''Arniston'' was an East Indiaman that made eight voyages for the British

East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (the Indian subcontinent and South ...

(EIC). She was wrecked on 30 May 1815 during a storm at Waenhuiskrans, near

Cape Agulhas Cape Agulhas (; pt, Cabo das Agulhas , "Cape of the Needles") is a rocky headland in Western Cape, South Africa. It is the geographic southern tip of the African continent and the beginning of the dividing line between the Atlantic and Indian ...

, South Africa, with the loss of 372 lives – only six on board survived. She had been chartered as a

troopship A troopship (also troop ship or troop transport or trooper) is a ship used to carry soldiers, either in peacetime or wartime. Troopships were often drafted from commercial shipping fleets, and were unable land troops directly on shore, typicall ...

and was underway from Ceylon to England on a journey to repatriate wounded soldiers from the

Kandyan Wars The Kandyan Wars (or the Kandian Wars) refers generally to the period of warfare between the British colonial forces and the Kingdom of Kandy, on the island of what is now Sri Lanka, between 1796 and 1818. More specifically it is used to descri ...

. Controversially, the ship did not have a

marine chronometer A marine chronometer is a precision timepiece that is carried on a ship and employed in the determination of the ship's position by celestial navigation. It is used to determine longitude by comparing Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), or in the modern ...

on board, a comparatively new navigational instrument that was an "easy and cheap addition to her equipment" that would have enabled her to determine her longitude accurately. Instead, she was forced to navigate through the heavy storm and strong currents using older, less reliable navigational aids and

dead reckoning In navigation, dead reckoning is the process of calculating current position of some moving object by using a previously determined position, or fix, and then incorporating estimates of speed, heading direction, and course over elapsed time. ...

. Navigational difficulties and a lack of headway led to an incorrect assumption that Cape Agulhas was

Cape Point Cape Point ( af, Kaappunt) is a promontory at the southeast corner of the Cape Peninsula, a mountainous and scenic landform that runs north-south for about thirty kilometres at the extreme southwestern tip of the African continent in South Af ...

. Consequently, ''Arniston'' was wrecked when her captain headed north for St Helena, operating on the incorrect belief the ship had already passed Cape Point.

Overview

East Indiamen operated under charter or licence to the Honourable East India Company, which held a monopoly granted by

Queen Elizabeth I Elizabeth I (7 September 153324 March 1603) was Queen of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death in 1603. Elizabeth was the last of the five House of Tudor monarchs and is sometimes referred to as the "Virgin Queen". El ...

of England for all English trade between the Cape of Good Hope and

Cape Horn Cape Horn ( es, Cabo de Hornos, ) is the southernmost headland of the Tierra del Fuego archipelago of southern Chile, and is located on the small Hornos Island. Although not the most southerly point of South America (which are the Diego Ramí ...

. ''Arniston'' was built by William Barnard at Barnard's Thames Yard at

Deptford Deptford is an area on the south bank of the River Thames in southeast London, within the London Borough of Lewisham. It is named after a Ford (crossing), ford of the River Ravensbourne. From the mid 16th century to the late 19th it was home ...

on the

Thames The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the second-longest in the United Kingdom, after the R ...

and launched in 1794.Mitchell 2007, tertiary sources. She was probably named after Lord Arniston rather than the tiny village of Arniston near

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian on the southern shore of t ...

. ''Arniston'' was heavily armed, with her fifty-eight guns making her the equivalent of a

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against ...

fourth-rate In 1603 all English warships with a compliment of fewer than 160 men were known as 'small ships'. In 1625/26 to establish pay rates for officers a six tier naval ship rating system was introduced.Winfield 2009 These small ships were divided i ...

ship of the line. A classification of "ship of the line" – a class of ship that later evolved into the battleship – meant that a ship was powerful enough to stand in a

line of battle The line of battle is a tactic in naval warfare in which a fleet of ships forms a line end to end. The first example of its use as a tactic is disputed—it has been variously claimed for dates ranging from 1502 to 1652. Line-of-battle tacti ...

and explained why these ships of commerce were sometimes mistaken for men-o-war. The armament was necessary for the ship to protect herself and her valuable cargo from

pirate Piracy is an act of robbery or criminal violence by ship or boat-borne attackers upon another ship or a coastal area, typically with the goal of stealing cargo and other valuable goods. Those who conduct acts of piracy are called pirates, v ...

s and

commerce raiders Commerce raiding (french: guerre de course, "war of the chase"; german: Handelskrieg, "trade war") is a form of naval warfare used to destroy or disrupt logistics of the enemy on the open sea by attacking its merchant shipping, rather than eng ...

of other nations during long voyages between Europe and the Far East. ''Arniston'', like other East Indiamen, was slow and unmanoeuvrable, but able to carry a large quantity of cargo.Port Cities UK, secondary sources

Voyages (1794–1812)

For her first five voyages she sailed under the ownership and management of John Wedderburn (probably John Wedderburn of Ballindean) and the next three EIC voyages under ownership of Robert Hudson. ''Arniston'' sailed from Great Britain to the Far East eight times before her last voyage.BL 1812, primary sources. On one of her homeward journeys from China, she struck an uncharted rock at , near the island of Pulo Goondy (modern day Pulau Legundi), located just south of Sumatra. She did not suffer any ill effects as a result of this incident however, which is mentioned in journals of the time only for its noteworthiness as a navigation hazard to other shipping. Apart from this and another incident in 1800, ''Arniston''s first eight voyages were uneventful.

Voyage number 1: St Helena, Madras, and China (1795–1797)

Captain Campbell Marjoribanks: * 3 April 1795:

Portsmouth Portsmouth ( ) is a port and city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. The city of Portsmouth has been a unitary authority since 1 April 1997 and is administered by Portsmouth City Council. Portsmouth is the most dens ...

* 14 April:

Tenerife Tenerife (; ; formerly spelled ''Teneriffe'') is the largest and most populous island of the Canary Islands. It is home to 43% of the total population of the archipelago. With a land area of and a population of 978,100 inhabitants as of Janu ...

* 2 June: St Helena * 9 August: Cape of Good Hope * 27 September: Madras * 14 November: Penang * 3 December: Malacca * 11 March 1796: Whampoa * 23 April: Second Bar * 29 June:

Macau Macau or Macao (; ; ; ), officially the Macao Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (MSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China in the western Pearl River Delta by the South China Sea. With a p ...

* 20 November: St Helena * 1 March 1797:

While ''Arniston'' was at St Helena on her outward journey, she undertook to transport troops from there to join

Lord Elphinstone Lord Elphinstone is a title in the Peerage of Scotland created by King James IV in 1510. History The title of Lord Elphinstone was granted by King James IV in 1510 to Sir Alexander Elphinstone of Elphinstone, who was killed at the Battle of ...

, who was undertaking an expedition to capture

Cape Colony The Cape Colony ( nl, Kaapkolonie), also known as the Cape of Good Hope, was a British colony in present-day South Africa named after the Cape of Good Hope, which existed from 1795 to 1802, and again from 1806 to 1910, when it united with t ...

from the Dutch. On 10 July George Vancouver arrived in . Vancouver was returning to England after his four-and-a-half-year long voyage of exploration. He transferred to ''Arniston'' four field guns that he had been carrying, together with what ammunition he had left for them, for onward transmission to Elphinstone. ''Discovery''s boats also helped in the ferrying of troops from shore to ''Arniston''. ''Arniston'' was to ferry nine field pieces, as well as a company of artillery and three of infantry (393 men in all), to Elphinstone.

Voyage number 2: China (1797–1798)

On this voyage ''Arniston'' sailed under a letter of marque in the name of Captain William Macnamara, and dated 13 May 1797. Her itinerary was: * 5 June 1797: Portsmouth * 29 August: Cape of Good Hope * 9 December: Whampoa * 14 February 1798: Second Bar * 26 March: Macau * 5 August: St Helena * 23 October: Long Reach

Voyage number 3: St Helena, Benkulen, and China (1800–1801)

On this voyage ''Arniston'' sailed under a letter of marque in the name of Captain Campbell Marjoribanks, and dated 29 November 1799. Her itinerary was: * 7 January 1800: Portsmouth * 4 April: St Helena * 27 June: Benkulen * 29 July: Penang * 27 August: Malacca * 21 September: Whampoa * 29 November: Second Bar * 18 January 1801: Macau * 15 April: St Helena * 17 June: Long Reach During this voyage ''Arniston'' had just anchored at Benkulen on 27 June 1800, when the 26-gun French

privateer A privateer is a private person or ship that engages in maritime warfare under a commission of war. Since robbery under arms was a common aspect of seaborne trade, until the early 19th century all merchant ships carried arms. A sovereign or deleg ...

''Confiance'' attacked her. ''Arniston'' cut her anchor and gave chase, firing several

broadside Broadside or broadsides may refer to: Naval * Broadside (naval), terminology for the side of a ship, the battery of cannon on one side of a warship, or their near simultaneous fire on naval warfare Printing and literature * Broadside (comic ...

s into the other ship, but the faster French ship was able to make an escape.Lindsay 1874, primary sources. On 9 October 1800, the East Indiaman ''Kent'' would be less fortunate; ''Confiance'' would capture ''Kent'' after a two-hour engagement.

Voyage number 4: St Helena, Benkulen, and China (1801–1803)

Captain Campbell Marjoribanks: * 31 December 1801: Downs * 9 March 1802: St Helena * 10 June: Benkulen * 12 July: Penang * 31 August: Whampoa * 24 October: Second Bar * 11 February 1803: St Helena * 26 April: Long Reach

Voyage number 5: China (1804–1805)

On this voyage ''Arniston'' sailed under a letter of marque in the name of Captain James Jameson, and dated 24 March 1804. Her itinerary was: On 9 June 1804, ''Arniston'' left St. Helens, Isle of Wight, as part of a convoy of nine

East Indiamen East Indiaman was a general name for any sailing ship operating under charter or licence to any of the East India trading companies of the major European trading powers of the 17th through the 19th centuries. The term is used to refer to vesse ...

of the British

, all bound for China. The Indiamen were , , ''Cuffnells'', , , , , and . provided the escort.Evans: ''Finding my ancestors: Voyage of the Athenienne to China in 1804/1805''.
/ref> The fleet arrived at Rio de Janeiro around 14–18 August. It then passed the Cape of Good Hope. From here, rather than passing through the Indian Ocean and the Straits of Malacca, the fleet sailed south of Western Australia and through Bass Strait. The objectives were two-fold: to avoid French ships reported to be in the Indian Ocean, and to improve the charting of Bass Strait. The ships then sailed to Norfolk Island, which was the next rendezvous point after Saint Paul Island, for members that had separated. ''Taunton Castle'' had separated in the South Atlantic and although she arrived at Norfolk Island three days after the fleet had sailed on, did not rejoin the rest of the fleet until she arrived at Haerlem Bay, in China. The arrival of ''Athenienne'' and the East Indiamen at Norfolk Island sowed panic among the colonists there who feared that a French flotilla had arrived. The fleet arrived at Whampoa in mid-January 1805. The fleet then returned to England via the Straits of Malacca. ''Arniston'', for example, crossed the second Bar on 14 February, reached Malacca on 21 March and St Helena on 30 June, and arrived at Long Reach on 15 September.

Voyage number 6: China (1806–1807)

On this voyage ''Arniston'' sailed under a letter of marque in the name of Captain Peter Wedderburn dated 20 March 1806. Her itinerary was: * 14 May 1806: Portsmouth * 7 August: Cape of Good Hope * 10 October: Penang * 21 January 1807: Whampoa * 4 May: off Lintin Island * 1 July: Penang * 17 July: Acheh * 19 September: Cape of Good Hope * 13 October: St Helena * 6 January 1808:

Lower Hope Gravesend is a town in northwest Kent, England, situated 21 miles (35 km) east-southeast of Charing Cross (central London) on the Bank (geography), south bank of the River Thames and opposite Tilbury in Essex. Located in the diocese of Ro ...

Voyage number 7: Bombay and China (1810–1811)

Captain Samuel Landon: * 21 January 1810: Portsmouth * 9 April: Cape of Good Hope * 26 May:

Bombay Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the second-m ...

* 1 September: Penang * 12 October: Whampoa * 29 December: Second Bar * 28 May 1811: St Helena * 13 August: Long Reach

Voyage number 8: Bombay and China (1812–1813)

On this voyage ''Arniston'' sailed under a letter of marque in the name of Captain Walter Campbell. Her itinerary was: * 4 January 1812:

Torbay Torbay is a borough and unitary authority in Devon, south west England. It is governed by Torbay Council and consists of of land, including the resort towns of Torquay, Paignton and Brixham, located on east-facing Tor Bay, part of Lyme ...

* 5 April:

Johanna Johanna is a feminine name, a variant form of Joanna that originated in Latin in the Middle Ages, including an -h- by analogy with the Latin masculine name Johannes. The original Greek form ''Iōanna'' lacks a medial /h/ because in Greek /h/ cou ...

* 7 May: Bombay * 11 September: Whampoa * 4 January 1813: Macau * 27 March: St Helena * 7 June: Long Reach The British government then chartered ''Arniston'' as a

troop transport A troopship (also troop ship or troop transport or trooper) is a ship used to carry soldiers, either in peacetime or wartime. Troopships were often drafted from commercial shipping fleets, and were unable land troops directly on shore, typicall ...

to the Cape and India.

Voyage number 9: Madeira, Cape, and Ceylon (1814–1815)

Captain George Simpson left England on 8 June 1814. At Ceylon, ''Arniston'' embarked soldiers of the 73rd Regiment, who were wounded in the

in Ceylon, to repatriate them to England.

Wreck (1815)

Critically, the ship did not have a

chronometer A clock or a timepiece is a device used to measure and indicate time. The clock is one of the oldest human inventions, meeting the need to measure intervals of time shorter than the natural units such as the day, the lunar month and th ...

—a comparatively new navigational instrument that was an "easy and cheap addition to her equipment" at the time—for this voyage. Captain George Simpson could not afford the 60–100

guineas The guinea (; commonly abbreviated gn., or gns. in plural) was a coin, minted in Great Britain between 1663 and 1814, that contained approximately one-quarter of an ounce of gold. The name came from the Guinea region in West Africa, from where m ...

for one,Hall 1820, primary sources. and the ship's owners were also unwilling to purchase one, even threatening to replace him with another captain if he refused to set sail without one.Hall 1833, primary sources. ''Arniston'' sailed from Port de Galle on 4 April 1815 in a convoy of six other East Indiamen, under the escort of HMS ''Africaine'' and .Grocott 1997, primary sources Among her 378 passengers were many invalid soldiers and sailors, plus 14 women and 25 children. During the passage from Ceylon, at one o'clock every day, the ships signalled each other their longitude that they calculated using their chronometers. In this way, the ships were able to compare their respective instruments, and the master of the ''Arniston'' was able to learn his longitude too, as long as he remained in the convoy. On 26 May, while rounding the southern tip of Africa, ''Arniston'' separated from the convoy in bad weather after her sails were damaged. Without accurate daily longitudinal information from the other ships, ''Arniston'' had to rely instead on older, less accurate navigation methods. Navigation via

proved particularly difficult as there were strong ocean currents combined with inclement weather that prevented a fix being obtained for several days via celestial navigation. Arniston 01

On 29 May, land was sighted to the north at 7 am, and given the dead reckoning estimates, was presumed to be the Cape of Good Hope. The ship sailed west until 4:30 pm on 29 May, then turned north to run for St Helena. However the land sighted had in fact been

(then known as "Cape L'Agullas") and the ship had also not made good headway against the current since this sighting. Compounding these navigational errors, the master had not taken any depth soundings (which would have confirmed his location over the

Agulhas Bank The Agulhas Bank (, from Portuguese for Cape Agulhas, ''Cabo das Agulhas'', "Cape of Needles") is a broad, shallow part of the southern African continental shelf which extends up to south of Cape Agulhas before falling steeply to the abyssal p ...

), before heading north. Consequently, instead of being west of the Cape of Good Hope as presumed, the ship was closing on the reef at Waenhuiskrans near Cape Agulhas. The anchors were unable to hold the heavy ship in the storm, so on 30 May near 4 pm, Lieutenant Brice advised Captain Simpson to ground the ship to save the lives of those aboard. Eight minutes later, at about 8 pm, the ship struck rocks half a mile offshore and heeled into the wind. The guns on the opposite side were cut away in a failed attempt to level the ship, which soon started to break up in the waves.AJ 1816, primary sources. Only six men (the ship's carpenter and five sailors of the 378 people on board survived, after reaching the shore only with great difficulty through the high surf. The following morning the

sternpost A sternpost is the upright structural member or post at the stern of a (generally wooden) ship or a boat, to which are attached the transoms and the rearmost left corner part of the stern. The sternpost may either be completely vertical or may ...

was the only part of the vessel still visible. The ship and her passengers had been lost for lack of a chronometer, or as an officer from the same convoy later wrote:

Aftermath

The six survivors buried the bodies found on the beach, then travelled east along the beach, expecting to reach

Cape Town Cape Town ( af, Kaapstad; , xh, iKapa) is one of South Africa's three capital cities, serving as the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. It is the legislative capital of the country, the oldest city in the country, and the second largest ...

. However, after four and a half days, they realised their error and returned to the site of the wreck. Here they subsisted off a cask of oatmeal, while trying to effect repairs to the ship's

pinnace Pinnace may refer to: * Pinnace (ship's boat), a small vessel used as a tender to larger vessels among other things * Full-rigged pinnace The full-rigged pinnace was the larger of two types of vessel called a pinnace in use from the sixteenth c ...

, which had been washed ashore. They were discovered six days later on 14 June by a farmer's son, who was out hunting. * Among the victims were: Captain George Simpson, Lieutenant Brice, 6th Viscount Lord and Lady Molesworth. * The six survivors were: Dr. Gunter (

boatswain A boatswain ( , ), bo's'n, bos'n, or bosun, also known as a deck boss, or a qualified member of the deck department, is the most senior rate of the deck department and is responsible for the components of a ship's hull. The boatswain supervise ...

), John Barrett (carpenter), Charles Stewart Scott (carpenter's mate), William Grung (second class), Gibbs (third class), Robinson (fourth class). A memorial, a replica of which can be seen today, was erected on the beach by the wife of Colonel Giels, whose four children were lost in the tragedy on their homeward journey, having visited him in Ceylon. The memorial bears the following inscription: Over time, the seaside village of Waenhuiskrans has become so associated with the wreck, that it now is also known as Arniston. The nearby town of

Bredasdorp Bredasdorp is a town in the Southern Overberg region of the Western Cape, South Africa, and the main economic and service hub of that region. It lies on the northern edge of the Agulhas Plain, about south-east of Cape Town and north of Cape Agu ...

has a museum dedicated to the wreck. The wreck had a direct influence on the decision to build a lighthouse at

to the west in 1847–1848.Proposals for a Lighthouse at L'Agulhas, secondary sources. Thirty seven years later, the 73rd Regiment once again suffered hundreds of casualties on this coast when was wrecked away at

Gansbaai Gansbaai (Dutch/Afrikaans for "bay of geese," sometimes referred to as Gans Bay or Gangs Bay) is a fishing town and popular tourist destination in the Overberg District Municipality, Western Cape, South Africa. It is known for its dense populatio ...

Archaeological excavation

The wreck, which lies in about of water, was surveyed by an archaeological team from the

University of Cape Town The University of Cape Town (UCT) ( af, Universiteit van Kaapstad, xh, Yunibesithi ya yaseKapa) is a public research university in Cape Town, South Africa. Established in 1829 as the South African College, it was granted full university statu ...

(UCT) in 1982. The National Monuments Council issued a permit to UCT student Jim Jobling to conduct an underwater survey of the site, as well as a limited excavation. A number of artefacts were recovered, which were donated to the Bredasdorp Shipwreck Museum.

Notes, citations, and references

Notes

Citations

References

Primary source In the study of history as an academic discipline, a primary source (also called an original source) is an artifact, document, diary, manuscript, autobiography, recording, or any other source of information that was created at the time under ...

s consulted * * * Hackman, Rowan (2001) ''Ships of the East India Company''. (Gravesend, Kent: World Ship Society). * – The Arniston cautionary tale (concluding an exposé of

with a map p. 276). * – Chapter reprinted from his ''Fragments of Voyages and Travels'', 3rd series (1833). * Hardy, Charles (1835) ''Supplement to a Register of Ships Employed in the Service of the ... East India Company from 1760 to the Conclusion of the Commercial Charter, Etc.'' * * * * * * Vancouver, George (1798) ''A voyage of discovery to the North Pacific Ocean and round the world''. (London: G.G. and J. Robinson). * Secondary sources consulted * * (A partnership of websites with material from the heritage organisations of the five key maritime cities in the UK –

Bristol Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in ...

, Hartlepool, Liverpool, London and

Southampton Southampton () is a port city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. It is located approximately south-west of London and west of Portsmouth. The city forms part of the South Hampshire built-up area, which also covers Po ...

) *

Tertiary source A tertiary source is an index or textual consolidation of already published primary and secondary sources
Wexham, Brian. ''Shipwrecks of the Western Cape''. And: Turner, Malcolm. ''Shipwrecks and Salvage in South Africa''.

External links

*
The history of HMS ''Arniston'' in connection with the village Arniston
{{coord, 34, 39, 36, S, 20, 15, 7, E, type:landmark_region:ZA, name=Wreck of Arniston, display=title Maritime incidents in 1815 Shipwrecks of the South African Indian Ocean coast Monuments and memorials in South Africa Troop ships of the United Kingdom 1815 in South Africa Ships built in Deptford Ships of the British East India Company 1794 ships Maritime incidents in South Africa Age of Sail merchant ships Merchant ships of the United Kingdom