''Marquis Cornwallis'' was a merchantman built in Calcutta in 1789 or 1791. She made one voyage transporting

convict A convict is "a person found guilty of a crime and sentenced by a court" or "a person serving a sentence in prison". Convicts are often also known as "prisoners" or "inmates" or by the slang term "con", while a common label for former convict ...

s in 1796 from

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

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 ...

. The voyage was marred by mutiny that resulted in the death of 11 convicts. ''Marquis Cornwallis'' then made a voyage 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 Southea ...

(EIC) as an "extra ship", sailing from India back to Britain.

Career

Michael Hogan purchased this ship in 1791. Registered as ''Il Netunno'', she traded between India and Europe under the Genoese flag to avoid the East India Company monopoly. In 1794 Hogan registered the ship as ''Marquis Cornwallis'' under the British flag. She was admitted to the Registry of Great Britain on 23 September 1794. At that time Perry, Blackwall, measured her. On 18 April 1795, William Richardson received a letter of marque. Under Michael Hogan's command, ''Marquis Cornwallis'' departed

Cork Cork or CORK may refer to: Materials * Cork (material), an impermeable buoyant plant product ** Cork (plug), a cylindrical or conical object used to seal a container ***Wine cork Places Ireland * Cork (city) ** Metropolitan Cork, also known as G ...

, Ireland on 9 August 1795, and arrived at

Port Jackson Port Jackson, consisting of the waters of Sydney Harbour, Middle Harbour, North Harbour and the Lane Cove and Parramatta Rivers, is the ria or natural harbour of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. The harbour is an inlet of the Tasman Sea (p ...

on 11 February 1796. When ''Marquis Cornwallis'' left Cork she was transporting 163 male and 70 female convicts. She also carried 36 soldiers of the

New South Wales Corps The New South Wales Corps (sometimes called The Rum Corps) was formed in England in 1789 as a permanent regiment of the British Army to relieve the New South Wales Marine Corps, who had accompanied the First Fleet to Australia, in fortifying the ...

, and their families. About a month into the voyage Hogan had to put down a mutiny, with the result that seven convicts and a sergeant, one of the mutineers, died of their injuries, including flogging. ''Marquis Cornwallis'' then stayed for almost a month at the Cape, re-provisioning. In all, 11 male convicts died during the course of the voyage. She departed Port Jackson on 15 May 1796 for Norfolk Island, where Hogan sold his wares. On 18 June ''Marquis Cornwallis'' left Norfolk for

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 ...

and

Calcutta Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, the official name until 2001) is the Capital city, capital of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal, on the eastern ba ...

, having added, with Governor Hunter's permission, four 6-pounder guns and 140 cannonballs that had been salvaged from the wreck of . ''Marquis Cornwallis'' sailed to Papua New Guinea and New Britain from Norfolk Island via the Coral and the Solomon Sea. Hogan claimed, on 6 July, to have seen a great cloud of black, sulfurous smoke on the north-east coast of

Bougainville Island Bougainville Island (Tok Pisin: ''Bogenvil'') is the main island of the Autonomous Region of Bougainville, which is part of Papua New Guinea. It was previously the main landmass in the German Empire-associated North Solomons. Its land area is ...

. Although there are no volcanoes at the coordinates Hogan gave, many later charts gave a "Cornwallis volcano" as a landmark.Johnson (2013), 29. He then passed between

Flores Flores is one of the Lesser Sunda Islands, a group of islands in the eastern half of Indonesia. Including the Komodo Islands off its west coast (but excluding the Solor Archipelago to the east of Flores), the land area is 15,530.58 km2, and th ...

and

Sumbawa Sumbawa is an Indonesian island, located in the middle of the Lesser Sunda Islands chain, with Lombok to the west, Flores to the east, and Sumba further to the southeast. Along with Lombok, it forms the province of West Nusa Tenggara, but there ...

on a route that took ''Marquis Cornwallis'' along Java's southern coast. In India ''Marquis Cornwallis'' received a new captain with John Roberts replacing Hogan. She then made a voyage under the auspices of the EIC. She was at Calcutta on 9 December, and at

Saugor Sagar is a city, municipal corporation and administrative headquarter in Sagar district of the state of Madhya Pradesh in central India. Situated on a spur of the Vindhya Range, above sea-level. The city is around northeast of state capital ...

on 8 January 1797. She reached

on 27 January, the Cape on 12 April, and

St 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 19 May. She arrived at the Downs on 25 July.British Library: ''Marquis Cornwallis'' (1).
/ref> ''Marquis Cornwallis'' made a second voyage to Australia, carrying cattle to Sydney from the Cape of Good Hope. She arrived in Sydney in October 1798. ''Lloyd's Register'' for 1799 shows ''Marquis Cornwallis'' under the ownership of Lennox & Co., with C. Mullion as master. Her trade is listed as London-India. This entry continue essentially unchanged through 1806. She leaves the records thereafter.

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References

* * * *Johnson, R. Wally (2013) ''Fire Mountains of the Islands: A History of Volcanic Eruptions and Disaster Management in Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands''. (ANU E Press).

Career

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See also