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.
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.
Surry, also known as Surrey, was a square-rigged transport ship, which had an especially long career transporting convicts to Australia. In 11 voyages, the most of any convict transport, she brought 2,177 convicts, male and female, and so became one of the best-known of the vessels that visited Australia. In all, she lost 51 men and one woman during her various passages, 46 of the men dying during her first and most notorious voyage in 1814 when she was under the command of James Patterson. The high death toll on her first voyage led to a Board of Enquiry, which blamed neglect by the Master and Surgeon.
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.
Bussorah Merchant was a merchant ship built at Calcutta in 1818. She made three voyages transporting convicts from England and Ireland to Australia and later carried emigrants and other passengers to Australia.
New York Packet was a 270-ton merchant ship built at Bristol, England in 1823. She made one voyage transporting convicts from Tasmania to Sydney.
Norfolk was built at Littlehampton, England in 1814. She was originally a West Indiaman, and then sailed to India and Quebec. She made four voyages transporting convicts from England to Australia, one voyage from Ireland to Australia and one from Madras and Mauritius to Australia. She was wrecked on 7 July 1837.
Waterloo was a merchant ship built at Bristol, England in 1815. On her first voyage she suffered a short-lived mutiny. She then made one voyage under charter to the British East India Company (EIC). She made four voyages transporting convicts from England to Australia, and two voyages from Ireland to Australia. On her seventh convict voyage Waterloo wrecked on 28 August 1842 in Table Bay with great loss of life.
City of Edinburgh was a merchant ship built at Bengal in 1813. She transferred to British registry and sailed between Britain and India. She made two voyages transporting convicts from Ireland to Australia. Later, she made a whaling voyage to New Zealand. She was wrecked in 1840.
Chapman was a two-deck merchant ship built at Whitby in 1777. She made three voyages to India or China for the British East India Company (EIC), during the first of which she was present at the battle of Porto Praya. During the French Revolutionary Wars she served as a hired armed ship, primarily escorting convoys but also seeing some action. Later, she undertook one voyage to Mauritius transporting troops, one voyage carrying settlers to South Africa, and three voyages transporting convicts from England and Ireland to Australia. She was last listed in 1853.
Eliza was a merchant ship built in British India, probably in 1804. Between 1819 and 1831 she made five voyages transporting convicts from England and Ireland to Australia. In between, she also made one voyage for the British East India Company (EIC). Her crew abandoned her at sea in 1836 as she was leaking uncontrollably.
Gilmore, was a merchant ship built at Sulkea, opposite Calcutta, British India, in 1824. In 1829-30 she made a voyage delivering settlers to the Swan River Colony in Western Australia. She then made two voyages transporting convicts from England to Tasmania. She was wrecked in 1866.
Grenada was a merchant ship built at Kingston upon Hull, England in 1810. She made four voyages transporting convicts from England to Australia. In 1827, while returning to England from Australia via Batavia, she arrived at Mauritius in a damaged state and was condemned.
Hooghly was a full-rigged merchant ship built on the Thames, England, and launched in 1819. She made two voyages under charter to the British East India Company (EIC), four voyages transporting convicts from England and Ireland to Australia, as well as voyages transporting emigrants to South Australia between 1839 and 1856. Around 1858 she was re-rigged as a barque. She sank off Algiers in 1863.
The New Zealand Company was a 19th-century English company that played a key role in the colonisation of New Zealand. The company was formed to carry out the principles of systematic colonisation devised by Edward Gibbon Wakefield, who envisaged the creation of a new-model English society in the southern hemisphere. Under Wakefield's model, the colony would attract capitalists who would then have a ready supply of labour—migrant labourers who could not initially afford to be property owners, but who would have the expectation of one day buying land with their savings.
Lord William Bentink was launched in 1828 at Yarmouth. She made one voyage transporting convicts to Tasmania, and three carrying settlers to New Zealand for the New Zealand Company. She was wrecked between 1858 and 1859.
Morley was a merchantman launched in 1811 at Deptford as a West Indiaman. In 1813 she was under contract to the Transport Board when she captured an American vessel, which capture gave rise to an interesting court case. In early 1815 an American letter of marque captured, plundered, and released her. She then made six voyages to Australia transporting convicts. On her fifth voyage she introduced whooping-cough to Australia. After her sixth voyage she sailed to China and then brought a cargo back to England for the British East India Company (EIC). She continued to sail to Australia and elsewhere and is last listed in 1855.
Aguilar was launched in 1801 at Stockwith. She spent almost all of her career as a West Indiaman. In 1823 she made one voyage to Van Diemen's Land. On her return voyage she suffered storm damage and was condemned in 1825 at the Cape of Good Hope. Her loss gave rise to a court case that revealed interesting information about her last voyage.
Ann Dinham ; born Ann Orchard, and later Ann Riddiford and Ann Foster, was keeping an inn in Abergavenny, Monmouthshire in 1851 with her husband, William, when she was convicted of inciting a burglary and sentenced to be transported to Tasmania for ten years. In Tasmania, she married John Foster, a wealthy businessman, magistrate and member of the Tasmanian Legislative Council. After his death, she took their five surviving children to be educated in England, and was thus one of the few Australian convicts to return to her native land.
The Badger escape occurred in July 1833 when twelve convicts in the British penal colony of Van Diemen's Land used the government schooner Badger to escape to Macau, China. Most of the convicts involved were experienced seafarers who had been appointed to man the vessel soon after their transportation. For this, the colonial press accused the government of extreme negligence, and also called for the removal of lieutenant-governor George Arthur. In The History of Tasmania (1852), John West wrote that, of all the escapes from Van Diemen's Land, "never was the government more culpable, or the prisoners less so, than in the instance of the Badger".
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