Admiral Barrington (ship)

Career (France)
Launched: 1781
Fate: Captured 1782
Career (UK)
Name: Admiral Barrington
Namesake: Samuel Barrington
Acquired: 1783
Fate: Wrecked 1793
General characteristics [1]
Tons burthen:527 (bm)
Length:119 ft (36.3 m) (overall)
94 ft 10 in (28.9 m) (keel)
Beam:32 ft 4 in (9.9 m)
Depth of hold:13 ft 9 3⁄4 in (4.2 m)
Sail plan:Ship
Complement:84 (Indiaman)
Armament:18 guns (Indiaman)
Notes:Copper sheathed in 1798[2]

Admiral Barrington was built in 1781 in France and was employed as a French West Indiaman. She was captured and was later sold to Godfrey Thornton.[3] She was renamed Admiral Barrington and made one voyage for the East India Company (EIC) from 1787 till 1788. Her most notable voyage was as a convict ship in the third fleet to Australia. On her return voyage she was wrecked or captured by pirates in 1793 off Bombay.

East India extra ship

At the time of Admiral Barrington‍ '​s sole voyage for the EIC, her principal managing owner was Godfrey Thornton. She served as an extra ship, meaning that the EIC had chartered her for a single voyage. Under the command of Captain Charles Lindegreen she sailed for China, leaving Portsmouth on 21 February 1787. She reached False Bay, South Africa, on 11 May and Whampoa on 21 August. On her return trip to Britain she reached Macao on 7 January 1788, Saint Helena on 22 April, and Deptford on 1 August.[1]

Her next captain was J. Arnott, and she was listed as sailing between London and Copenhagen.[2] In mid-December 1788 news reached London that Admiral Barrington was frozen up at Cronstadt and would winter there.[4]

Third Fleet

Under the command of Robert Abbon Marsh, she sailed from Portsmouth, England, on 27 March 1791 as part of the third fleet and arrived in Port Jackson, New South Wales on 16 October. She brought with her Captain William Paterson,[5] three noncommissioned officers, and 24 privates of the New South Wales Corps. They served as guards for the 300 male convicts on board. In addition, four free women accompanied their convict husbands, together with two children. Ninety-seven persons were sick on board the ship when she arrived.[6] Thirty-six convicts died during the voyage, i.e., she delivered 264 alive. She was the last of the eleven ships to arrive in Sydney.

Fate

Admiral Barrington left Port Jackson on 6 January 1792, to whale off the coast of Australia. At some point she visited Norfolk Island.[5]

She then sailed to Batavia. She left Batavia and reached the coast of India near Bombay. However, a gale of wind forced on shore on one of the "Malouine Islands" (sic).[7][Note 1] There she was wrecked. The natives on the island murdered her crew, except for the master, chief mate, and surgeon, who swam to the safety of East India country ship that was anchored near the island.[7]

Notes, citations, and references

Notes
  1. ↑ Other accounts give the name of the island as Malwan.[8] Neither of these identifications is highly satisfactory. The Maloouine Islands is a French name for the Malvinas Islands. There is a Malwan on the Indian coast, with an offshore island that is the locus of Sindhudurg Fort. However, the town and fort are some 500 kilometers south of Bombay.
Citations
  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 National Archives - Admiral Barrington, - accessed 6 November 2014.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Lloyd's Register 1789.
  3. ↑ "Captured Ships – Letter A". East India Company Ships. Retrieved 5 April 2011.
  4. ↑ Lloyd's List, no.2047, - accessed 7 November 2014.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Collins (1798), Vol. 2, Chap. 16.
  6. ↑ Ebook: An Historical Journal of the Transactions at Port Jackson and Norfolk Island, - accessed 6 November 2014.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Collins (1798), Vol. 1, Chap. 14.
  8. ↑ "Wrecked Ships – Letter A". East India Company Ships. Retrieved 5 April 2011.
References