Woodcut of the Lady Nelson |
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| Career (UK) | |
|---|---|
| Name: | Lady Nelson |
| Builder: | Deptford Dockyard |
| Laid down: | 1798 |
| Launched: | 13 November 1798 |
| Fate: | Captured by pirates in 1825 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type: | Inshore exploration brig |
| Tons burthen: | 60 (bm) |
| Length: | 52 ft 6 in (16.00 m) |
| Beam: | 17 ft 6 in (5.33 m) |
| Draught: | 6 ft (1.8 m) |
| Sail plan: | Brig |
| Complement: | 15, later 17 |
| Armament: | 6 x 3-pounder guns |
The Royal Navy purchased Lady Nelson in 1799. She spent her career exploring the coast of Australia in the early years of the 19th century. She was the first known vessel to sail eastward through Bass Strait, the first to sail along the South coast of Victoria, as well as the first to enter Port Phillip. The Lady Nelson was also involved in the founding of Hobart, Launceston, Melbourne and Brisbane. She and all her crew were lost to Malay pirates in 1825.
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Lady Nelson was built in 1798 as a cutter for mercantile service, and to the design of the cutter Trial.[1] Like Trial, she was fitted with three Shank sliding or drop keels (actually removable centreboards). (The Shank keels were the invention of naval architect Captain John Schank.) The fore and aft centreboards were 3 feet long, and the centre one was 6 feet long. With them up the vessel drew only 6-7 feet instead of the 13 feet that would be more usual for vessels her size. The crew could drop the centreboards 7 feet through a relatively flat hull for stability in deeper waters.[2]
The Lady Nelson was launched on Tuesday 13 November 1798 at Deadman's Dock Deptford. She was named in honour of the wife of Horatio Nelson, England's naval hero. On 21 December 1799, on hire to the Royal Navy, she was captured by French privateers off Cabritta Point in the Bay of Gibraltar, but recaptured by a party led by Lieutenant William Bainbridge of HMS Queen Charlotte and escorted back to England.[3] The Royal Navy purchased her and in 1800 converted her to brig rig and established her as a gun-brig. After the conversion, she left Deptford Dockyard on 13 January 1800, bound for Australian waters under the command of Lieutenant James Grant.
She was armed originally with two brass carriage guns and was given a a further four guns and a crew of fifteen men: the commander, two mates and twelve seamen.
After she had arrived in New South Wales, the Lady Nelson was for the next twenty five years one of the most important vessels in the colony. She sailed regularly between Sydney, Norfolk Island, Hobart, Port Dalrymple and Port Macquarie.
In 1807 she was one of the four ships commissioned to bring the first evacuees from Norfolk Island to Hobart Town. She sailed again in 1808 for Hobart Town with more evacuees. Most of the these people were convicts from the First, Second and Third Fleet, along with a few military men, who had been living on Norfolk Island for the previous twenty years.
James Grant was the first known European to pass through Bass Strait from west to east, on his way to Port Jackson, in the Lady Nelson. He was also the first to see and chart the south coast of Victoria from Cape Nelson to Western Port. Grant also discovered Port Phillip and named it Governor King’s Bay on 8 December 1800.[4][5]
Grant named Cape Schank, Mount Gambier, Cape Northumberland, Cape Banks, Cape Bridgewater, Mount Schank, Lady Julia Percy Island, Portland Bay, Point Danger and Cape Otway along the southern coast. After arriving in Sydney on 16 December 1800, Grant was ordered by Governor King to take a cartographer to chart the southern coastline to protect it against claims by the French. Grant sailed on 8 March 1801, with John Murray aboard as first mate, and en route explored Jervis Bay, where he was able to befriend some aborigines. But when he discovered that they practised cannibalism, he set sail again. Grant surveyed as far as Westernport. However, her most famous southern voyage was in early 1802 when John Murray, having been given command of the Lady Nelson, discovered the entrance to Port Phillip. On the same voyage he also surveyed King Island (which he later named after the Governor of New South Wales). He did not name the Kent Group; Matthew Flinders named them in 1800.[6].
In 1801 she came under the command of Jonathan Murray.[1] Later she was under George Courtoys and then John Symons.[1]
Lady Nelson's next assignment was to make an extensive survey of the Hunter River area. The ship sailed with Colonel William Paterson in charge. So much coal was found - 75 tonnes, mined in what is now the centre of Newcastle - that King sent the brig back in company with a schooner. King traded the coal with the captain of the Earl Cornwallis for iron of the same value, possibly Australia's first mineral transaction.
The Lady Nelson is also associated with Matthew Flinders. In 1802 Lady Nelson intended to accompany Flinders' other survey ship, the Investigator, in surveying the coast north of Port Jackson, into what is now Queensland. However, she accompanied the Investigator only as far as the Cumberland Islands when Flinders decided she was too slow and unseaworthy and sent her back.
In June 1803, the Lady Nelson took the first settlers, ten convicts and three soldiers, to Van Diemen's Land (now Tasmania), landing on 7 September 1803 at Risdon. Colonel David Collins soon found the site unsatisfactory and moved the settlement to the present site of Hobart. In October 1804, the ship was again dispatched to Van Diemen's Land, this time with troops and settlers for Port Dalrymple (now Launceston).
After much storm damage and a complete refit in Sydney, she was sent again to Jervis Bay to investigate a report that a Spanish armed schooner was anchored there. The vessel, the Estramina, was crewed by Americans who had taken her as a prize in the American war against Spain. She tried to escape, but surrendered after Lady Nelson fired a shot across her bows; Lady Nelson then escorted her back to Sydney.
In May 1807 Lady Nelson came under the command of Lieutenant William G.C. Kent. She was then paid off in 1808.,[1]
In 1813 Lady Nelson, with the Minstrel, brought the last of the evacuees (except the clean-up party), this time to Port Dalrymple in Van Diemen's Land. With this voyage, Lady Nelson had brought a total of 568 men, women and children from Norfolk Island to begin a new life in Van Diemen's Land. These people became an important part of the new settlement and many descendants still live in what is now known as Tasmania.
On 2 May 1815 on departing Port Macquarie the Lady Nelson ran aground on the south side of the harbour. The crew abandoned ship as the brig's rudder and sternpost were swept away and the bottom planks started to leak. Shortly afterwards the tide completely filled the ship. The Lady Nelson was considered lost by the commandant of the settlement but eventually the ship was refloated and repaired.[7]
Lady Nelson sailed on many more expeditions, including to Norfolk Island and New Zealand. She sailed in Australian waters during the governorships of King, Bligh, Macquarie and Brisbane. Brisbane sent her north with two other vessels to carry settlers to a new trading post on Melville Island, and she served that settlement for some time.
Her final voyage started in February 1825, when she was sent under the command of Master John to Koepang to bring back buffaloes for food. Several months passed before it was learned that Malay pirates had captured her off Babar Island, north-east of Timor. The pirates massacred the entire crew; the vessel herself was wrecked on the island.[1]
On September 22 1825, the Sydney Gazette reported:
| “ | The Lady Nelson, brig, has been most unfortunately cut off at Timor by Malay privateers and all the crew sacrificed, except the Captain. The little 60-ton ship contributed more to the exploration and settlement than any other. She served in the colony for a quarter of a century. | ” |
A modern replica of the Lady Nelson was built in about 1987 and took part in the Tall Ships Festival at Pyrmont Bay in Sydney. She took part in the Tall Ships race from Sydney to Hobart. She is based in Hobart, Tasmania and operates as a sail training vessel crewed entirely by volunteers.