| History | |
|---|---|
 United Kingdom | |
| Name | Frederick |
| Owner | Palmer & Co. [1] |
| Port of registry | Calcutta |
| Launched | 1807, Batavia |
| Fate | Wrecked in 1818 |
| General characteristics | |
| Tons burthen | 210 [2] (bm) |
| Propulsion | Sail |
| Complement | 41 [1] |
| Armament | 2 guns [1] |
Frederick was a sailing ship built in 1807 at Batavia. She made four voyages to Australia and was wrecked at Cape Flinders on Stanley Island, Queensland, Australia in 1818. [3]
Frederick made four voyages to Australia transporting merchandise, passengers, and on each occasion, some military convicts. In 1815 she carried eight escaped convicts that had stowed away on Archduke Charles when she had left from Port Jackson for Canton.
Captain Joseph Savigny arrived at Port Jackson from Bengal on 6 December 1812. Frederick was carrying merchandise. She left on 10 February 1813 for the Derwent River. She left the Derwent and returned to Port Jackson on 21 April. She left for Bengal on 19 May. [4]
On her way to Port Jackson, Captain Savigny in 1812 discovered a reef that was named after her. The Frederick Reefs are located in the Coral Sea Islands, over 220 nautical miles (410 km) northeast of Gladstone, Queensland. The reefs were described in the ship's log:
the north-east extremity of which is laid down in latitude 20 degrees 44 minutes, and longitude 150 degrees 32 minutes; it is of semi-circular shape, and extends as far south as 21 degrees 2 minutes, and appears to be nearly twenty miles wide. [5]
Captain William Duncan and Frederick arrived at Port Jackson on 18 June 1814, from Bengal, carrying merchandise. She left 22 July to return to Bengal. [4]
Captain John Williams and Frederick arrived at Port Jackson from Bengal on 27 April 1815, with merchandise. She left for Calcutta on 11 June. [4]
Captain Williams and Frederick again arrived at Port Jackson on 23 June 1816 from Bengal, with merchandise. She left for Calcutta on 1 August. [4]
Frederick was under the command of Captain John Williams when she left Hobart, Tasmania on 27 June 1818 bound for Mauritius. She was carrying sheep and cattle but these died from heat at the Percy Isles off the east coast of Queensland. Williams ordered the crew to collect spars to take to Mauritius instead and it was at this time that the ship was wrecked at Cape Flinders in August.
Two boats were launched and shortly after the ship broke in two. In one boat were the master, two men, and two boys while the long boat carried the remaining twenty-three of the crew.
Duke of Wellington, which had been travelling with Frederick for much of their journey, rescued Williams and the four other crew in his boat. The long boat was not seen again and one can only assumed that the twenty-three surviving crew drowned, or were killed by aborigines. Williams had sailed with a sixteen-year-old girl whom he had bought from her father, much to the scandal of the colonial community. The girl may have been lost when the long-boat was swamped, or may have been captured by aborigines as there were rumours later of a white woman having been seen with aborigines in the area.
Captain Phillip Parker King of HMS Mermaid found the wreck of Frederick on 13 July 1819 while he was on a surveying expedition. [6]
Mersey was a ship launched at Chittagong in 1801 and wrecked in the Torres Strait, Australia, about mid-June 1804. She was the first merchantman lost in the Strait.
Sir Charles Hardy Islands is in the reef of the same name adjacent to Pollard Channel & Blackwood Channel about 40 km east of Cape Grenville off Cape York Peninsula.
Cato was launched at Stockton in 1800 and registered in London to Reeve & Green. She was wrecked on the Great Barrier Reef, Australia, in 1803 at.
SS Gothenburg was an iron-hulled sail- and steamship that was built in England in 1854 and sailed between England and Sweden until 1862. She then moved to Australia, where she operated across the Tasman Sea to and from New Zealand until 1873, when she was rebuilt. After her rebuild, she operated in the Australian coastal trade.
Campbell Macquarie was a ship that Joseph Underwood, a Sydney merchant, purchased at Calcutta in 1810. She appears, with Richard Siddins, master, in a list of vessels registered at Calcutta in 1811. She was wrecked near Macquarie Island in 1812.
Morning Star was launched at Calcutta, India, in 1813. She was wrecked on a coral reef south of Forbes Island, north Queensland in July 1814.
Trial was a ship that first appears in 1808 and that was seized by convicts and eventually wrecked on the Mid North Coast of New South Wales, Australia in 1816.
Lady Elliot was a ship that was probably wrecked off the coast near Cardwell, Queensland, Australia in 1816. It was a ship of 353 tons and had been constructed in Bengal, India, completed in 1815.
Saumarez Reef is one of the southernmost reefs to be located in the Coral Sea Islands and part of the Coral Sea Shelf; it contains three main reefs and numerous smaller reefs all of which form a large crescent-shaped formation open to the northwest, about 27 by 14 km, area less than 300 km2.
The Wreck Reefs are located in the southern part of the Coral Sea Islands approximately 450 kilometres (280 mi) east-north-east of Gladstone, Queensland, Australia.
The Earl of Charlemont was a medium-sized, 878 ton passenger ship, which sank on a voyage to Australia.
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HMS Porpoise was a 12-gun sloop-of-war originally built in Bilbao, Spain, as the packet ship Infanta Amelia. On 6 August 1799 HMS Argo captured her off the coast of Portugal. Porpoise wrecked in 1803 on the North coast of what was then part of the Colony of New South Wales, now called Wreck Reefs, off the coast of Queensland, Australia.
Admiral Gifford was a wooden schooner that was lost while travelling between Port Macquarie and Sydney, New South Wales, on 8 October 1834 with a cargo of grain, hides and tallow.
Masthead Island is a coral cay located in the southern Great Barrier Reef, 60 kilometres northeast of Gladstone, Queensland. The island is a protected area and forms part of Capricornia Cays National Park. Masthead Island is one of the most undisturbed cays in the national park because human and feral animal impacts have been rare. The cay covers an area of 0.45 square kilometres (0.17 sq mi) and is surrounded by a coral reef that is partially exposed at low-tide. It is part of the Capricornia Cays Important Bird Area.
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Royal Charlotte was a three-masted merchant ship launched in 1819. Royal Charlotte carried convicts to Australia in 1825. On her way home to India via Batavia she wrecked on 11 June, but with minimal loss of life.
HMS Mermaid was a cutter built in Howrah, India, in 1816. The British Royal Navy purchased her at Port Jackson in 1817. The Navy then used her to survey the Australian coasts. In 1820 she grounded and in 1823 was condemned for survey work. The Navy sold her to the colonial government which used her to run errands until she was wrecked in 1829.
Prince Blucher was launched at Chittagong in 1815. She made one voyage for the British East India Company. She participated in two and possibly three rescues, one particularly notable, and was wrecked in 1821. Condemned, she was laid up and later broken up in 1824.
Greyhound was launched at Java in 1816. She burnt there in 1821.
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| Other incidents | |
