Colonial Ship ''King George'' was the first

ship A ship is a large watercraft that travels the world's oceans and other sufficiently deep waterways, carrying cargo or passengers, or in support of specialized missions, such as defense, research, and fishing. Ships are generally distinguished ...

, by virtue of having three masts, built in the colony of Sydney, New South Wales. ''King George'' was described variously as a square-rigged ship and a three-masted schooner, known in America during the later 19th century as a "tern". The confusion is due to her being modeled on the Baltimore-built three-masted schooners that had sail plans which resembled the square-rigged ships. These ships came into use in the later half of the 18th century, and would have been known to James Underwood, the shipyard builder. Their distinctive

sail plan A sail plan is a description of the specific ways that a sailing craft is rigged. Also, the term "sail plan" is a graphic depiction of the arrangement of the sails for a given sailing craft.> In the English language, ships were usually describe ...

feature was in having the extremely large fore and main courses, and only the fore and main topsails, with the mizzen mast rigged with the mainsail and main-topsail in place of the spanker, a plan based on the two-masted Boston pilot schooner that eventually evolved into the famed

Baltimore clipper A Baltimore Clipper is a fast sailing ship historically built on the mid-Atlantic seaboard of the United States of America, especially at the port of Baltimore, Maryland. An early form of clipper, the name is most commonly applied to two-masted ...

s in the 1830s. The fore and staysail booms were omitted to allow stowage of extra whaling boats and other equipment. James Underwood undertook to build the ship with Messrs. Kable and Co. as partners and using a bond of £2,000 from

Simeon Lord Simeon Lord ( – 29 January 1840) was a pioneer merchant and a magistrate in Australia. He became a prominent trader in Sydney, buying and selling ship cargoes. Despite being an emancipist Lord was made a magistrate by Governor Lachlan Macq ...

, a prominent colonial personality. One difficulty in securing permission to build the ship was due to the proclamation by Governor King of disallowing the building of any ship that could compete with the

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 ...

's trade in the Asian waters. Later Lord would try to get around the provisions by asking permission to send ''King George'' to

Fiji Fiji ( , ,; fj, Viti, ; Fiji Hindi: फ़िजी, ''Fijī''), officially the Republic of Fiji, is an island country in Melanesia, part of Oceania in the South Pacific Ocean. It lies about north-northeast of New Zealand. Fiji consists ...

for

sandalwood Sandalwood is a class of woods from trees in the genus ''Santalum''. The woods are heavy, yellow, and fine-grained, and, unlike many other aromatic woods, they retain their fragrance for decades. Sandalwood oil is extracted from the woods for us ...

, and then to China for "a cargo". Underwood and Kable were responsible for a number of smaller vessels and sloops, but fully-rigged ''King George'' would be their most ambitious construction. The keel was laid down in 1804, and she was completed with an overall length of 87 feet, a beam of 22 feet 7 inches and a 14 feet hold. Her burthen was computed at upwards of 200 tons but she is mentioned by other sources as having a burthen of 180 or 185 tons. Launched in April 1805, she completed fit-out and was registered in May 1805. Flying Fish Baltimore clipper

It is highly probable that Governor King recognised the need for the colony to have a substantial and fast ship in case of emergencies, and to maintain better communications with the rest of the British Empire from such a far outpost, but due to the considerations of the East India Company's monopoly ''King George'' was fitted out as a whaler "expected to proceed on the sperm fishery of the coast of New Zealand" This was an entirely sound commercial decision due to the rapid development of the whaling industry off the Australian Eastern coast, with three whalers arriving in the Third Fleet, soon followed by more, including from America. Indeed, her initial cruises were mostly in conducting whaling and seal trapping as '' The '' ydney' Gazette'' on 10 August 1806 recorded the arrival of "the private colonial ship King George, from a successful cruise, in which she had the good fortune to kill fifteen black whale." She spent the next several years in the southern waters, under her Master S. R. Chace, when she was spotted by ''Perseverance'' towards the end of November in 1809 at the Aucklands after she sailed from Sydney in June 1809. During this early part of her history she is known as a whaling ship ''King George'', which regularly left

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 a whale and seal hunt. However, complying with trade restrictions these were short cruises, and for example on 2 March 1810, she "arrived with skins and

hale Hale may refer to: Places Australia *Hale, Northern Territory, a locality *Hale River, in southeastern Northern Territory Canada *Hale, Ontario, in Algoma District United Kingdom * Hale, Cumbria, a hamlet near Beetham, Cumbria *Hale, Greater Man ...

oil, having been at the entrance of the

Bay of Islands The Bay of Islands is an area on the east coast of the Far North District of the North Island of New Zealand. It is one of the most popular fishing, sailing and tourist destinations in the country, and has been renowned internationally for its ...

18 days previous." However, soon the colonial policy was relaxed, and she was reported returning from sailing under Captain L. Jones, "from the sperm whale fishery, having procured from 30 to 35 tons of oil; out 14 months.", a cruise that would have taken her to many other ports around the Pacific Ocean. Later in her history ''King George'' took on cargo and general trade cruises, when she "last returned from the Bay of Islands and

Marquesas The Marquesas Islands (; french: Îles Marquises or ' or '; Marquesan: ' ( North Marquesan) and ' ( South Marquesan), both meaning "the land of men") are a group of volcanic islands in French Polynesia, an overseas collectivity of France in t ...

, laden with sandal wood and pork, the Colonial Ship, King George, Captain Beveridge."William Charles Wentworth, ''A statistical, historical, and political description of the colony...'', 1820, p.18 This was one of her last cruises from Port Jackson. ''King George'' finished her life in Sydney as a hulk in the 1820s.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:King George (1805) 1805 ships 1788–1850 ships of Australia Ships built in New South Wales Whaling in Australia Whaling ships