HMAT Supply (1759)

Last updated

'HMS Supply' Replica in Sydney Harbour (11976156784).jpg
Replica of HMAT Supply in Sydney Harbour in 1938
History
Naval Ensign of Great Britain (1707-1800).svg Great Britain
NameHMAT Supply
Ordered4 April 1759
BuilderHenry Bird, Rotherhithe
Laid down1 May 1759
Launched5 October 1759
Commissioned17 October 1759
Decommissioned21 April 1792
Out of service17 July 1792
FateSold out of Navy service for £600
British-Red-Ensign-1707.svgGreat Britain
NameThomas and Nancy
Acquired1792 by purchase for £600
FateLast listed in 1806
General characteristics
Class and type
  • Yard Craft (1759-86)
  • Armed Tender (1786-92)
Tons burthen17476⁄94 or 186 [1] (bm)
Length
  • 79 ft 4 in (24.2 m) overall
  • 64 ft 11 in (19.8 m) (keel)
Beam22 ft 6 in (6.9 m)
Depth of hold11 ft 6 in (3.5 m)
PropulsionSail
Complement
  • 14 as yard craft (1759-86)
  • 55 as armed tender (1786-92)
Armament
  • As yard craft: 4 × 3-pounder guns + 6 × 1⁄2-pounder swivels
  • As armed tender: 4 × 3-pounder guns, 4 × 12-pounder carronades
Lt. Henry Lidgbird Ball, Commander of HMAT Supply HenryLidgbirdBall.jpg
Lt. Henry Lidgbird Ball, Commander of HMAT Supply
Lt. David Blackburn, Master of HMAT Supply SLNSW 838426 Lieutenant David Blackburn silhouette.jpg
Lt. David Blackburn, Master of HMAT Supply

Launched in 1759, the third Supply was a Royal Navy armed tender that played an important part in the foundation of the Colony of New South Wales. [2] The Navy sold her in 1792. She then served commercially until about 1806.

Contents

HMAT Supply (1759) is not to be confused with the replacement vessel HMS Supply (1793), a 10-gun storeship, of 388 tons (bm), originally the American mercantile New Brunswick, which the Admiralty purchased in 1793 as an armed vessel for the colony at Port Jackson and was broken up there in 1806.

Construction

Supply was designed in 1759 by shipwright Thomas Slade, as a yard craft for the ferrying of naval supplies. [3] [4] Construction was contracted to Henry Bird of Rotherhithe, for a vessel measuring 168 20⁄94 tons (bm) to be built in four months at £8.80 per ton. In practice, construction took about five months from the laying of the keel on 1 May 1759 to launch on 5 October. As built, the vessel was also larger than designed, measuring 174 76⁄94 tons (bm) and with a length overall of 79 ft 4 in (24.2 m), a beam of 22 ft 6 in (6.9 m), and a hold depth of 11 ft 6 in (3.51 m). [3]

Rigged as a brig, she had two masts, and was fitted with four small 3-pounder cannons and six 1⁄2-pounder swivel guns. Her armament was substantially increased in 1786 with the addition of four 12-pounder carronades. [3]

Her initial complement was 14 men, rising to 55 when converted to an armed tender for the First Fleet voyage in 1788. [3]

Service history

Supply was used to transport naval supplies between the Thames and Channel ports from 1759 to 1786. Throughout this period, she was based at Deptford Dockyard, undergoing minor repairs as required to maintain seaworthiness. [3] [4]

As one of 2 Royal Navy escorts to the First Fleet, she left Spithead on 13 May 1787 and was the first to arrive in Botany Bay on 18 January 1788, as recorded in the journals of William Bradley [5] and John Hunter [6] of HMS Sirius, which arrived on 20 January. [7] [8] Supply was under the command of Captain Arthur Phillip (who had transferred from Sirius at Cape Town). [9] [10] She was captained by Henry Lidgbird Ball, the master was David Blackburn, and the surgeon was James Callam. Supply was also the first ship to sail into Port Jackson after the original Botany Bay landing was found unsuitable for settlement. [11]

After the establishment of the initial settlement at Port Jackson, Supply was the link between the colony and Norfolk Island, making 10 trips. [9] Following the loss of Sirius in 1790, [6] she became the colony's only link with the outside world. On 17 April 1790, she was sent to Batavia for supplies, returning on 19 September, her captain having chartered a Dutch vessel, Waaksamheid, to follow with more stores. [12]

Supply left Port Jackson on 26 November 1791 and sailed via Cape Horn, reaching Plymouth on 21 April 1792.[ citation needed ]

A number of David Blackburn's letters to family and friends have survived. [13] These letters describe the events of the voyage and the early days of settlement, including Blackburn's participation in the expedition to Norfolk Island to establish a settlement there in February 1788. [14] [15]

Later service

The Admiralty sold her at auction in July 1792 and her new owners renamed her Thomas and Nancy. She then carried coal in the Thames area until 1806. [12] [1]

The Admiralty in October 1793 purchased the American mercantile ship New Brunswick, named her HMS Supply, and sent her out to New South Wales to replace her predecessor. [16]

Postscript

A New South Wales Urban Transit Authority First Fleet ferry was named after Supply in 1984. [17]

See also

Citations

  1. 1 2 Register of Shipping (1806), Seq.№186.
  2. ↑ "H.M.S. SUPPLY". The Sydney Morning Herald . National Library of Australia. 23 May 1927. p. 12. Retrieved 24 January 2013.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 Winfield 2007, p. 358.
  4. 1 2 Marquardt 2003, p. 164.
  5. ↑ "From Terra Australis to Australia – Journals from the First Fleet: William Bradley (1757? – 1833)". Manuscripts, Oral History and Pictures Catalogue. State Library of New South Wales. 2020. Retrieved 18 January 2020. William Bradley served in the Royal Navy for 42 years [and] sailed with the First Fleet in May 1787 following his appointment to First Lieutenant on board HMS Sirius in October 1786
  6. 1 2 "From Terra Australis to Australia – Journals from the First Fleet: John Hunter (1737 – 1821)". Manuscripts, Oral History and Pictures Catalogue. State Library of New South Wales. 2020. Retrieved 18 January 2020. John Hunter sailed with the First Fleet as second captain on board HMS Sirius.
  7. ↑ Bradley, William (1802). A Voyage to New South Wales, December 1786 – May 1792. pp. 57–58 – via State Library of New South Wales. Sunday 20th: ... [s]aw the entrance of Botany Bay, appearing in the middle of land that shew'd like an Island lying a small distance from the shore, We saw the neck of land by which it is joined to the other land when 8 or 9 miles to the S.oward of the entrance of Botany Bay, it has a sandy beach, the shore cover'd with wood, in the sandy beach is the appearance of a Gully or opening ... when within about 2 miles of the S.o Head saw the Supply in the Bay & soon after the 3 Transports that had been dispatch'd under the Command of the Agent. The Master of the Supply came on board as we approach'd the entrance, He informed us that they had only been arrived two days & the Agent one day before us & the heavy ships. Digitised images of page 57 and page 58
  8. ↑ Hunter, John (1793). Journal kept on board the Sirius during a voyage to New South Wales, May 1787 – March 1791. p. 61 – via State Library of New South Wales. When the Bay was quite open, we discovered the Supply & the three Transports at Anchor, the former had Arrivd the 18th. & the latter the 19th. Digitised image of page 61
  9. 1 2 "THE EARLY HISTORY OF NEW SOUTH WALES". The Sydney Morning Herald . 25 March 1889. p. 3. Retrieved 24 January 2013– via National Library of Australia.
  10. ↑ "The Argus STUDENTS' PRACTICAL NOTEBOOK". The Argus . Melbourne, Vic.: National Library of Australia. 28 August 1954. p. 10. Retrieved 24 January 2013.
  11. ↑ "GUNS AND GUNNERS". The Capricornian . Rockhampton, Qld: National Library of Australia. 18 December 1920. p. 43. Retrieved 24 January 2013.
  12. 1 2 "HMAT Supply". firstfleetfellowship.org.au/. First Fleet Fellowship Victoria Inc. 15 October 2011. Retrieved 9 May 2024.
  13. ↑ "David Blackburn (1753–1795)". Discover Collections. State Library of New South Wales. Archived from the original on 19 December 2013. Retrieved 6 December 2013.
  14. ↑ "Capt. A. Phillip to Blackburn, 25 September 1788". National Library of Australia. 1788. Retrieved 10 January 2023.
  15. ↑ Guide to the Correspondence of David Blackburn. Trove. 1785. Retrieved 11 January 2024. In February 1788 the Supply sailed to Norfolk Island to establish a penal settlement. Blackburn visited Norfolk Island again in September 1788 commanding the transport Golden Grove...
  16. ↑ Winfield 2008, p. 397.
  17. ↑ Sydney Ferries Fleet Facts Archived 12 April 2015 at the Wayback Machine Transport for NSW

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arthur Phillip</span> British colonial administrator (1738–1814)

Arthur Phillip was a British Royal Navy officer who served as the first governor of the Colony of New South Wales.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">First Fleet</span> 11 British ships establishing an Australian penal colony

The First Fleet was a fleet of 11 British ships that took the first British colonists and convicts to Australia. It comprised two Royal Navy vessels, three store ships and six convict transports. On 13 May 1787 the fleet under the command of Captain Arthur Phillip, with over 1,400 people, left from Portsmouth, England and took a journey of over 24,000 kilometres (15,000 mi) and over 250 days to eventually arrive in Botany Bay, New South Wales, where a penal colony would become the first British settlement in Australia from 20 January 1788.

HMS <i>Sirius</i> (1786) Flagship of the First Fleet

HMS Sirius was the flagship of the First Fleet, which set out from Portsmouth, England, in 1787 to establish the first European colony in New South Wales, Australia. In 1790, the ship was wrecked on the reef, south east of Kingston Pier, in Slaughter Bay, Norfolk Island.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Hunter (Royal Navy officer)</span> Royal Navy officer and colonial administrator (1737–1821)

Vice Admiral John Hunter was an officer of the Royal Navy, who succeeded Arthur Phillip as the second Governor of New South Wales, serving from 1795 to 1800.

Prince of Wales was a transport ship in the First Fleet, assigned to transport convicts for the European colonisation of Australia. Accounts differ regarding her origins; she may have been built and launched in 1779 at Sidmouth, or in 1786 on the River Thames. Her First Fleet voyage commenced in 1787, with 47 female convicts aboard, and she arrived at Botany Bay in January 1788. On a difficult return voyage in 1788–1789 she became separated from her convoy and was found drifting helplessly off Rio de Janeiro with her crew incapacitated by scurvy.

<i>Scarborough</i> (1782 ship)

Scarborough was a double-decked, three-masted, ship-rigged, copper-sheathed, barque that participated in the First Fleet, assigned to transport convicts for the European colonisation of Australia in 1788. Also, the British East India company (EIC) chartered Scarborough to take a cargo of tea back to Britain after her two voyages transporting convicts. She spent much of her career as a West Indiaman, trading between London and the West Indies, but did perform a third voyage in 1801–02 to Bengal for the EIC. In January 1805 she repelled a French privateer of superior force in a single-ship action, before foundering in April.

<i>Lady Penrhyn</i> (1786 ship)

Lady Penrhyn was built on the River Thames in 1786 as a slave ship.

Charlotte was an English merchant ship built on the River Thames in 1784 and chartered in 1786 to carry convicts as part of the First Fleet to New South Wales. She returned to Britain from Botany Bay via China, where she picked up a cargo for the British East India Company. Charlotte then spent much of the rest of her career as a West Indiaman in the London-Jamaica trade. She may have been lost off Newfoundland in 1818; in any case, she disappeared from the lists by 1821. Charlotte made an appearance in the movie National Treasure.

Alexander was a merchant ship launched at Hull in 1783 or 1784. She was one of the vessels in the First Fleet, that the British government hired to transport convicts for the European colonisation of Australia in 1788. On her return voyage from Australia the British East India Company permitted her to carry a cargo from Canton back to Britain. Thereafter she traded out of London until 1809, when she is no longer listed.

The following lists events that happened during 1788 in Australia.

George Raper was a Royal Navy officer who as an able seaman joined the crew of HMS Sirius and the First Fleet to establish a colony at Botany Bay, New South Wales, now Australia. He is best known today for his watercolour sketches of the voyage and settlement, particularly birds and flowers of Sydney Cove.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Henry Lidgbird Ball</span> Royal Navy officer (1756–1818)

Henry Lidgbird Ball was a Rear-Admiral in the Royal Navy of the British Empire. While Ball was best known as the commander of the First Fleet's HMS Supply, he was also notable for the exploration and the establishment of colonies around what is now Australia and New Zealand. Specifically, Ball explored the area around Port Jackson and Broken Bay, helped establish the Norfolk Island penal settlement, and discovered and named Lord Howe Island.

Nine ships of the Royal Navy have been named HMS Supply.

Captain Henry Waterhouse was an English naval officer of the Royal Navy who became an early settler in the Colony of New South Wales, Australia. He imported to Australia the continent's first Spanish merino sheep, whose wool became one of the colony's best exports.

Peter Kenney Hibbs was an English mariner and a member of the First Fleet to Australia in 1788.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Journals of the First Fleet</span> Contemporary accounts of the European settlement in Australia

There are 20 known contemporary accounts of the First Fleet made by people sailing in the fleet, including journals and letters. The eleven ships of the fleet, carrying over 1,000 convicts, soldiers and seamen, left England on 13 May 1787 and arrived in Botany Bay between 18 and 20 January 1788 before relocating to Port Jackson to establish the first European settlement in Australia, a penal colony which became Sydney.

James Maxwell was an officer in the British Marines and member of Australia's First Fleet which established a penal colony in New South Wales in 1788.

Lieutenant Daniel Southwell was an officer of the Royal Navy, who as a midshipman was part of the crew of HMS Sirius when it sailed with the First Fleet to found a penal colony in Botany Bay. He kept a journal and corresponded with his mother, Jane Southwell, and uncle, the Reverend Weeden Butler. This correspondence is held in the British Museum with copies held in Mitchell Library, New South Wales.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">New South Wales Marine Corps</span> Military unit

The New South Wales Marine Corps (1786–1792) was an ad hoc volunteer unit that the British Royal Navy created to guard the convicts aboard the First Fleet to Australia, and to preserve "subordination and regularity" in the penal colony in New South Wales.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Blackburn (Royal Navy officer)</span> Royal Navy officer (1753–1795)

Lieutenant David Blackburn was a Royal Navy officer. He was Commanader of the ship HMS Sirius on its voyage to Norfolk Island in March 1790 having been Master of HMS Supply in the First Fleet that established the British settlement in New South Wales, Australia in 1788.

References

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.