Duke of York (1817 ship)

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History
Civil Ensign of the United Kingdom.svg United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
NameDuke of York
Owner
Operator South Australia Company (1836)
BuilderBideford Shipyard
Launched1817
FateWrecked 14 August 1837
General characteristics [1]
Class & type Barque
Tons burthen180, [2] or 190, [3] or 192 (bm)
Length81 ft 3 in (24.8 m) [3]
Beam23 ft (7.0 m)
PropulsionSails
Sail planThree masted barque
Crew
  • 1817:21 [2]
  • 1836:27
Armament2 × 9-pounder guns [2]

Duke of York was a three-masted brig (later barque) launched in 1817, at Bideford as a Falmouth packet, sailing between Falmouth, Cornwall, and Jamaica. In 1836, she brought settlers to South Australia for the South Australia Company. She was wrecked in 1837.

Contents

Career

Duke of York first appeared in Lloyd's Register (LR) with "Price" (later J. Price), master and owner, and trade Falmouth–Jamaica. [4] She was a Falmouth packet. [2]

Packet voyages

The list of voyages below is not complete. In addition to the voyages to North and South America, Duke of York may have sailed to the Mediterranean and other destinations. For instance, on 17 November 1819, Duke of York was at Gibraltar on her way to Malta. Also, on the voyages to South America, Duke of York would have stopped at Madeira.

YearMasterOwnerTradeSource
1830SnellBull & Co.Falmouth PacketLR
1833SnellCaptain & Co.Falmouth PacketRegister of Shipping
1836MorganAngus & Co.London–AustraliaLR

Immigrant voyage

Under the command of Captain Robert Clark Morgan, and chartered by the South Australia Company, Duke of York left London on 24 February 1836, as part of the "First Fleet of South Australia", and arrived at Kangaroo Island on 27 July 1836, after 154 days at sea. [5] The ship dropped anchor at Nepean Bay. [6] She carried 42 passengers: 38 adults and four children, one of whom was selected by Morgan as the first of the fleet to set foot on the new land. [7]

The settlers established Kingscote, the first free settlement in Australia. [8] Duke of York was the first pioneer ship to reach South Australia with European settlers, as the start of the British colonisation of South Australia. [1]

Whaling

Leaving the passengers on Kangaroo Island, Duke of York sailed on 20 September 1836, to hunt whales, without ever continuing to Holdfast Bay. [9] She called at Hobart Town from 27 September 1836 to 18 October, to refresh and to proceed to the South Sea whaling grounds. On 10 February 1837, Morgan heard of the wreck of the schooner Active in the Fiji Islands. At Lakeba they took on board her master, Captain Dixon, her mate, Willings, and the supercargo, Wilkey. [10]

Shipwreck

Duke of York was whaling up the coast of Queensland when on 14 July 1837, she was shipwrecked off Port Curtis, near current day Gladstone, Queensland. The whole ship's company was saved and got into three boats. They rowed and sailed 300 miles to Moreton Bay, 14 miles from Brisbane, where they arrived Saturday 26 August 1837, after a most uncomfortable time. On the way down Aboriginals killed an English crewman, George Glansford, of Barking Essex, and a Rotumah native boy, named Bob, when the boats put in for water. [11] The steamer James Watt took Morgan, the mate Bob Russell, and nineteen survivors on to Sydney, leaving the remainder to follow in another vessel. [3] [12] [13] [Note 1]

Notes

  1. ↑ James Watt, of 142 tons (bm), was launched in Liverpool in 1824. Lloyd's Register showed her with home port of London and trade London to New South Wales. [14]

Citations

  1. 1 2 "The barque Duke of York – 1st pioneer ship to arrive" Archived 27 August 2008 at the Wayback Machine , History South Australia.
  2. 1 2 3 4 LR (1818), "Falmouth Packets", Seq.№7.
  3. 1 2 3 Stone (2006), p. 245.
  4. ↑ LR (1818), Seq.№457.
  5. ↑ "Duke of York – 27 July 1836" Archived 20 September 2008 at the Wayback Machine , Passenger Ships Arriving in South Australia.
  6. ↑ "Heritage—memories of scriptwriter Ellinor Walker" Archived 11 October 2008 at the Wayback Machine , State Library of South Australia, 2001.
  7. ↑ "Anniversary". The Kangaroo Island Courier . Vol. XXXVIII, no. 30. South Australia. 27 July 1945. p. 2. Retrieved 31 August 2025– via National Library of Australia.
  8. ↑ "Home" Archived 9 August 2010 at the Wayback Machine , Kangaroo Island Council.
  9. ↑ "The Infancy of South Australian Settlement". South Australian Register . South Australia. 27 July 1886. p. 6. Retrieved 11 April 2020– via Trove.
  10. ↑ Bateson (1972), p. 74.
  11. ↑ "Shipping Intelligence". The Australian . Vol. IV, no. 438. New South Wales, Australia. 22 September 1837. p. 2. Retrieved 18 May 2017– via National Library of Australia.
  12. ↑ "The Man Who Hunted Whales – A Tale of Kangaroo Island and a Doomed Ship" Heinrich, D Archived 25 January 2016 at the Wayback Machine , 2011 ,
  13. ↑ "Ship News". The Morning Post. No. 20941. London. 2 February 1838.
  14. ↑ LR (1837), Seq.№J74.

References

Further reading

27°02′11.84″S153°21′13.64″E / 27.0366222°S 153.3537889°E / -27.0366222; 153.3537889

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