Sydney Cove (ship)
Encyclopedia
Sydney Cove was a sailing ship 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
.
, and was renamed the Sydney Cove for her destination. The cargo consisted of various provisions, spirits and goods. The venture was speculative, meaning it wasn't firm orders from the colony, but rather sent to be sold on arrival.
The ship's master, Gavin (or Guy) Hamilton, was kept on by the new owners and the ship departed on 10 November 1796. Heavy seas encountered in December started a leak in the ship and further bad weather in January 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 1797, with water up to the lower-deck hatches, and in imminent danger of sinking, Hamilton decided to ground the stricken vessel on an island north of Tasmania, now called Preservation Island
, in the Furneaux Group. He chose a sheltered location, so everyone was able to get ashore safely and most of the cargo was saved, too. Salvaged rum
was stored safely out of the crew's reach, on nearby Rum Island
.
, 400 nautical miles (740.8 km) away. This was led by first mate Hugh Thompson, and included William Clark the supercargo
, three European seaman and twelve lascars. 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 and some not. The last of the party to die on the march was killed by a man 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 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 first coal found in Australia.
Francis and 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 Shearwater
s, or Australian Muttonbird
s, 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 the Francis and Eliza became separated and the Eliza was wrecked, with the loss of her crew and eight of the Sydney Cove survivors. The 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 petrel
s 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 the 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.
wrote to Joseph Banks
in August 1797 that it seemed certain the strait existed.
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.
in Launceston
has a display of items from the ship. The survivors' camp was excavated in 2002.
Preservation Island
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...
off Tasmania
Tasmania
Tasmania is an Australian island and state. It is south of the continent, separated by Bass Strait. The state includes the island of Tasmania—the 26th largest island in the world—and the surrounding islands. The state has a population of 507,626 , of whom almost half reside in the greater Hobart...
while on her way from Calcutta to Port Jackson
Port Jackson
Port Jackson, containing Sydney Harbour, is the natural harbour of Sydney, Australia. It is known for its beauty, and in particular, as the location of the Sydney Opera House and Sydney Harbour Bridge...
. She was among the first ships wrecked on the east coast of Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
.
Voyage
The ship was built in Calcutta as part of the rice fleet, under the name Begum Shaw. She was bought by the agency house (private trading firm) of Campbell and Clark to carry a cargo to Sydney CoveSydney Cove
Sydney Cove is a small bay on the southern shore of Port Jackson , on the coast of the state of New South Wales, Australia....
, and was renamed the Sydney Cove for her destination. The cargo consisted of various provisions, spirits and goods. The venture was speculative, meaning it wasn't firm orders from the colony, but rather sent to be sold on arrival.
The ship's master, Gavin (or Guy) Hamilton, was kept on by the new owners and the ship departed on 10 November 1796. Heavy seas encountered in December started a leak in the ship and further bad weather in January increased it, so that the pumps had to be manned continuously. In February, off the east coast of Tasmania
Tasmania
Tasmania is an Australian island and state. It is south of the continent, separated by Bass Strait. The state includes the island of Tasmania—the 26th largest island in the world—and the surrounding islands. The state has a population of 507,626 , of whom almost half reside in the greater Hobart...
, yet more heavy weather saw the leak gaining on the bailing efforts.
On 9 February 1797, with water up to the lower-deck hatches, and in imminent danger of sinking, Hamilton decided to ground the stricken vessel on an island north of Tasmania, now called Preservation Island
Preservation Island
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...
, in the Furneaux Group. He chose a sheltered location, so everyone was able to get ashore safely and most of the cargo was saved, too. Salvaged rum
Rum
Rum is a distilled alcoholic beverage made from sugarcane by-products such as molasses, or directly from sugarcane juice, by a process of fermentation and distillation. The distillate, a clear liquid, is then usually aged in oak barrels...
was stored safely out of the crew's reach, on nearby Rum Island
Rum Island (Tasmania)
Rum Island is a granite island, with an area of 13.5 ha, just south of Preservation Island 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...
.
Trek north
A party of seventeen men set off on 28 February 1797 in the ship's longboat to reach help at Port JacksonPort Jackson
Port Jackson, containing Sydney Harbour, is the natural harbour of Sydney, Australia. It is known for its beauty, and in particular, as the location of the Sydney Opera House and Sydney Harbour Bridge...
, 400 nautical miles (740.8 km) away. This was led by first mate Hugh Thompson, and included William Clark the supercargo
Supercargo
Supercargo is a term in maritime law that refers to a person employed on board a vessel by the owner of cargo carried on the ship...
, three European seaman and twelve lascars. Ill fortune struck again and they were wrecked on the mainland at the northern end of Ninety Mile Beach
Ninety Mile Beach, Victoria
The Ninety Mile Beach is a sandy stretch of south-eastern coastline of Victoria, Australia along the Gippsland Lakes region of East Gippsland on Bass Strait. The beach is just over long running northeastward from a spit near Port Albert to the man-made channel at Lakes Entrance...
. 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
Indigenous Australians
Indigenous Australians are the original inhabitants of the Australian continent and nearby islands. The Aboriginal Indigenous Australians migrated from the Indian continent around 75,000 to 100,000 years ago....
, some friendly and some not. The last of the party to die on the march was killed by a man Dilba and his people near Hat Hill. Those people had a reputation around Port Jackson for being ferocious. Matthew Flinders
Matthew Flinders
Captain Matthew Flinders RN was one of the most successful navigators and cartographers of his age. In a career that spanned just over twenty years, he sailed with Captain William Bligh, circumnavigated Australia and encouraged the use of that name for the continent, which had previously been...
and George Bass
George Bass
George Bass was a British naval surgeon and explorer of Australia.-Early years:He was born on 30 January 1771 at Aswarby, a hamlet near Sleaford, Lincolnshire, the son of a tenant farmer, George Bass, and a local beauty named Sarah Nee Newman. His father died in 1777 when Bass was 6...
had feared for their safety when they 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
Wattamolla
Wattamolla is a cove and lagoon on the New South Wales coast south of Sydney, within the Royal National Park.Wattamolla is the local Aboriginal name, meaning "place near running water". That name was recorded as Watta-Mowlee by Matthew Flinders, but is today spelt 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
Coal
Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock usually occurring in rock strata in layers or veins called coal beds or coal seams. The harder forms, such as anthracite coal, can be regarded as metamorphic rock because of later exposure to elevated temperature and pressure...
in the cliffs at what is now called Coalcliff between Sydney
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
and Wollongong. This was the first coal found in Australia.
Salvage
The schoonerSchooner
A schooner is a type of sailing vessel characterized by the use of fore-and-aft sails on two or more masts with the forward mast being no taller than the rear masts....
Francis and sloop
Sloop
A sloop is a sail boat with a fore-and-aft rig and a single mast farther forward than the mast of a cutter....
Eliza
Eliza (ship)
Not to be confused with another ship named Eliza, which wrecked in 1808.The Eliza was a sloop-rigged longboat that was involved in the rescue of the survivors of the wreck of the Sydney Cove in 1797....
were dispatched to Preservation Island
Preservation Island
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...
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 Shearwater
Short-tailed Shearwater
The Short-tailed Shearwater or Slender-billed Shearwater , also called Yolla or Moonbird, and commonly known as the muttonbird in Australia, is the most abundant seabird species in Australian waters, and is one of the few Australian native birds in which the chicks are commercially harvested...
s, or Australian Muttonbird
Muttonbird
Muttonbird, mutton-bird or mutton bird refer to seabirds – particularly certain large shearwaters – whose young are collected for food and other uses before they fledge ....
s, 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 the Francis and Eliza became separated and the Eliza was wrecked, with the loss of her crew and eight of the Sydney Cove survivors. The Francis made a further salvage voyage in December and again in January 1798. Matthew Flinders
Matthew Flinders
Captain Matthew Flinders RN was one of the most successful navigators and cartographers of his age. In a career that spanned just over twenty years, he sailed with Captain William Bligh, circumnavigated Australia and encouraged the use of that name for the continent, which had previously been...
was aboard the third voyage, assigned to make geographical observations. He noted petrel
Petrel
Petrels are tube-nosed seabirds in the bird order Procellariiformes. The common name does not indicate relationship beyond that point, as "petrels" occur in three of the four families within that group...
s and seals
Pinniped
Pinnipeds or fin-footed mammals are a widely distributed and diverse group of semiaquatic marine mammals comprising the families Odobenidae , Otariidae , and Phocidae .-Overview: Pinnipeds are typically sleek-bodied and barrel-shaped...
, and located and named the Kent Group
Kent Group
The Kent Group of Islands lies in Bass Strait, Australia, north-west of the Furneaux Group. They form the Kent Group National Park.The islands were named Kent's Group by Matthew Flinders, "in honour of my friend captain William Kent, then commander of the Supply" when Flinders passed them on...
of islands.
At the same time George Bass
George Bass
George Bass was a British naval surgeon and explorer of Australia.-Early years:He was born on 30 January 1771 at Aswarby, a hamlet near Sleaford, Lincolnshire, the son of a tenant farmer, George Bass, and a local beauty named Sarah Nee Newman. His father died in 1777 when Bass was 6...
was on his whaleboat voyage following the coast of the mainland, and he had thought to make for the 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.
Bass Strait
When the master of the 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 HunterJohn Hunter (New South Wales)
Vice-Admiral John Hunter, RN was a British naval officer, explorer, naturalist and colonial administrator who succeeded Arthur Phillip as the second governor of New South Wales, Australia from 1795 to 1800.-Overview:...
wrote to Joseph Banks
Joseph Banks
Sir Joseph Banks, 1st Baronet, GCB, PRS was an English naturalist, botanist and patron of the natural sciences. He took part in Captain James Cook's first great voyage . Banks is credited with the introduction to the Western world of eucalyptus, acacia, mimosa and the genus named after him,...
in August 1797 that it seemed certain the strait existed.
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
Seal hunting
Seal hunting, or sealing, is the personal or commercial hunting of seals. The hunt is currently practiced in five countries: Canada, where most of the world's seal hunting takes place, Namibia, the Danish region of Greenland, Norway and Russia...
were active in the area.
Today
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 GalleryQueen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery
The Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery is a museum located in Launceston, Tasmania, Australia. Established in 1891, the Queen Victoria has a strong reputation for its excellent collection, which includes fine exhibitions of colonial art, contemporary craft and design, Tasmanian history and...
in Launceston
Launceston, Tasmania
Launceston is a city in the north of the state of Tasmania, Australia at the junction of the North Esk and South Esk rivers where they become the Tamar River. Launceston is the second largest city in Tasmania after the state capital Hobart...
has a display of items from the ship. The survivors' camp was excavated in 2002.