Lady Penrhyn (1786 ship) facts for kids
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| History | |
|---|---|
 Great Britain |
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| Name | Lady Penrhyn |
| Namesake | Lady Penrhyn (née Anne Susannah Warburton), the wife of Richard Pennant, 1st Baron Penrhyn, of the Penrhyn Estate in Llandygai, North Wales. The word Penrhyn itself is Welsh for headland or peninsula. |
| Owner |
|
| Port of registry | London |
| Builder | Edward Greaves, River Thames |
| Launched | 1786 |
| Captured | 1811 and burnt |
| General characteristics | |
| Tons burthen | 322, or 332, or 3322⁄94, or 360 (bm) |
| Length |
|
| Beam | 27 ft 6+1⁄2 in (8.4 m) |
| Depth of hold | 12 ft 0 in (3.7 m) |
| Propulsion | Sails |
| Sail plan | Ship rig |
| Armament | 10 × 9-pounder carronades |
Lady Penrhyn was a sailing ship built on the River Thames in England in 1786. She was designed to carry a large number of people and goods across long ocean distances.
For her very first major journey, Lady Penrhyn became an important part of the First Fleet. This was a group of ships that transported people to New South Wales in Australia, helping to establish the first European settlement there.
On her way back to Britain, Lady Penrhyn made history by being the first European ship to sail past the Kermadec Islands. She also discovered and named the Penrhyn Atoll in the Cook Islands. The ship also carried cargo for the British East India Company. In 1811, a French ship captured Lady Penrhyn in the West Indies and then sank her.
Contents
Journey to a New Land: The First Fleet
Lady Penrhyn, led by Captain William Sever, began her journey from Portsmouth, England, on May 13, 1787. She arrived at Port Jackson, which is now Sydney, Australia, on January 26, 1788.
The ship carried 101 female convicts. These were people who had committed crimes and were being sent to a new place to start a new life. She also had three officers and 41 other soldiers from the New South Wales Marine Corps, along with her own crew.
Lady Penrhyn was one of eleven ships in the First Fleet. This fleet brought over 1,000 people, including convicts, soldiers, and sailors, to establish the first European settlement in Australia.
Two surgeons were on board: John Turnpenny Altree for the convicts and Arthur Bowes Smyth for the crew. When Altree became ill, Bowes Smyth took charge of the prisoners.
When the ship arrived at Port Jackson, various supplies were unloaded. Records show that Lady Penrhyn carried eight barrels of rice, among other things.
Interestingly, Lady Penrhyn also brought the first horses to Australia. These included one male horse, one young male horse, three female horses, and two young female horses, all from Cape Town, South Africa.
Exploring the Pacific: The Return Journey
After dropping off her passengers in New South Wales, Lady Penrhyn had a new mission. She was hired to sail to the "North West Coast of America" to trade for animal furs. After that, she was to go to China to exchange the furs for tea or other goods.
Her owners had a special permission to trade in the eastern Pacific from the South Sea Company. This company had old rights to control British trade in that area.
So, Lady Penrhyn left Sydney Cove on May 5, 1788. She sailed north, hoping to buy furs in Kamchatka (a part of Russia) to sell in China. The ship's route was planned to avoid meeting Russian ships, as Russia considered non-Russian fur trading in Kamchatka to be illegal.
On May 31, Captain Sever spotted the Kermadec Islands. He named Macauley Island after George Mackenzie McCaulay, who had hired the ship, and Curtis Island after William Curtis, one of the ship's owners.
However, the ship was in poor condition, and many crew members were sick. This forced Lady Penrhyn to turn back. She only made it as far as Matavai Bay in Tahiti, where the crew recovered, and the ship was repaired.
After the repairs, Captain Sever sailed on and named Penrhyn Island (also known as Tongareva) in the Cook Islands on August 8. The ship then reached Macao on October 19, 1788, and continued upriver to Canton (now Guangzhou) to load a cargo of tea.
Captain Sever left Whampoa on January 8, 1789. Lady Penrhyn then sailed across the ocean, reaching St Helena on May 19 and finally arriving back at The Downs in England on August 10.
New Adventures and Roles
In 1789, Lady Penrhyn was sold to a new company, Wedderburn & Co., in London. She then began sailing regularly to Jamaica.
In 1795, she was part of a group of transport ships. These ships carried British soldiers to the Caribbean. This was to help protect against possible attacks from France during a time of revolution.
Over the years, Lady Penrhyn had different owners and continued to sail on various routes, including regular trips between London and places like Jamaica and Grenada.
The Final Voyage
On July 22, 1811, a French privateer ship called Duc de Dantzig captured Lady Penrhyn. A privateer was a ship owned by a private person but allowed by their government to attack enemy ships during wartime. At the time, Lady Penrhyn was sailing from London to Grenada.
After capturing her, the Duc de Dantzig set Lady Penrhyn on fire, deliberately sinking her. This act is called scuttling a ship.
Reports from Lloyd's List (a shipping newspaper) stated that the Duc de Dantzig, a ship with 14 guns and 128 men from Nantes, France, had captured two British ships. First, she captured the Thames on July 17, and then Lady Penrhyn on July 22. Both ships were empty of cargo. The French privateer took the people off both ships and then burned them. The Duc de Dantzig then captured another small ship, the schooner Ann. The French ship put all the prisoners from the Thames and Lady Penrhyn onto the Ann and let her go. The Ann safely arrived at Barbados on July 26.
See also
- First Fleet
- Journals of the First Fleet
