Prince of Wales (1786 ship) facts for kids
Quick facts for kids History |
|
|---|---|
 Great Britain |
|
| Name | Prince of Wales |
| Owner | John Mather |
| Port of registry | London |
| Builder |
|
| Launched | 1779 |
| Fate | Last listed 1810 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type | Barque |
| Tons burthen | 296, or 300, or 310, or 318, or 333, or 335, or 350, (bm) |
| Length | 103 ft (31.4 m) |
| Beam | 29 ft 3 in (8.9 m) |
| Propulsion | Sails |
| Sail plan | Ship rig |
| Boats & landing craft carried |
longboat |
| Complement |
|
| Armament |
|
The Prince of Wales was a transport ship that played a part in the First Fleet. This group of ships carried the first European settlers and convicts to Australia. The ship's exact beginning is a bit unclear. Some records say she was built in 1779 in Sidmouth, while others suggest she was built in 1786 on the River Thames.
In 1787, the Prince of Wales began her famous journey. She carried 47 female convicts. The ship arrived at Botany Bay in Australia in January 1788. Her return trip in 1788–1789 was very tough. She got separated from other ships and was found floating near Rio de Janeiro. Most of her crew were too sick to sail because of a disease called scurvy.
After returning to Britain, the Prince of Wales was used for different jobs. She became a whaling ship, hunting whales in the southern seas. Later, she was a privateer, which means she was a private ship allowed to attack enemy ships during wartime. She also made one voyage as a ship carrying enslaved people. After being controlled by the French for a time, she returned to Britain. She then carried goods between London, the West Indies, and the Mediterranean Sea. The last known records of the ship are from 1810. What happened to her after that is a mystery.
Contents
Building the Ship
The Prince of Wales was a type of sailing ship called a barque. She was about 103 feet (31 m) long and 31 feet (9.4 m) wide. Her size was measured between 300 and 350 tons. This was a way to measure how much cargo a ship could carry.
There are different stories about when and where she was built. One story says she was built in 1779 in Sidmouth. She was meant to carry goods to the West Indies. Another story says she was built in 1786 on the River Thames by a company called Christopher Watson and Company. This company also built another famous ship, HMS Sirius. Both stories agree that her first owner was John Mather, a merchant from London.
Journey to Australia
In 1787, a shipbroker named William Richards hired the Prince of Wales for the First Fleet voyage. He chose her after talking with officers from the Royal Marines. The Prince of Wales was the second smallest transport ship in the Fleet. She was the last ship chosen to join the journey.
The Navy assigned the Prince of Wales to the First Fleet on March 2, 1787. Her captain was John Mason. The whole Fleet was led by Arthur Phillip, who would become the first Governor of New South Wales. He was on the ship Sirius.
The Prince of Wales left Portsmouth on May 13, 1787. She had about 25 crew members. She sailed with five other transport ships, three supply ships, and two Royal Navy ships. A warship, HMS Hyaena, sailed with them for protection at the start.
The Fleet stopped in Tenerife on June 5 to get more supplies. They stopped again in August in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Here, the Prince of Wales received fresh food, seeds, and some rum. The Fleet then sailed southeast, reaching Cape Town in October. On November 13, they entered the Great Southern Ocean for the final part of the trip to Australia.
During this part of the journey, two seamen died. One fell overboard in November and could not be saved. Another drowned in heavy seas a week later. By mid-December, the ship's food supplies for the crew were running low. Captain Phillip allowed them to use food meant for the new colony. On January 20, 1788, the Prince of Wales arrived at Botany Bay in Australia. Six days later, she sailed to Sydney Cove as the settlement moved to Port Jackson. As she left Botany Bay, she bumped into another ship, Friendship. She lost part of her mast, but it was quickly fixed. She then entered Port Jackson with the other ships. There, she dropped off 49 convicts, 31 marines, and 23 other people.
People on Board
The Prince of Wales started her journey with 49 female convicts. After five days at sea, two male convicts were also brought aboard. They were leaders of a failed attempt to take over another ship. They stayed on the Prince of Wales for the rest of the trip to Australia.
The convicts' health was generally good. When the ship reached Tenerife, only nine people on the Prince of Wales were sick. This was the lowest number for any ship in the Fleet. Governor Phillip even wrote that the convicts were "not so sickly as when we sailed." However, the women on board had no new clothes and were still wearing their old prison clothes. There was no doctor on the ship, but the main surgeon, John White, visited from the Sirius when he could. As they sailed towards Rio, the hot, wet weather caused many bugs to appear below deck. There were also reports of rats, fleas, and lice. In late December, some people started to get scurvy.
Despite these issues, serious illness was rare. The first convict death was an accident. On July 24, a part of the ship fell and hit 22-year-old Jane Bonner on the head. She died six days later. Another convict, John Hartley, died on August 5. He had been punished earlier, which might have made him sick. These two deaths were much lower than on other ships, like the Alexander, which had 30 deaths.
Discipline among the convicts was also good. The first punishment recorded on the Prince of Wales was in October 1787. A woman received six lashes for stealing from others while they were praying.
The ship also carried 31 marines from the New South Wales Marine Corps. This group included officers, non-commissioned officers, and privates. Sixteen of the marines had their wives with them, and there were six children. Discipline among the marines was not as good. In June 1787, two marines were punished for not following orders. One received 300 lashes. Drunkenness was also common. One drunken marine fell through a hatchway and hurt a pregnant marine's wife. He was punished and moved to another ship.
Two more children were born to marine wives during the journey. In October 1787, the wife of a marine drummer died and was buried at sea. A marine sergeant named James Scott wrote about the voyage in his journals. These journals are now kept in the State Library of New South Wales.
Journey Back to England
The Prince of Wales stayed in Sydney Cove for five months while her supplies were unloaded. An inspection found that her hull was rotting from shipworms. On May 23, 1788, she was pulled onto the beach for repairs. In July, she was no longer needed by the government. She sailed for England on July 14. She was in a group with other First Fleet ships: Alexander, Borrowdale, and Friendship. Lieutenant John Shortland on the Alexander was in charge of the group.
The plan was for the ships to sail north to Lord Howe Island. Then, they would sail along the Great Barrier Reef to reach the Dutch port of Batavia (now Jakarta). From there, they would go west through the Sunda Strait to the Cape of Good Hope. Finally, they would sail north across the Atlantic to England. This route was well known. Shortland thought the trip would take six to ten months.
However, this plan changed. The Prince of Wales and Borrowdale lost sight of the Alexander and Friendship during a big storm in late July. When the weather cleared, they were alone and off course. The captains, John Mason of the Prince of Wales and Hobson Reed of the Borrowdale, decided they could not reach Lord Howe Island. They also did not want to risk sailing through the Great Barrier Reef without the Alexander leading the way. Instead, they agreed to sail southeast into the open ocean. They would go the other way around the world, past Cape Horn and Rio de Janeiro, then across the Atlantic to Europe.
The weather in the Pacific was good. But by August, the two ships had lost sight of each other and continued alone. On August 23, the Prince of Wales sailed around Cape Horn. She then headed northeast towards Rio. During the trip, the crew mostly ate salted meat. By early September, most of them were sick with scurvy. Captain Mason died from scurvy on October 9. Thirteen other men were too sick to leave their beds. When they finally saw Rio on October 13, the crew was too weak to sail the ship into port. She drifted helplessly until the next morning. The harbor master saw her and sent more sailors to help. Twelve of the sickest crew members were taken to a hospital in Rio. The others recovered on board.
The Prince of Wales left Rio on Christmas Day 1788, after getting new supplies. She had a smooth final journey and reached Falmouth, England, on March 25, 1789. Even with all the delays from sickness, weather, and a new route, she was the first ship from the Fleet to return home. She arrived two months before the Alexander.
Whaling Ship
From 1790 to 1793, the Prince of Wales was used as a whaling ship. She sailed to places like Brazil and Africa to hunt whales. In 1791, she was reported to be doing well in Walvis Bay. She returned to England in April 1792 and sailed again in July. She went around Cape Horn to Peru and was back in England by late 1793.
Privateer Ship
In 1793, a man named Clayton Tarleton bought the Prince of Wales. He added twenty guns to the ship. Her captain, William Scales, received a "letter of marque" on March 1, 1793. This was a special government permission that allowed a private ship to attack and capture enemy merchant ships during wartime. The letter said the Prince of Wales had a crew of 100 men. This was many more than needed to sail the ship, showing that Tarleton planned to use her as a privateer.
The Prince of Wales went on a mission. On April 7, she captured a French merchant ship called "Le Federatis." This ship was carrying valuable goods. The Prince of Wales brought her captured ship into Hoylake a week later.
Later, Captain James Thomson took command of the Prince of Wales. He also received a letter of marque in September 1793. His letter said he would have a crew of 40 men. In late 1793, Thomson captured a ship called Maryland. He also recaptured a British ship called Best that a French warship had taken.
In early 1794, the Prince of Wales captured another ship, Flugen. This ship was carrying wine and other goods from France.
Carrying Enslaved People and Capture
Later in 1794, a new captain named Radcliffe Shimmin took over. He also received a letter of marque in June 1794. Records show that Shimmin sailed from Liverpool on July 7, 1794, on a voyage to transport enslaved people.
This journey did not go well. As the Prince of Wales was nearing Barbados, she met a French privateer. This privateer was a large ship with 28 guns and 300 men. The French ship captured the Prince of Wales and took her to Saint Thomas. This island was a Danish colony and neutral at the time. The Prince of Wales had embarked 359 enslaved people and landed 328 at St Croix. This capture happened in late 1794 or early 1795. After this, the Prince of Wales was not listed in shipping records for a while.
British Merchant Ship
Surprisingly, the Prince of Wales later returned to British ownership. How this happened is not clear, but it's possible the British Navy recaptured her.
From 1797 to 1800, the ship sailed between the West Indies and London. She carried goods for a company called Barclay and Co. Records show she had repairs in 1798 and 1800. Her captain changed, and she started sailing to Grenada. In 1801, her owner changed, and she began sailing to the Mediterranean Sea. Her guns were also updated. In 1804, she had a big repair and got a new deck and sides.
The Prince of Wales was still listed as sailing in 1810. Records from that year show her sailing between London and Memel (now Klaipėda). She had a thorough repair in 1808. These records say she was launched in 1779 in Sidmouth.
Even in 1815, there was still confusion about her origins. Some records said she was launched in 1799 but rebuilt in 1786. Other records said she was launched on the Thames River with no specific launch date. She was last known to be sailing between London and Quebec.
Ship Records
Records like Lloyd's Register are important for tracking ships. They are usually accurate, but they depend on the information given by ship owners. For the Prince of Wales, the information in these records generally matches other sources. They show how the ship's owner, captain, and trade routes changed over the years. They also show when she had repairs and how her guns were updated.
|
