''Friendship'' was a merchant
brig
A brig is a type of sailing vessel defined by its rig: two masts which are both square rig, square-rigged. Brigs originated in the second half of the 18th century and were a common type of smaller merchant vessel or warship from then until the ...
built in
Scarborough Scarborough or Scarboro may refer to:
People
* Scarborough (surname)
* Earl of Scarbrough
Places Australia
* Scarborough, Western Australia, suburb of Perth
* Scarborough, New South Wales, suburb of Wollongong
* Scarborough, Queensland, sub ...
, England, and launched in 1784. As part of the Australian
First Fleet
The First Fleet was a fleet of 11 ships that brought the first European and African settlers to Australia. It was made up of two Royal Navy vessels, three store ships and six convict transports. On 13 May 1787 the fleet under the command ...
, she transported
convicts from England to
New South Wales
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, nickname =
, image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg
, map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates:
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name = Australia
, established_title = Before federation
, es ...
. Due to problems manning her, she was scuttled in the Makassar Strait in October 1788.
Origins
After being launched, almost certainly in late 1784, she was sent to Antigua under Captain William Young in March 1785, returning late in the year, probably with a cargo of sugar and rum. She was then employed in the East Country coal trade, before being sent to
St Petersburg
Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...
in July 1786, for iron, hemp and planks.
She returned to the Thames on 10 October 1786, and four days later, she was tendered to the Navy Board by William Richards, the First Fleet contractor. The charter party between Richards and Thomas Hopper was signed on 23 November.
Voyage to Australia
![View of Botany Bay](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/93/View_of_Botany_Bay.jpg)
''Friendship'' left
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 ...
with the rest of the fleet on 13 May 1787; the smallest of the convict transports. Her master was Francis Walton and the surgeon assigned to her was
Thomas Arndell. She was carrying 76 male and 21 female convicts, but there are small differences in various accounts of the number of people on board when she sailed. David Collins gave the following details in his book ''An Account of the English Colony in New South Wales'': "The Friendship, ... of 228 tons, had on board 76 male and 21 female convicts; 1 captain, 2 lieutenants, 2 sergeants, 3 corporals, 1 drummer, and 36 privates, with 1 assistant surgeon to the colony." The Marines served as guards.
Some ten or twelve of the female convicts were particularly unruly, and promiscuous. At 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 ...
, Walton was instructed to transfer all the women to other transports to make room for livestock purchased there for the colony.
''Friendship'' pulled up in 7 fathoms of water at the mouth of Sydney Cove, at around 8pm on 26 January 1788, the last of the fleet to come to anchor. Two of her female convicts had died on the voyage, one before the brig's arrival in Rio, and one after transfer to .
The collection of the
National Maritime Museum at Greenwich includes a silver medallion featuring an image of ''Friendship'' and the inscription "Success to the Friendship. 1787." and on the reverse, the inscription "F.W.", the initials of Francis Walton master of ''Friendship''. Walton would have purchased this and had it engraved before the fleet sailed.
Fate
''Friendship'' sailed from Port Jackson on 14 July 1788 in company with , , and , although a storm separated the latter two soon after all three had set sail. ''Alexander'' and ''Friendship'' were to make their way through the East Indies and return home direct.
Not having had fresh provisions since October 1787, when they were at the Cape, both crews were suffering badly from scurvy, and over the following months, ''Alexander'' lost 10 men (out of 30), and ''Friendship'', one (out of 17), with many of those remaining being too sick to work. In late October, off the south-east coast of
Borneo
Borneo (; id, Kalimantan) is the third-largest island in the world and the largest in Asia. At the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia, in relation to major Indonesian islands, it is located north of Java, west of Sulawesi, and eas ...
, having exhausted themselves in negotiating the sandbanks of the
Balabalagan Islands, and concerned about an attack by pirates, the decision was made to scuttle ''Friendship'', the smaller of the two ships, and concentrate the remaining men on ''Alexander''.
On the evening of the 27 October (28 October by sea time), four holes were bored in both bows below the water mark, and she was cut adrift. The coordinates provided for her whereabouts were 2°36’ South, 117° East.
Formal Protest
On their return, the owners lodged a formal protest with the Navy Board, seeking to recover the cost of the ship and its furnishings. The government resisted making compensation and the outcome of the matter is unknown.
Commemoration
![Sydney-ferry-Friendship-at-Circular-Quay](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/48/Sydney-ferry-Friendship-at-Circular-Quay.jpg)
An
Urban Transit Authority First Fleet ferry was named after ''Friendship'' in 1986.
Sydney Ferries Fleet Facts
Transport for NSW
See also
*List of convicts on the First Fleet
The First Fleet is the name given to the group of eleven ships carrying convicts, the first to do so, that left England in May 1787 and arrived in Australia in January 1788. The ships departed with an estimated 775 convicts (582 men and 193 wom ...
*Journals of the First Fleet
There are 20 known contemporary accounts of the First Fleet made by people sailing in the fleet, including journals (both manuscript and published) and letters. The eleven ships of the fleet, carrying over 1,000 convicts, soldiers and seamen, le ...
Citations
References
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External links
* {{cite web , url = http://dictionaryofsydney.org/artefact/friendship , title = Friendship , accessdate = 2 October 2015 , author = David Morgan , date = 2015 , work= Dictionary of Sydney Creative Commons license">CC-By-SA
A Creative Commons (CC) license is one of several public copyright license
A public license or public copyright licenses is a license by which a copyright holder as licensor can grant additional copyright permissions to any and all pers ...
]
1784 ships
Ships built in England
Ships of the First Fleet
Shipwrecks in the Celebes Sea
Maritime incidents in 1788