| History | |
|---|---|
 Great Britain | |
| Name | Begum Shaw |
| Renamed | Sydney Cove (1796) |
| Fate | Wrecked 9 February 1797 |
| General characteristics | |
| Tons burthen | 250 (bm) |
| Propulsion | Sail |
Sydney Cove was the Bengal country ship Begum Shaw that new owners purchased in 1796 to carry goods to Sydney Cove, and renamed for her destination. She was wrecked in 1797 on Preservation Island off Tasmania while on her way from Calcutta to Port Jackson. She was among the first ships wrecked on the east coast of Australia.
The ship was built in Calcutta as part of the rice fleet, under the name Begum Shaw. She arrived at Calcutta on 30 May 1796 from Coringa. This was shortly after the ship Sovereign had arrived from Port Jackson and reported on conditions there. Sovereign's agents were the agency house (private trading firm) of Campbell and Clark. Campbell and Clark purchased Begum Shaw, renamed her Sydney Cove, retained her owner and master Gavin (or Guy) Hamilton as master, and provided her with a cargo that consisted of various provisions, spirits, and goods. The venture was speculative, meaning the goods had not been ordered by the colony, but rather were to be sold on arrival.
Sydney Cove departed on 10 November 1796. She encountered heavy seas in December that started a leak. Further bad weather in January 1797 increased it, so that the pumps had to be manned continuously. In February, off the east coast of Tasmania, yet more heavy weather saw the leak gaining on the bailing efforts.
On 9 February, with the water up to the lower-deck hatches, putting Sydney Cove in imminent danger of sinking, Hamilton decided to ground the stricken vessel on the island now called Preservation Island, which is in the Furneaux Group, north of Tasmania. He chose a sheltered location so everyone was able to get ashore safely and most of the cargo was saved, too. He had the salvaged rum stored safely out of the crew's reach, on nearby Rum Island.
On 28 February 1797, leaving about 30 survivors with the wreckage, a party of seventeen men set off on in the ship's longboat to reach help at Port Jackson, 400 nautical miles (740 km) away. This was led by first mate Hugh Thompson, and included William Clark (the supercargo), three European seamen, and twelve Indian lascars (sailors). Ill fortune struck again and they were wrecked on the mainland at the northern end of Ninety Mile Beach. Their only hope was to walk along the shore all the way to Sydney, a distance of over 600 kilometres.
They had few provisions and no ammunition, and fatigue and hunger lessened their number as they marched. Along the way they encountered various aboriginal people, some friendly, some not. The last of the party to die on the march was killed by a man named Dilba and his people near Hat Hill. Those people had a reputation around Port Jackson for being ferocious. Matthew Flinders and George Bass had feared for their safety when they had encountered Dilba the previous year.
In May 1797, the three survivors of the march, William Clark, sailor John Bennet and one lascar had made it to the cove at Wattamolla and, on 15 May 1797, with their strength nearly at an end they were able to signal a boat out fishing, which took them on to Sydney.
On the march, Clark had noted coal in the cliffs at what is now called Coalcliff between Sydney and Wollongong. This was the second instance of coal discovered in Australia. [1]
The schooner Francis and the sloop Eliza were dispatched to Preservation Island to collect the people remaining there and salvage the ship's cargo. While waiting for rescue, the survivors had lived on the local short-tailed shearwaters, also called Australian muttonbirds, and built rough shelter for themselves. But the ship was damaged in May by heavy westerly gales, making it impossible to save her.
On the return journey Francis and Eliza became separated and Eliza was wrecked, with the loss of her crew and eight of the Sydney Cove survivors. Francis made a further salvage voyage in December and again in January 1798. Matthew Flinders was aboard the third voyage, assigned to make geographical observations. He noted petrels and seals, and located and named the Kent Group of islands.
At the same time, George Bass was on his whaleboat voyage following the coast of the mainland, and he had thought to make for Sydney Cove to replenish his provisions but leaks in the boat prevented him setting that course. He did, however, encounter a group of escaped convicts marooned on an island. They, too, had been making for the ship with the false hope of refloating her and making good their escape.
When the master of Sydney Cove reached Sydney, he reported that the strong south-westerly swell and the tides and currents suggested that the island was in a channel linking the Pacific and southern Indian Ocean. The Governor of New South Wales, John Hunter wrote to Joseph Banks in August 1797 that it seemed certain the strait existed. [2]
The salvage team also collected and preserved a wombat, which they forwarded to England for scientific observation, and observed colonies of seals. Soon after, seal hunters were active in the area. [2]
The wreck was relocated in 1977, lying partly covered by sand in about 3 to 6 metres of water. Excavations have been made to recover artifacts and some timbers. The Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery in Launceston has a display of items from the ship, including the world's oldest bottle of beer. [3] The survivors' camp was excavated in 2002. In 2016, new Saccharomyces and Brettanomyces strains of yeast genetically similar to those used in Trappist Ale were isolated from one of the 26 beer bottles recovered from the wreck 20 years earlier. [4] [5] In August 2018 James Squire released a limited number of bottles of "Preservation Ale", made from this yeast.
In 1997, a re-enactment of the epic journey was completed by members of Scouts NSW and the community. The re-enactment, called The Long Long Walk, was arranged by Warren Goodall of Oak Flats, who used the diary of the survivors to help with planning the walk. Artefacts from the ship wreck were used as a baton and passed from one walking team to another throughout the trip. Descendants of the ship's captain, Guy Hamilton, were met by Mr Goodall at Wattamolla who presented them with the artefacts which in turn were handed to the Rookwood Cemetery Museum.
The Kent Group are a grouping of six granite islands located in Bass Strait, north-west of the Furneaux Group in Tasmania, Australia. Collectively, the group is comprised within the Kent Group National Park.
George Bass was a British naval surgeon and explorer of Australia.
The Bass Strait Triangle is the waters that separate the states of Victoria and Tasmania, including Bass Strait, in south-eastern Australia. The term Bass Strait Triangle appears to have been first used following the disappearance of Frederick Valentich in 1978 although the region had a bad reputation long before that.
The Clarke Island, part of the Furneaux Group, is an 82-square-kilometre (32 sq mi) island in Bass Strait, south of Cape Barren Island, about 24 kilometres (15 mi) off the northeast coast of Tasmania, Australia. Banks Strait separates the island from Cape Portland on the mainland.
Preservation Island is a low and undulating granite and calcarenite island, with an area of 207 ha, in south-eastern Australia. It is part of Tasmania’s Preservation Island Group, lying in eastern Bass Strait south-west of Cape Barren Island in the Furneaux Group, and is an important historic site.
Wingan Inlet is an inlet within the Croajingolong National Park, in the East Gippsland region of Victoria, Australia.
Eliza was a sloop-rigged longboat that was involved in the rescue of the survivors of the wreck of Sydney Cove in 1797.
Morning Star was launched at Calcutta, India, in 1813. She was wrecked on a coral reef south of Forbes Island, north Queensland in July 1814.
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.
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.
Eliza was a merchant ship built in Calcutta, British India, in 1811. She made two voyages transporting convicts from Calcutta to Australia but wrecked in 1815 on her way home from her second voyage.
A number of sailing ships have been named Eliza.
Eliza Ann was launched at Calcutta in 1795. She sailed to England where she was admitted to the Registry. In all, she made five voyages for the British East India Company (EIC), during one of which she participated in a notable action and during the last of which she captured a French privateer. She herself was lost in 1807.
Sovereign was launched at Shields in 1793 as a West Indiaman. She made one voyage between 1795 and 1797 for the British East India Company (EIC), to New South Wales and then Bengal. She then resumed trading with the West Indies and was last listed in 1822.
Varuna was launched at Calcutta in 1796. She made four voyages as an "extra ship" for the British East India Company (EIC), and then spent two years as a troopship. She returned to India in 1806. She was lost in 1811, probably in a typhoon.
Chesterfield was built in America in 1781, but it is not clear where and under what name. She arrived in England in 1791. Between 1792 and 1798 Chesterfield made three voyages to the southern whale fishery. On the first of these her crew was involved in a sanguinary encounter with the local inhabitants of an island in Torres Strait. Also in 1793, on the first voyage, her captain named the Chesterfield Islands after his vessel, or her namesake. After her whaling voyages new owners sailed her to trade with the Mediterranean. A Spanish privateer captured her in 1805.
Lady Kennaway was launched in Calcutta in 1816. In 1819 and thereafter she sailed between England and India under a license from the British East India Company (EIC). In 1823 she was sold in London. She made three voyages under charter to the EIC. In 1835 and again in 1851 she made voyages transporting convicts to Tasmania. On one voyage some of the convicts were young men for the Pankhurst apprentice scheme. In between, in 1836, she transported convicts to New South Wales. She made five voyages carrying immigrants to Australia, including young Irish women for the Earl Grey Irish Famine Orphan scheme. In 1847 her crew abandoned her in the Bay of Biscay although she seemed to have sustained little damage; she was salvaged and returned to service. She was finally wrecked on 25 November 1857 at South Africa.
Briton was launched in Canada in 1842. She sailed to Britain and was registered there with homeport of Greenock. She first appeared in Lloyd's Register (LR) in the volume for 1843. She was wrecked in November 1844.
Calcutta was launched in 1794 on the Hooghly River. Between 1797 and 1799 she sailed to England on a voyage for the British East India Company (EIC). In 1799 the French Navy captured her, and the Royal Navy recaptured her. She was lost in 1801 in the Red Sea, sailing in support of the British Government's expedition to Egypt.
40°29′S148°04′E / 40.49°S 148.07°E
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