''Doddington'' was an

East Indiaman 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

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 Southea ...

(EIC). She made two trips for the EIC to

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- ...

, China, and

Mokha Mokha ( ar, المُخا, al-Mukhā), also spelled Mocha, or Mukha, is a port city on the Red Sea coast of Yemen. Until Aden and al Hudaydah eclipsed it in the 19th century, Mokha was the principal port for Yemen's capital, Sanaa. Long known fo ...

. On her third trip she was sailing to India to remain there when she was wrecked on 17 July 1755 at Bird Island in

Algoa Bay Algoa Bay is a maritime bay in the Eastern Cape, South Africa. It is located in the east coast, east of the Cape of Good Hope. Algoa Bay is bounded in the west by Cape Recife and in the east by Cape Padrone. The bay is up to deep. The harbour c ...

, near present-day

Port Elizabeth Gqeberha (), formerly Port Elizabeth and colloquially often referred to as P.E., is a major seaport and the most populous city in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. It is the seat of the Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Municipality, Sou ...

. The ship was carrying a hoard of gold belonging to

Clive of India Robert Clive, 1st Baron Clive, (29 September 1725 – 22 November 1774), also known as Clive of India, was the first British Governor of the Bengal Presidency. Clive has been widely credited for laying the foundation of the British ...

, which modern treasure hunters looted. The controversy over these depredations resulted in changes to international maritime treaties to better protect underwater cultural heritage.

Successful voyages

First voyage (1748–49)

Captain Benjamin Mason left the Downs on 8 June 1748, bound for Bombay and China. ''Doddington'' reached the

Cape A cape is a clothing accessory or a sleeveless outer garment which drapes the wearer's back, arms, and chest, and connects at the neck. History Capes were common in medieval Europe, especially when combined with a hood in the chaperon. Th ...

on 15 September,

Cochin Kochi (), also known as Cochin ( ) ( the official name until 1996) is a major port city on the Malabar Coast of India bordering the Laccadive Sea, which is a part of the Arabian Sea. It is part of the district of Ernakulam in the state of K ...

on 5 February 1749, and

Tellicherry Thalassery (), formerly Tellicherry, is a municipality, Commercial City on the Malabar Coast in Kannur district, in the state of Kerala, India, bordered by the districts of Mahé (Pondicherry), Kozhikode, Wayanad, Kasaragod and Kodagu (Karnat ...

on 20 February, and arrived at Bombay on 28 March. She was again at Tellicherry on 1 May. From there she reached

Kedah Kedah (), also known by its honorific Darul Aman (Islam), Aman and historically as Queda, is a States and federal territories of Malaysia, state of Malaysia, located in the northwestern part of Peninsular Malaysia. The state covers a total area ...

on 10 June and

Malacca Malacca ( ms, Melaka) is a state in Malaysia located in the southern region of the Malay Peninsula, next to the Strait of Malacca. Its capital is Malacca City, dubbed the Historic City, which has been listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site si ...

on 11 July, and arrived at Whampoa on 9 August. Homeward bound, she crossed the Second Bar (about 20 miles before Whampoa), on 4 December, reached

Saint Helena Saint Helena () is a British overseas territory located in the South Atlantic Ocean. It is a remote volcanic tropical island west of the coast of south-western Africa, and east of Rio de Janeiro in South America. It is one of three constitu ...

on 3 March 1750, and arrived at Long Reach on 21 May.

Second voyage (1752–54)

Captain Norton Hutchinson left the Downs on 20 March 1752, bound for Bombay and Mokha. ''Doddington'' reached Lisbon on 10 April and St Augustine's Bay on 3 August. She arrived at Bombay on 9 October. She then spent the period 22 October to 13 November cruising, before again arriving at Bombay on 14 November. She sailed to

Surat Surat is a city in the western Indian state of Gujarat. The word Surat literally means ''face'' in Gujarati and Hindi. Located on the banks of the river Tapti near its confluence with the Arabian Sea, it used to be a large seaport. It is now ...

, which she reached on 26 December, and arrived at "Scindy Road" on 9 January 1753, before returning to Surat on 19 February. On 26 February she arrived at Bombay again. She reached

Mangalore Mangalore (), officially known as Mangaluru, is a major port city of the Indian state of Karnataka. It is located between the Arabian Sea and the Western Ghats about west of Bangalore, the state capital, 20 km north of Karnataka–Ker ...

on 11 March and Tellicherry on 17 March, and arrived at Mokha on 16 April. By 16 September she was back at Bombay. From there she reached the Cape on 14 February 1754 and St Helena on 17 March, and arrived at

Gravesend 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 ...

on 31 May.

Wrecking

''Doddington'' sailed from

Dover Dover () is a town and major ferry port in Kent, South East England. It faces France across the Strait of Dover, the narrowest part of the English Channel at from Cap Gris Nez in France. It lies south-east of Canterbury and east of Maidstone ...

on 22 April 1755 bound to

Fort St George Fort St. George (or historically, White Town) is a fortress in the coastal city of Chennai, India. Founded in 1639, it was the first English (later British) fortress in India. The construction of the fort provided the impetus for further s ...

in India under the command of Captain James Sampson. She was to stay in India. ''Doddington'' sailed in the company of ''Stretham'' (carrying

), ''Pelham'', ''Edgecote'', and ''Houghton''. The ships were separated en route to

Porto Praya Praia (, Portuguese for "beach") is the capital and largest city of Cape Verde.Cape Verde , national_anthem = () , official_languages = Portuguese , national_languages = Cape Verdean Creole , capital = Praia , coordinates = , largest_city = capital , demonym ...

islands together, but once again separated after Sampson took a more southerly route than the other ships. After seven weeks, ''Doddington'' rounded the

Cape of Good Hope The Cape of Good Hope ( af, Kaap die Goeie Hoop ) ;''Kaap'' in isolation: pt, Cabo da Boa Esperança is a rocky headland on the Atlantic coast of the Cape Peninsula in South Africa. A common misconception is that the Cape of Good Hope is t ...

. After sailing eastwards for a day, she was on a heading of East-North-East, when at 1 am she struck a rock in

. Of the original crew and passengers of 270, only 23 initially survived while the other 247 passengers and crew died with the ship. The

castaway A castaway is a person who is cast adrift or ashore. While the situation usually happens after a shipwreck, some people voluntarily stay behind on a deserted island, either to evade captors or the world in general. A person may also be left a ...

s subsisted for seven months on fish, birds, and eggs on a nearby island, which they named Bird Island. One of their number, a carpenter, was able to help them build a sloop, the ''Happy Deliverance'', on which they were finally able to get off the island on 16 February 1756. The sloop was seaworthy enough to take the survivors on an eventful journey up the east coast of Africa via

St Lucia Saint Lucia ( acf, Sent Lisi, french: Sainte-Lucie) is an island country of the West Indies in the eastern Caribbean. The island was previously called Iouanalao and later Hewanorra, names given by the native Arawaks and Caribs, two Amerindia ...

and

Delagoa Bay Maputo Bay ( pt, Baía de Maputo), formerly also known as Delagoa Bay from ''Baía da Lagoa'' in Portuguese, is an inlet of the Indian Ocean on the coast of Mozambique, between 25° 40' and 26° 20' S, with a length from north to south of over 90&n ...

, where the survivors sold her before travelling on to India. Captain Norton Hutchinson, now captain of the East Indiaman ''Carnarvon'', took them on board and carried them to

Madras Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of th ...

Salvage

''Doddington'' was carrying a consignment of gold and silver, known as " Clive of India's Gold", which was controversially

looted Looting is the act of stealing, or the taking of goods by force, typically in the midst of a military, political, or other social crisis, such as war, natural disasters (where law and civil enforcement are temporarily ineffective), or rioting. ...

in recent times by

treasure hunters. A third of the 1,200 gold coins were eventually returned to South Africa after a four-year legal wrangle in London. The high-profile court case highlighted various shortcomings in both South African and international

maritime law Admiralty law or maritime law is a body of law that governs nautical issues and private maritime disputes. Admiralty law consists of both domestic law on maritime activities, and private international law governing the relationships between priva ...

. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation monitored the case closely, as it set an important precedent for the

UNESCO Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage The Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage is a treaty that was adopted on 2 November 2001 by the General Conference of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).UNESC"2001 Convention o ...

that it subsequently published.

Cultural ripple

In September 1867, at the Theatre Royal, ''The Dramatic Club'' of

staged a locally written play "''Treasure at Woody Cape''", dealing with the legend of the Doddington's treasure.

Notes

References

External links

Anecdotes of Shipwreck
{{Coord, 33, 50.06, S, 26, 17.40, E, type:isle_region:ZA, name=Dodington, display=title Shipwrecks of the South African Indian Ocean coast Ships of the British East India Company Maritime incidents in 1755 Age of Sail merchant ships Merchant ships of the United Kingdom 1748 ships