Historical information
The slim, green-tinged clear glass condiment bottle was possibly used for storing and serving sauce or salad oil. The handmade bottle would have had an applied lip. It has hand blown into a two-piece mould that finished just below the neck ring, with the rest of the neck and mouth hand blown. It was recovered from the wreck of the Schomberg.
ABOUT THE SCHOMBERG (October 6 to December 27, 1855)-
When the ship Schomberg was launched in 1855, she was considered the most perfect clipper ship ever to be built. James Baine’s Black Ball Line had commissioned her for their fleet of passenger liners. The Aberdeen builders designed her to sail faster than the clippers designed the three-masted wooden clipper ship to be fast. The timber used for the diagonal planking was British oak with layers of Scottish larch. This luxury emigrant vessel was designed for superior comfort. She had ventilation ducts to provide air to the lower decks and a dining saloon, smoking room, library and bathrooms for the first-class passengers.
The master for Schomberg’s maiden voyage was Captain ‘Bully’ Forbes. He drunkenly predicted at her launch that he would make the journey between Liverpool and Melbourne in 60 days. Schomberg departed Liverpool on 6 October 1855 with 430 passengers and 3000 tons of cargo including iron rails and equipment intended the build the Geelong Railway and a bridge over the Yarra from Melbourne to Hawthorn.
The poor winds slowed Schomberg’s sail across the equator. She was 78 days out of Liverpool when she ran aground on a sand spit near Peterborough, Victoria, on 27 December; the sand spit and currents were not marked on Forbes’s map. The ship’s Chief Officer spotted the coastal steamer SS Queen at dawn and sent a signal. The master of the SS Queen approached the stranded vessel and all of Schomberg’s passengers safely disembarked.
In 1975, 120 years after the Schomberg was wrecked, divers from Flagstaff Hill found an ornate communion set at the wreck site along with many other artefacts. In 1978 a diamond ring was discovered under the concretion in the lid of the communion set, which is currently on display. Former Director of Flagstaff Hill, Peter Ronald, had salvaged most of the artefacts from the wreck.
Significance
This bottle is significant as an example of an item in common use in the mid-19th century.
The Schomberg collection as a whole is of historical and archaeological significance at a State level. Flagstaff Hill’s collection of artefacts from the Schomberg is also significant for its association with the Victorian Heritage Registered shipwreck (VHR S 612).
The collection is of prime significance because of the relationship between the objects salvaged, as together they help us to interpret the story of the Schomberg. The collection as a whole is historically significant for representing aspects of Victoria's maritime history and its potential to interpret social and historical themes.
Physical description
Bottle; slim, round, clear, slightly green-tinged, glass condiment bottle, possibly for salad oil or sauce. Handmade bottle with a broken and missing lip and base. The neck is straight and plain down to a high horizontal neck ring. The neck then flares outward towards the shoulder with a vertical ribbed design, finished with a scalloped border on the top of the body. The body has straight sides. Side seams run from below the neck ring to the heel. The glass has imperfections, bubbles and an uneven surface. There is brown sediment on its shoulder. A long white plug is in the narrow part of the neck. The bottle was recovered from the wreck of the Schomberg.
Subjects
- flagstaff hill,
- warrnambool,
- flagstaff hill maritime museum,
- maritime museum,
- shipwreck coast,
- flagstaff hill maritime village,
- great ocean road,
- shipwreck artefact,
- john chance,
- glass bottle,
- antique bottle,
- handmade,
- mouth blown,
- blown bottle,
- 19th century bottle,
- collectable,
- bottle,
- two piece mould,
- food bottle,
- oil bottle,
- salad oil bottle,
- sauce bottle,
- condiments bottle,
- neck ring,
- ribbed sides
References
- Bottle Typing / Diagnostic Shapes Society for Historical Archaeology
- Identify old bottles Williamson P, Aug 4th 2020, How to tell the age of a glass bottle, True Legacy Homes
- Glass bottles from the Loch Ard shipwreck Stuart, Iain, 1991, Australian Historical Archaeology, 9, 1991
- Whirley salad oil bottle, with cork and contents New Zealand Maritime Museum
- Bottle Typing / Diagnostic Shapes Sauce and Condiments bottle, Ribbed Style
- Schomberg, Exploring Shipwrecks of Western Victoria by Peter Ronald ISBN/ISSN: 0 7316 1922 6 The author's account of recovering artefacts on the Schomberg.
- Victorian Heritage database: Schomberg About the recovery of the diamond and the shipwreck and its significance to Victoria