HMS ''Reliance'' was a discovery vessel of the

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 F ...

. She became famous as one of the ships with the early explorations of the

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

n coast and other the southern

Pacific The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

islands. ''Reliance'' was at

Plymouth Plymouth () is a port city and unitary authority in South West England. It is located on the south coast of Devon, approximately south-west of Exeter and south-west of London. It is bordered by Cornwall to the west and south-west. Plymouth ...

on 20 January 1795 and so shared in the proceeds of the detention of the Dutch naval vessels,

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 ...

, and other merchant vessels that were in port on the outbreak of war between Britain and the Netherlands. Commanded by

Henry Waterhouse Captain Henry Waterhouse (13 December 1770 – 27 July 1812) was an English naval officer of the Royal Navy who became an early settler in the Colony of New South Wales, Australia. He imported to Australia the continent's first Spanish merino sh ...

sailed ''Reliance'' to

New South Wales ) , 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 ...

, arriving in

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

on 7 September 1795. Among her crew and passengers were midshipman

Matthew Flinders Captain Matthew Flinders (16 March 1774 – 19 July 1814) was a British navigator and cartographer who led the first inshore circumnavigation of mainland Australia, then called New Holland. He is also credited as being the first person to u ...

, the

ship's doctor A naval surgeon, or less commonly ship's doctor, is the person responsible for the health of the ship's company aboard a warship. The term appears often in reference to Royal Navy's medical personnel during the Age of Sail. Ancient uses Speciali ...

George Bass George Bass (; 30 January 1771 – after 5 February 1803) was a British naval surgeon and explorer of Australia. Early years Bass was born on 30 January 1771 at Aswarby, a hamlet near Sleaford, Lincolnshire, the son of a tenant farmer, George ...

, the new

Governor A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...

John Hunter, and the Aboriginal

Bennelong Woollarawarre Bennelong ( 1764 – 3 January 1813), also spelt Baneelon, was a senior man of the Eora, an Aboriginal Australian people of the Port Jackson area, at the time of the first British settlement in Australia in 1788. Bennelong serv ...

. She later returned to Sydney, arriving on 26 June 1797 from 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 ...

, carrying stores ordered by Governor Hunter and

merino sheep The Merino is a breed or group of breeds of domestic sheep, characterised by very fine soft wool. It was established in Spain near the end of the Middle Ages, and was for several centuries kept as a strict Spanish monopoly; exports of the breed ...

purchased at the Cape by Henry Waterhouse. Henry Waterhouse the captain of the Reliance and Lt. William Kent, nephew of Governor John Hunter, bought 26 merinos from the widow of the widow of Colonel Gordon, who had imported Spanish sheep to the Cape. She offered the flock for sale, but the Commissary John Palmer had refused them. Waterhouse and Lieutenant William Kent then bought twenty-six and although the return voyage was very stormy and slow, more than half of Waterhouse's stock survived to reach Sydney in June 1797. These were the first merino sheep imported into the colony, and Waterhouse supplied lambs to many of the settlers including John Macarthur and Samuel Marsden. Waterhouse had bought a property on the bank of the Parramatta River, the Vineyard, and the sheep lived there until he left the colony in March 1800 when most of the flock was sold to William Cox. ''Reliance'' was the first ship to chart the

Antipodes Islands The Antipodes Islands ( Maōri: Moutere Mahue; "Abandoned island") are inhospitable and uninhabited volcanic islands in subantarctic waters to the south of – and territorially part of – New Zealand. The 21 km2 archipelago lies 860 ...

, in March 1800. ''Reliance'' was relegated to harbour service that year, surviving for another 15 years before being sold on 12 October 1815.

References

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Reliance (1793) Survey vessels of the Royal Navy 1790s ships 1788–1850 ships of Australia

See also

References