Marquis Cornwallis (1789)

For other ships of the same name, see Marquis Cornwallis (ship).
Marquis Cornwallis (1793) by Frans Balthazar Solvyns
Career (United Kingdom)
Name: Marquis Cornwallis
Namesake: Charles Cornwallis, 1st Marquess Cornwallis
Owner: Hogan and Company
Builder: India
Launched: 1789, or 1791[1]
General characteristics
Tons burthen:654, or 634[2] (bm)
Length:104 feet (31.70 m)
Beam:34 feet (10.36 m)
Complement:40[2]
Armament:14 x 6-pounder guns,[2] or 16 x 6-pounder guns[1]

The Marquis Cornwallis was a 654 ton merchantman and convict ship that was dispatched in 1796 from Ireland to Australia. Built in 1789, India for Hogan and Company, she was employed in the services of the East India Company between 1798 and 1800.[3]

Career

Michael Hogan purchased this ship in 1791. Registed as Il Netunno, it 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.[4]

On 18 April 1795, William Richardson received a letter of marque.[2]

Under the command of Michael Hogan, Marquis Cornwallis departed Cork, Ireland on 9 August 1795, carrying 163 male and 70 female convicts. She also carried 36 soldiers of the New South Wales Corps, 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. She arrived at Port Jackson on 11 February 1796.[5] 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 for Madras and Calcutta, having added, with Governor Hunter's permission, four 6-pounder guns and 140 cannonballs that had been salvaged from the wreck of Sirius. Marquis Cornwallis then sailed on to India. Marquis Cornwallis reached Britain on 24 July 1797. She had sailed via Ceylon, Madras, Calcutta, Cape of Good Hope, and St Helena.

The ship made a second voyage to Australia, carrying cattle to Sydney from the Cape of Good Hope and arriving in October 1798.

Lloyd's Register for 1799 shows the 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.

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Lloyd's Register (1799).
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Letter of Marque, 1793-1815; p.75.
  3. ↑ "Marquis Cornwallis". East India Company Ships. Retrieved 7 February 2012.
  4. ↑ "Item 02: [Portrait of Il Netunno, later Marquis Cornwallis, under sail / oil painting by] F.B. Solvyns, 1793". State Libray of NSW.
  5. ↑ Bateson, Charles (1974). The Convict Ships, 1787-1868. Sydney. ISBN 0-85174-195-9.

Further reading