Lady Penrhyn (1786 ship)

Last updated

Lady Penrhyn
Lady Penrhyn (sailing ship).jpg
History
British-Red-Ensign-1707.svgGreat Britain
NameLady Penrhyn
NamesakeLady Penrhyn (née Anne Susannah Warburton), [1] the wife of Richard Pennant, 1st Baron Penrhyn, of the Penrhyn Estate in Llandygai, North Wales. [2] The word Penrhyn itself is Welsh for headland or peninsula.
Owner
  • Sir William Curtis (Curtis & Co.) [3]
  • William C. Sever
Port of registryLondon
BuilderEdward Greaves, River Thames
Launched1786
Captured1811 and burnt
General characteristics [4]
Tons burthen322, [5] or 332, or 3322⁄94, [6] or 360 [3] (bm)
Length
  • Overall: 103 ft 5 in (31.5 m)
  • Keel: 82 ft 3+1⁄2 in (25.1 m)
Beam27 ft 6+1⁄2 in (8.4 m)
Depth of hold12 ft 0 in (3.7 m)
PropulsionSails
Sail planShip rig
Armament10 × 9-pounder carronades [5]

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

Contents

Lady Penrhyn was designed as a two-deck ship for use in the Atlantic slave trade, with a capacity of 275 slaves. [7] She was part-owned by William Compton Sever, who served as ship's master on her voyage to Australia, [3] and by London alderman and sea-biscuit manufacturer William Curtis. [8]

For her first voyage she transported convicts to New South Wales as part of the First Fleet. On her voyage back to Britain she was the first European vessel to pass by the Kermadec Islands, and the Penrhyn Atoll in the Cook Islands.

She also carried a cargo for the British East India Company (EIC). The French captured her in the West Indies in 1811 and scuttled her.

Voyage to Australia

Lady Penrhyn, William Sever, master, left Portsmouth on 13 May 1787, and arrived at Port Jackson, Sydney, Australia, on 26 January 1788. She carried 101 female convicts, and three officers and 41 other ranks of the New South Wales Marine Corps, as well as her crew. She was part of a convoy of eleven ships, the First Fleet, which brought over 1000 convicts, marines, and seamen to establish European settlement in Australia.

John Turnpenny Altree was surgeon to the convicts, and Arthur Bowes Smyth was surgeon to the crew. Bowes Smyth then took charge of the prisoners on the ship when Altree fell ill at Tenerife and in Governor Arthur Phillip's opinion had proved unequal to the task. [9]

The list of stores unloaded from Lady Penrhyn on 25 March at Port Jackson has been widely quoted in books on the First Fleet. In Sydney Cove 1788 by John Cobley [10] the amount of rice unloaded is given as 8 bram. This amount has been repeated in various books on the First Fleet. Bram, however, is not a unit of measurement and the original log entry lists the amount of rice as 8 barrels. [11]

Lady Penrhyn also carried the first horses brought to Australia. These are believed to have consisted of one stallion, one colt, three mares, and two fillies from Cape Town, South Africa. [12]

Return voyage

Having discharged her convicts in New South Wales, Lady Penrhyn then was under contract to George Mackenzie McCaulay, an alderman of the City of London, to go to the "North West Coast of America to Trade for furrs & after that to proceed to China & barter the Furrs &ca for Teas or other such Goods..." [13] Her owners had obtained a license to sail to the northwest coast from the South Sea Company, which still maintained its ancient monopoly rights over British trade to the eastern Pacific. [14] Accordingly, she departed Sydney Cove on 5 May 1788 and sailed north with the intention of purchasing furs in Kamchatka for resale in China. Her course was chosen to minimise interaction with Russian vessels, as non-Russian trade in Kamchatka furs was considered by Russia to be smuggling. [15]

On 31 May, Sever sighted the Kermadec Islands (Māori: Rangitāhua), and named Macauley Island after McCaulay and Curtis Island after William Curtis. [16] The poor condition of the ship, and sickness among her crew, compelled Lady Penrhyn to turn back from this voyage when she had gone only as far as Matavai Bay, Tahiti, where the crew recovered and the ship was repaired. Sever then sailed to and named Penrhyn Island—the atoll of Tongareva in the Cook Islands—on 8 August, arriving at Macao on 19 October 1788, and proceeding upriver to Canton (now Guangzhou) to take on a cargo of tea. [17]

Captain Sever left Whampoa on 8 January 1789 and Lady Penrhyn crossed the Second Bar on 14 January. She reached St Helena on 19 May and arrived at The Downs on 10 August. [4]

Later service

In 1789 Lady Penrhyn was sold to Wedderburn & Co., London and used in a regular run to Jamaica. [18]

In 1795 she was one of a fleet of transports that carried British troops to the Caribbean to serve as reinforcements against the risk of an attack by Revolutionary France. [19]

YearMasterOwnerTradeSource & notes
1795T.HaymanCurlingLondon–JamaicaLR
1800J.Spence
H.Mason		Hayman & Co.
Law & Co.		London–Jamaica
London–Grenada		LR
1805T.BurgessLaw & Co.London–GrenadaLR
1810T.BurgessLaw & Co.London–GrenadaLR; large & damage repair 1804;
thorough repair 1809 [5]

Fate

On 22 July 1811 the French privateer Duc de Dantzig captured Lady Penrhyn while she was sailing from London to Grenada. Her captor set her on fire, scuttling her. [6]

Lloyd's List reported that the privateer Duc de Dantzig, of 14 guns (18-pounder carronades) and 128 men, of Nantes, had captured Thames, Clark, master, on 17 July, and Lady Penrhyn, Burgess, master on 22 July. Thames had been sailing from London to St Vincent's, and Lady Penrhyn from London to Grenada. Both vessels were in ballast, and Duc de Danzig burnt them after taking off the people on board them. She then captured the schooner Ann, which had set out from Barbados to Demerara. Duc de Dantzig put her prisoners aboard Ann and let her proceed; Ann arrived at Barbados on 26 July. [20]

See also

Citations

  1. ↑ "Anne Susannah Warburton (1745–1816), Lady Penrhyn | Art UK".
  2. ↑ "Lady Penrhyn". First Fleet Fellowship Victoria Inc. 2011.
  3. 1 2 3 Lloyd's Register (1786), sup. seq. no. L65.
  4. 1 2 British Library: Lady Penrhyn.
  5. 1 2 3 LR (1810), Seq.№L48.
  6. 1 2 Hackman (2001), p. 139.
  7. ↑ "News" . General Evening Post. No. 8194. London: M. Say. 9 May 1786. p. 6. Retrieved 25 September 2014.
  8. ↑ Byrnes, D. "The Blackheath Connection: The Phantom First Fleet to Australia" . Retrieved 3 July 2012.
  9. ↑ "Smyth, Arthur Bowes (1750–1790)". Smyth, Arthur Bowes. Australian National University. Retrieved 12 December 2013.{{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
  10. ↑ Cobley, John, 1914-1989. Sydney Cove, 1788. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1962.
  11. ↑ "Lady Penrhyn Log 1786-1788". Australian Joint Copying Project Reel 5777, Piece 4376, Part 9. Retrieved 13 July 2020.
  12. ↑ Bain Ike, (chief exec.) The Australian Encyclopaedia, p. 1679, Horses, Australian Geographic Pty. Ltd., 1996
  13. ↑ Smyth, Cf. Fidlon and Ryan p. 86
  14. ↑ South Sea Company Court of Directors Minutes, 8 and 10 March 1787, South Sea Company Papers, British Library, Add MS 25521; cited in Edouard A. Stackpole, Whales and Destiny, Amherst, U. Mass., 1972, p. 118
  15. ↑ Letter from Newton Fowell, midshipman HMS Sirius, to John Fowell, 12 July 1788. Cited in Irvine (ed.) 1988, p.81
  16. ↑ Hīroa (1953), p. 36
  17. ↑ Smyth, "Voyage"; Fidlon and Ryan, Journal.
  18. ↑ "Ship News" . The Star. No. 2483. London: J. Mayne, Temple Bar. 29 July 1796. p. 4. Retrieved 6 September 2014.
  19. ↑ "Authentic Port News" . Lloyd's Evening Post. London: T. Spilsbury & Son. 22 July 1795. p. 88. Retrieved 26 September 2014.
  20. ↑ Lloyd's List, n° 4594.

Related Research Articles

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

The First Fleet were 11 British ships which transported a group of settlers to mainland Australia, marking the beginning of the European colonisation of Australia. It consisted of two Royal Navy vessels, three storeships and six convict transports under the command of Captain Arthur Phillip. On 13 May 1787, the ships, with over 1,400 convicts, marines, sailors, colonial officials and free settlers onboard, left Portsmouth and travelled over 24,000 kilometres (15,000 mi) and over 250 days before arriving in Botany Bay in January 1788. There, they established the colony of New South Wales, a penal colony which would become the first British settlement in Australia.

<i>HMAT Supply</i> (1759) Royal Navy armed tender (1759)

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. The Navy sold her in 1792. She then served commercially until about 1806.

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>Borrowdale</i> (1785 ship) A storeship of First Fleet

Borrowdale was a three-masted, square rigged merchant ship, launched in 1785, that served as a storeship of the First Fleet, a convoy of 11 ships taking settlers and convicts to establish the first European colony in Australia. She was wrecked in 1789.

<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.

Friendship was a merchant brig built in Scarborough, England, and launched in 1784. As part of the Australian First Fleet, she transported convicts from England to New South Wales. Due to problems manning her, she was scuttled in the Makassar Strait in October 1788.

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.

Margaret Dawson, also known as Margaret Henderson, was a convict sentenced to transportation. She travelled on the Lady Penrhyn as a member of the First Fleet to establish a British colony in Australia. She had a long-term relationship with the surgeon, William Balmain, whose descendants still live in Australia.

<i>Surprize</i> (1780 ship)

Surprize was a three-deck merchant vessel launched in 1780 that made five voyages as a packet ship under charter to the British East India Company (EIC). She also participated in the notorious Second Fleet, transporting convicts to Port Jackson. A French frigate captured her in the Bay of Bengal in 1799.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Esther Abrahams</span> Convict transported to Australia

Esther Abrahams was a Londoner sent to Australia as a convict on the First Fleet. She was de facto wife of George Johnston, who was for six months acting Governor of New South Wales after leading the Rum Rebellion. They later married legally, in 1814.

<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.

<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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arthur Bowes Smyth</span> British naval surgeon (1750–1790)

Arthur Bowes Smyth was a naval surgeon, who traveled on Lady Penrhyn as a part of the First Fleet that established a penal colony in New South Wales. Smyth kept a diary and documented the natural history he encountered in Australia.

George Atkinson, also known as George Atkins, was an English convict sent to Australia aboard a ship of the First Fleet. He was a chimney sweeper.

Matavai Bay is a bay on the north coast of Tahiti, the largest island in the Windward group of French Polynesia. It is in the commune of Mahina, approximately 8 km east of the capital Pape'ete.

At least three British ships have been named Lady Penrhyn for Lady Penrhyn, the wife of Richard Pennant, 1st Baron Penrhyn, of the Penrhyn Estate in Llandygai, North Wales:

James Scott was a Sergeant of Marines in the New South Wales Marine Corps and commander of the first quarter guard in New South Wales. He is notable for his journal describing his experiences in the First Fleet, which established the first European settlement in Australia in 1788.

Dorothy Handland was perhaps the oldest convict transported on the First Fleet.

References

Further reading

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.