nevertheless,  increasing competition  from steam propulsion  probably meant that 1883
              was an opportune moment for a sale of ‘Ready Rhino’. The growing efficiency  of steam
              propulsion meant that sail had a limited life expectancy.  Until then steam driven vessels
              could only expect to compete effectively  with sail if the technology  showed significant
              improvement,  if freight rates and market prices factored in an absorption  of higher
              transport costs, and if subsidies  were deliberately  biased towards transportation  by
              steam driven vessels. Significantly  it appears that those steamships  were, by 1870, able






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