Royal Charlotte (1819 ship)

Royal Charlotte was a three-masted merchant ship launched in 1819. Royal Charlotte carried convicts to Australia in 1825. On her way home to India via Batavia she wrecked on 11 June, but with minimal loss of life.

For other ships with the same name, see Royal Charlotte (ship) and Royal Charlotte (East Indiaman).
History
Name: Royal Charlotte
Owner: Dhunjeebhoy Nanabhoy & Co. (1823)[1]
Builder: Calcutta, or Cochin
Launched: 1819
Fate: Wrecked June 1825
General characteristics
Tons burthen: 471,[1][2][3] or 475,[4] or 492[5] (bm)
Propulsion: Sail

Origins

Royal Charlotte enters the British registers in 1824. The Register of Shipping describes her as being of 471 tons (bm), and built in 1819 in Calcutta.[2] The entry in Lloyd's Register is almost entirely illegible. The entry in the 1825 issue reports a burthen of 475 tons, and an origin of Cochin in 1819.[4]

Neither of these sources is consistent with Phipps. He reports that M. Smith launched Royal Charlotte in 1816 at Calcutta, but under the name Asia. He states that her owners sold her at Bombay in 1821, at which time they renamed her Royal Charlotte.[5] He may be conflating Royal Charlotte with Asia

A list of vessels registered at Bombay in 1823 reports that Royal Charlotte, of 471 tons (bm), was built at Cochin in 1819.[1]

Bateson (see below) has no place or year of origin for Royal Charlotte.[3]

Career
A view of the encampment of the shipwrecked company of Royal Charlotte on Frederick's Reef

In 1823 Royal Charlotte was based at Bombay with W. Howell, master.[1] The year before, he had sailed her to China.

Under the command of Joseph Corbyn, Royal Charlotte left Portsmouth, England on 5 January 1825 and arrived at Port Jackson on 29 April.[3] She had embarked 136 male convicts, one of whom died during the voyage.[6]

The government then contracted with Royal Charlotte to take the detachments of the 20th, 46th, and 49th Regiments of Foot to India via Batavia.

On 11 June, Royal Charlotte ran aground on Frederick Reefs. Her crew cut away her masts to steady her, while the other crew members and the soldiers moved to shore with water and provisions before she sank. Only two lives were lost. A party took the surviving longboat and travelled to Moreton Bay, arriving in July. The brig Amity was desptached to collect survivors.[7][8]

Post script

The discovery of the wreck was announced in January 2012.[9]

Citations
  1. India... (1823), p.343.
  2. Register of Shipping (1824).
  3. Bateson (1959), pp. 296-7.
  4. Lloyd's Register (1825), Seq.R444.
  5. Phipps (1840), p. 107.
  6. Bateson (1959), p. 440.
  7. Loney, J. K. (Jack Kenneth), 1925-1995. Australian shipwrecks Vol. 1 through 5
  8. Royal Charlotte, Australian National Shipwreck Database
  9. Discovery of the historic shipwreck Royal Charlotte, Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities, 20 January 2012, archived from the original on 16 January 2013, retrieved 19 January 2013
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References
  • Bateson, Charles (1959). The Convict Ships. Brown, Son & Ferguson. OCLC 3778075.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • The India Office and Burma Office List (1823). (H.M. Stationery Office).
  • Phipps, John, (of the Master Attendant's Office, Calcutta) (1840). A Collection of Papers Relative to Ship Building in India ...: Also a Register Comprehending All the Ships ... Built in India to the Present Time ... Scott.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)


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