The cutter Mermaid | |
History | |
---|---|
United Kingdom | |
Name | Mermaid |
Builder | Thompson, Howrah [1] |
Launched | 1816 |
Fate | Sold 1817 |
United Kingdom | |
Name | HMS Mermaid |
Acquired | 1817 by purchase |
Commissioned | 16 October 1817 |
Fate | Sold 1823 |
United Kingdom | |
Name | Mermaid |
Owner | Government of New South Wales |
Acquired | 1823 by purchase |
Fate | Wrecked on 13 June 1829, Flora Reef, Queensland |
General characteristics | |
Tons burthen | 83, [2] 84, [1] or 85 (bm) |
Length | 56 ft (17 m) |
Beam | 18 ft 6 in (5.6 m) |
Draught | 8 ft 10 in (2.7 m) |
Sail plan |
|
Notes | Teak-built |
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.
Mermaid was launched at Howrah in 1816 and the Royal Navy purchased her at Port Jackson in 1817. [2] [3]
Phillip Parker King used her between December 1817 and December 1820 to survey parts of the Australian coast that Matthew Flinders had not already surveyed. [4] King circumnavigated the Australian mainland and conducted a survey of the Inner Route through the Great Barrier Reef.
In 1820 Mermaid grounded at Careening Bay, Kimberley, Western Australia; [5] gotten off, she only reached Sydney with difficulty. A survey resulted in her condemnation for survey work and her sale in 1823 to the colonial government. [3]
In September 1823 Mermaid carried John Oxley as he explored the Queensland coast south of Port Curtis, discovering the Brisbane and Tweed rivers. At Moreton Bay he rescued Thomas Pamphlett and John Finnegan, who had been ship-wrecked earlier in the year. [6]
In September 1825 Mermaid transported Edmund Lockyer to Moreton Bay so he could explore the upper reaches of the Brisbane River. [7]
In August 1826 John Richardson travelled on Mermaid from Fort Dundas, on Melville Island, to Timor to obtain seeds. [8]
Around 1829 the ship was rigged as a two-masted schooner.[ citation needed ]
Captain Samuel Nolbrow and Mermaid departed Sydney on 16 May 1829, bound for Port Raffles with government dispatches and provisions for King George's Sound. She proceeded on the inner passage to Torres Straits. At 6 a.m. on 13 June she struck an uncharted reef on the southern side of Flora Reef, Queensland. (Nolbrow gave the location as at 17°7′S146°10′E / 17.117°S 146.167°E .) She bilged and her crew abandoned her that evening with no loss of life. [9]
An underwater archaeology team led by the Australian National Maritime Museum in early 2009 rediscovered the wreck. [10] [11]
Citations
References
Coordinates: 17°11′57″S146°17′20″E / 17.19923333°S 146.28885°E
John Septimus Roe was the first Surveyor-General of Western Australia. He was a renowned explorer, a member of Western Australia's legislative and executive councils for nearly 40 years, but also a participant in the Pinjarra massacre on 28 October 1834.
Sixteen ships of the Royal Navy have been named HMS Mermaid after the mermaid:
Rear Admiral Phillip Parker King, FRS, RN was an early explorer of the Australian and Patagonian coasts.
Peter Dillon was a ship's captain engaged in the merchant trade, explorer and writer. Dillon discovered in 1826–27 the fate of the La Pérouse expedition.
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Captain Sir Richard Spencer KCH the son of Richard Spencer, a London merchant. He was a captain of the Royal Navy who served in a number of battles, particularly against the French. In 1833 he was appointed Government Resident at King George's Sound, now Albany, Western Australia. He was born in Southwark, London, and died at Strawberry Hill Government Farm, Mira Mar in Albany, Western Australia.
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The following lists events that happened during 1883 in Australia.
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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.
John Matthew Richardson was an Australian convict who accompanied several exploring expeditions as botanical collector.
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Arthur Alexander Walton Onslow was born at Trichinopoly in India to surveyor Arthur Pooley Onslow and Rosa Roberta Macleay. In 1838 was sent to New South Wales, where he lived with his grandfather Alexander Macleay at Elizabeth Bay House in Sydney. He returned to England to live with his family in 1841 and was educated in Surrey and Nottingham. He entered the navy in May 1847 as a midshipman on HMS Howe and by 1847 he was a navy midshipman.
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