''Charlotte'' was an English merchant ship built on the

River 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 ...

in 1784 and chartered in 1786 to carry convicts as part of the First Fleet 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 ...

. She returned to Britain from

Botany Bay Botany Bay (Dharawal: ''Kamay''), an open oceanic embayment, is located in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, south of the Sydney central business district. Its source is the confluence of the Georges River at Taren Point and the Cook ...

via China, where she picked up a cargo 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 ...

. ''Charlotte'' then spent much of the rest of her career as a

West Indiaman West Indiaman was a general name for any merchantman sailing ship making runs from the Old World to the West Indies and the east coast of the Americas. These ships were generally strong ocean-going ships capable of handling storms in the Atlantic ...

in the London-Jamaica trade. She may have been lost off Newfoundland in 1818; in any case, she disappeared from the lists by 1821. ''Charlotte'' made an appearance in the movie '' National Treasure''.

Service history

Initial career

''Charlotte'' first appeared in ''

Lloyd's Register Lloyd's Register Group Limited (LR) is a technical and professional services organisation and a maritime classification society, wholly owned by the Lloyd’s Register Foundation, a UK charity dedicated to research and education in science and ...

'' (''LR'') in 1784.''LR'' (1784), Seq.No.C481.
/ref> Prior to her voyage transporting convicts, ''Charlotte'' traded with the Baltic and the West Indies.

Convict transport

''Charlotte'' was a "heavy sailer"; she had to be towed down the English Channel to keep pace with the rest of the Fleet. Her

master Master or masters may refer to: Ranks or titles * Ascended master, a term used in the Theosophical religious tradition to refer to spiritually enlightened beings who in past incarnations were ordinary humans *Grandmaster (chess), National Master ...

was Thomas Gilbert, and her surgeon was John White, principal surgeon to the colony. On 15 March, when ''Charlotte'' had been two days at sea it was discovered that her third mate had been left behind at Plymouth; he was replaced for the remainder of the voyage by a seaman hastily dragooned from the accompanying naval vessel . She sailed for

carrying 84 male and 24 female convicts, or 88 male and 20 female. Among the prisoners were James Squire,

James Bloodsworth James Bloodsworth (7 March 1759 – 21 March 1804) was a convict sentenced for the theft of one game cock and two hens at Esher, Surrey. James was a master bricklayer and builder responsible for the construction of most of the buildings in the co ...

, James Underwood, Samuel Lightfoot, William Bryant and Mary Bryant, She also carried 42 men from the

New South Wales Marine Corps The New South Wales Marine Corps (1786–1792) was an ad hoc volunteer unit that the British Royal Navy created to guard the convicts aboard the First Fleet to Australia, and to preserve "subordination and regularity" in the penal colony in New ...

to guard the convicts. ''Charlotte'' 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 ...

, Sydney, Australia, on 26 January 1788. This voyage was commemorated on the Charlotte Medal, commissioned by White and created by the convict Thomas Barrett. She left Port Jackson on 6 May 1788 bound for China to take on a cargo of tea, under charter to the

. In May 1788, Captain Gilbert in ''Charlotte'' and Captain John Marshall in , left Port Jackson together intending to find a new route to China. After sighting

Lord Howe Island Lord Howe Island (; formerly Lord Howe's Island) is an irregularly crescent-shaped volcanic remnant in the Tasman Sea between Australia and New Zealand, part of the Australian state of New South Wales. It lies directly east of mainland P ...

and Norfolk Island they discovered, on 27 May 1788, Matthew Island, and then, on 24 June, they saw land in the southern sector of the

Marshall Islands The Marshall Islands ( mh, Ṃajeḷ), officially the Republic of the Marshall Islands ( mh, Aolepān Aorōkin Ṃajeḷ),'' () is an independent island country and microstate near the Equator in the Pacific Ocean, slightly west of the Intern ...

. They continued on via

Abemama Abemama (Apamama) is an atoll, one of the Gilberts group in Kiribati, and is located southeast of Tarawa and just north of the Equator. Abemama has an area of and a population of 3,299 . The islets surround a deep lagoon. The eastern part o ...

, Kuria, Aranuka,

Tarawa Tarawa is an atoll and the capital of the Republic of Kiribati,Kiribati
''

Abaiang Abaiang, also known as Apaiang, Apia, and in the past, Charlotte Island, in the Northern Gilbert Islands, is a coral atoll of Kiribati, located in the west-central Pacific Ocean. Abaiang was the island of the first missionary to arrive in the G ...

Butaritari Butaritari is an atoll in the Pacific Ocean island nation of Kiribati. The atoll is roughly four-sided. The south and southeast portion of the atoll comprises a nearly continuous islet. The atoll reef is continuous but almost without islets al ...

, and Makin without attempting to land on shore. They reached Canton on 9 September 1788, 126 days from Port Jackson. The two large dispersed groups of islands they discovered in the Central Pacific have since been known as the Gilbert and

Later career

On her return to England on 28 November 1789 Bond and Co., Walbrook merchants, purchased ''Charlotte'' to use her in the

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

—

Jamaica Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of His ...

trade. The following data is from ''

''. ''Charlotte'' was one of the transport vessels that were part of the expedition under General Sir David Baird and Admiral Sir

Home Riggs Popham Rear Admiral Sir Home Riggs Popham, KCB, KCH (12 October 1762 – 20 September 1820), was a Royal Navy commander who saw service against the French during the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. He is remembered for his scientific accomplishment ...

that would in 1806 capture the

Dutch Cape Colony The Cape Colony ( nl, Kaapkolonie) was a Dutch United East India Company (VOC) colony in Southern Africa, centered on the Cape of Good Hope, from where it derived its name. The original colony and its successive states that the colony was inco ...

. On 11 March she and ''Anacreon'' sailed as

cartels A cartel is a group of independent market participants who collude with each other in order to improve their profits and dominate the market. Cartels are usually associations in the same sphere of business, and thus an alliance of rivals. Mos ...

to France with prisoners from . At some point she may have been sold to a Quebec merchant; if so, this does not appear in ''LR'' or the ''Register of Shipping''.

Fate

A ''Charlotte'' was lost off Newfoundland in November 1818. However, there is no evidence to link the ''Charlotte'' that sank while sailing from Quebec to Liverpool with M'Call, master, to the ''Charlotte'' of this article. Another source notes that ''Charlotte'' continued to be listed in ''

'' until 1821, but it is not unusual for ''

'' to carry stale data for several years.

Recognition

Urban Transit Authority The Urban Transit Authority, a former statutory authority of the Government of New South Wales, was responsible for the operation and maintenance of buses and ferries in Sydney and Newcastle from July 1980 until January 1989. History The Urban ...

First Fleet ferry was named after ''Charlotte'' in 1986.Sydney Ferries Fleet Facts
Transport for NSW

Citations and references

Citations References * * * * * *

External links

CC-By-SA A Creative Commons (CC) license is one of several public copyright licenses that enable the free distribution of an otherwise copyrighted "work".A "work" is any creative material made by a person. A painting, a graphic, a book, a song/lyrics ...

] {{DEFAULTSORT:Charlotte (1784 ship) Ships of the First Fleet 1784 ships Maritime incidents in 1818 Ships of the British East India Company