 Great Britain | |
|---|---|
| Name | Harbinger |
| Owner | |
| Builder | Quebec [1] |
| Launched | 24 July 1797 [1] |
| Renamed | Norfolk |
| Fate | Wrecked 25 March 1802 |
| General characteristics | |
| Tons burthen | 56, [2] or 58 [3] (bm) |
| Sail plan | Brig |
| Complement |
|
| Armament |
|
Norfolk was built in Quebec in 1797 and registered in London in 1797 as Harbinger. In 1801 the Colonial government in New South Wales purchased her and renamed her Norfolk. She was Australia's first war vessel, but was wrecked in 1802 at Matavai Bay, Tahiti.
Harbinger was re-registered at London on 16 October 1797. [3] Harbinger first appeared in Lloyd's Register in 1797 with Chapman, master, M. Hogan, owner, and trade London–Cape of Good Hope. [2]
In 1801 Harbinger, under the command of Captain John Black, was the second vessel to sail through Bass Strait en route to Port Jackson, Australia. She reached the coast near Cape Otway on 1 January 1801, then veered sharply south-west to the north-western tip of Governor King's Island (now King Island), which Black named after the Governor of New South Wales, Philip Gidley King. She then sailed easterly towards Wilsons Promontory. Proceeding around the tip of the promontory, Black discovered the Hogan Group, which he named after the ship's owner Michael Hogan. [4] Harbinger arrived in Port Jackson on 12 January 1801 from the Cape. [5]
Hogan offered Harbinger for sale and Governor King purchased her in April 1801 for £700. (Hogan had asked £1500, and Governor King agreed that £700 undervalued her, but that was all he could offer.) King wanted her to carry supplies to Norfolk Island and bring back salt pork. He therefore named her Norfolk. She performed such a voyage and returned to Port Jackson. [1]
On 1 November Governor King commissioned her as a war vessel under the command of Captain William House. She therefore became Australia's first war vessel. King then sent her to Tahiti to bring back salt pork. [1]
The ship was visiting Matavai Bay in Tahiti when a hurricane struck on 25 March 1802. Captain William House ran Norfolk aground to avoid her being smashed on the rocks. She grounded and the crew escaped to safety. The hull was salvaged but as it was being towed to another island it sank. [6] HMS Porpoise later retrieved her crew. [1]
George Bass was a British naval surgeon and explorer of Australia.
His Majesty's Armed Survey Vessel Lady Nelson was commissioned in 1799 to survey the coast of Australia. At the time large parts of the Australian coast were unmapped and Britain had claimed only part of the continent. The British Government were concerned that, in the event of settlers of another European power becoming established in Australia, any future conflict in Europe would lead to a widening of the conflict into the southern hemisphere to the detriment of the trade that Britain sought to develop. It was against this background that Lady Nelson was chosen to survey and establish sovereignty over strategic parts of the continent.
The following lists events that happened during 1801 in Australia.
Neva was a three-masted barque launched in 1813. She made two voyages transporting convicts to Australia. On her second voyage carrying convicts she wrecked in Bass Strait on 13 May 1835. Her loss was one of the worst shipwrecks in Australian history; 224 people died.
HMCS Integrity was a cutter built by the Colonial Government of New South Wales in 1804. She was the first vessel ever launched from a New South Wales dockyard and carried goods between the colony's coastal settlements of Norfolk Island, Newcastle, New South Wales, Van Diemen's Land and Port Jackson. In 1804 she took part in a series of voyages to Van Diemen's Land with the aim of founding a colony at Port Dalrymple, the site of the modern settlement of George Town, Tasmania.
Britannia was a 301 burthen ton full-rigged whaler built in 1783 in Bridport, England, and owned by the whaling firm Samuel Enderby & Sons. She also performed two voyages transporting convicts to Port Jackson. She was wrecked in 1806 off the coast of New South Wales.
Captain John Black, was an English seafarer, who had a short but eventful career that included privateering and exploration. He was best known, during his own lifetime, for a mutiny on Lady Shore in August 1797, as it sailed south in the Atlantic Ocean, bound for Sydney, New South Wales, carrying female convicts. As a result of the mutiny, Black and several other members of the crew were put into a small boat and left to find their way to the nearest land, being Brazil.
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.
Atlantic was launched in 1783. She made one voyage from England to Australia in 1791 carrying convicts. Later, she made one voyage for the East India Company (EIC). Subsequently she sailed to Smyrna, Surinam, and Gibraltar, before she disappeared from records in 1810.
Matilda was a ship built in France and launched in 1779. She became a whaling ship for the British company Camden, Calvert and King, making a whaling voyage while under the command of Matthew Weatherhead to New South Wales and the Pacific in 1790.
Francis was a 41 tons (bm) colonial schooner that was partially constructed at the Deptford Dockyard, England, and sent in frame aboard the Pitt to Australia to be put together for the purposes of exploration. The vessel had originally been designed for George Vancouver’s discovery voyage of the west coast of North America.
Royal Admiral was an East Indiaman, launched in 1777 on the River Thames. She made eight trips for the East India Company (EIC) before she was sold. She then continued to trade. She made two trips carrying convicts from England to Australia, one as an East Indiaman in 1791, and a second in 1800. On this second voyage as a convict transport she was present at a notable naval action.
Albion was a full-rigged whaler built at Deptford, England, and launched in 1798. She made five whaling voyages to the seas around New South Wales and New Zealand. The government chartered her in 1803 to transport stores and cattle, to Risdon Cove on the River Derwent, Tasmania.
William was a merchant vessel built in France in 1770 or 1771. From 1791 she made numerous voyages as a whaler in the southern whale fishery. She also made one voyage in 1793 transporting supplies from England to Australia. She then resumed whaling, continuing until 1809.
Speedy was a whaler launched on the Thames in 1779. She also made voyages to New South Wales, transporting female convicts in 1799. She made two voyages transporting slaves in 1805 and 1806, and was captured in January 1807 on her way into London after having delivered her slaves to Antigua in 1806.
Marquis Cornwallis was a merchantman built in Calcutta in 1789 or 1791. She made one voyage transporting convicts in 1796 from Ireland to Australia. The voyage was marred by mutiny that resulted in the death of 11 convicts. Marquis Cornwallis then made a voyage for the British East India Company (EIC) as an "extra ship", sailing from India back to Britain.
Atlas was built in Souths Shields by Temple and launched in 1801 for Temple. She made two voyages transporting convicts from Ireland or England to Port Jackson. On the first voyage she carried cargo for the British East India Company (EIC). On the second she sailed to Bengal after delivering her convicts to New South Wales and was wrecked off India in 1820 while on her way back to Britain.
Perseus was a sailing ship built in 1799 at Stockton-on-Tees, England. She made one voyage transporting convicts to New South Wales, returning to England via Canton. In 1803-1804 she served as an "armed defense ship". Thereafter she served as a transport. She is last listed in 1844.
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.
Alexander was a 301-ton merchant vessel launched at Shields in 1801. She became a whaler and made a voyage to New Zealand and the South Seas whale fisheries for Hurry & Co. She was wrecked while outbound from Liverpool in October 1808.
| Shipwrecks |
|
|---|---|
| Other incidents |
|
