Friendship (1784 ship)
{{Short description|Australian First Fleet transport ship}}
{{other ships|Friendship (ship)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2017}}
{{Use British English|date=January 2017}}
| {{Infobox ship begin}}
{{Infobox ship image |Ship image= |Ship caption= }} {{Infobox ship career |Hide header= |Ship country=Great Britain |Ship flag={{shipboxflag|Kingdom of Great Britain|civil}} |Ship name=Friendship |Ship namesake= |Ship ordered= |Ship builder= |Ship owner={{unbulleted list|George Moorson|Thomas Hopper|George Hopper|John Hopper}} |Ship original cost= |Ship yard number= |Ship way number= |Ship laid down= |Ship launched=1784, Scarborough |Ship completed= |Ship christened= |Ship acquired= |Ship maiden voyage= |Ship in service= |Ship out of service= |Ship registry=Liverpool |Ship identification= |Ship fate=Scuttled in the Straits of Makassar in 1788. |Ship notes= }} {{Infobox ship characteristics |Hide header= |Header caption= |Ship type=Brig |Ship tons burthen= 262,Navigation Pass No. 3560, 29th November 1786, TNA ADM7/104 278{{small|{{frac|1|94}}}}Deptford Officers to the Navy Board, 10 November 1786, TNA ADM106/3321/96 or 300Lloyd's Register [http://hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39015065522610?urlappend=%3Bseq=121 (1787), seq. no. F442.] (bm) |Ship length={{convert|75|ft|m}} est. |Ship beam={{convert|23|ft|m}} est. |Ship depth= |Ship sail plan= Brig |Ship speed= |Ship range= |Ship complement= |Ship armament= |Ship notes= }} |
Friendship was a merchant brig built in Scarborough, England, and launched in 1784. As part of the Australian First Fleet, she transported convicts from England to New South Wales. Due to problems manning her, she was scuttled in the Makassar Strait in October 1788.
Origins
After being launched, almost certainly in late 1784, she was sent to Antigua under Captain William Young in March 1785, returning late in the year, probably with a cargo of sugar and rum.[Lloyd’s Register, 1786; Whitehall Evening Post, 12–16 March 1785; Times, 6 July 1786 She was then employed in the East Country coal trade,Hopper Memorial, Case Relating to the Friendship Transport’, TNA T1/695 before being sent to St Petersburg in July 1786, for iron, hemp and planks.Newcastle Courant, 5 August & 14 October 1786; SoundToll Registers Online under Francis Walton - http://www.soundtoll.nl/index.php/en/onderzoek/zoeken-in-de-sonttol-database
She returned to the Thames on 10 October 1786,Kentish Gazette, 13 October 1786 and four days later, she was tendered to the Navy Board by William Richards, the First Fleet contractor.Navy Board Minutes, 14 October 1786, TNA ADM 106/2622 The charter party between Richards and Thomas Hopper was signed on 23 November.Copy of Charter Party, at Case Relating to the Friendship Transport’, TNA T1/695/248
Voyage to Australia
File:View of Botany Bay.jpgFriendship left Portsmouth with the rest of the fleet on 13 May 1787;{{sfnp|Hackman|2001|p=111}} the smallest of the convict transports. Her master was Francis Walton and the surgeon assigned to her was Thomas Arndell.{{sfnp|Bateson|1959|p=85}} She was carrying 76 male and 21 female convicts, but there are small differences in various accounts of the number of people on board when she sailed. David Collins gave the following details in his book An Account of the English Colony in New South Wales: "The Friendship, ... of 228 tons, had on board 76 male and 21 female convicts; 1 captain, 2 lieutenants, 2 sergeants, 3 corporals, 1 drummer, and 36 privates, with 1 assistant surgeon to the colony."{{sfnp|Collins|2004|}} The Marines served as guards.
Some ten or twelve of the female convicts were particularly unruly, and promiscuous.{{sfnp|Bateson|1959|pp=87–89}} At the Cape of Good Hope, Walton was instructed to transfer all the women to other transports to make room for livestock purchased there for the colony.{{sfnp|Bateson|1959|p=96}}
Friendship pulled up in 7 fathoms of water at the mouth of Sydney Cove, at around 8pm on 26 January 1788, the last of the fleet to come to anchor.Journal of the Friendship, TNA ADM51/4376 Two of her female convicts had died on the voyage, one before the brig's arrival in Rio, and one after transfer to {{ship||Lady Penrhyn|1786 ship|2}}.{{sfnp|Bateson|1959|p=101}}
The collection of the National Maritime Museum at Greenwich includes a silver medallion featuring an image of Friendship and the inscription "Success to the Friendship. 1787." and on the reverse, the inscription "F.W.", the initials of Francis Walton master of Friendship.{{cite web|title=Convict ship 'Friendship'|url=http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/40158.html|work=Catalogue|publisher=Royal Museums Greenwich|accessdate=18 December 2013}} Walton would have purchased this and had it engraved before the fleet sailed.
Fate
Friendship sailed from Port Jackson on 14 July 1788 in company with {{ship||Alexander|1783 ship|2}}, {{ship||Borrowdale|1785 ship|2}}, and {{ship||Prince of Wales|1786 ship|2}}, although a storm separated the latter two soon after all three had set sail. Alexander and Friendship were to make their way through the East Indies and return home direct.Journal of the Friendship, TNA ADM51/4376/38
Not having had fresh provisions since October 1787, when they were at the Cape, both crews were suffering badly from scurvy, and over the following months, Alexander lost 10 men (out of 30), and Friendship, one (out of 17), with many of those remaining being too sick to work.‘Case Relating to the Friendship’, TNA T1/695/243; Journal of the Alexander, TNA ADM51/4375; Journal of the Friendship, TNA ADM51/4376 In late October, off the south-east coast of Borneo, having exhausted themselves in negotiating the sandbanks of the Balabalagan Islands, and concerned about an attack by pirates, the decision was made to scuttle Friendship, the smaller of the two ships, and concentrate the remaining men on Alexander.Journal of the Alexander, TNA ADM51/4375; Journal of the Friendship, TNA ADM51/4376
On the evening of the 27 October (28 October by sea time), four holes were bored in both bows below the water mark, and she was cut adrift. The coordinates provided for her whereabouts were 2°36’ South, 117° East.Protest of Francis Walton, 20 November 1788, in ‘Copy Miscellaneous Papers’, ‘Case Relating to the Friendship’, TNA T1/695; Thomas George Shortland. ‘Track of the Alexander. . . from Port Jackson. . . to Batavia. . .’, 1789, UK Hydrographic Office Archives, SVY AD-999 Hg]
Formal Protest
On their return, the owners lodged a formal protest with the Navy Board, seeking to recover the cost of the ship and its furnishings. The government resisted making compensation and the outcome of the matter is unknown.‘Case Relating to the Friendship’, TNA T1/695
Commemoration
File:Sydney-ferry-Friendship-at-Circular-Quay.jpg.]]
An Urban Transit Authority First Fleet ferry was named after Friendship in 1986.[http://www.transport.nsw.gov.au/content/sydney-ferries-fleet-facts Sydney Ferries Fleet Facts] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150412182709/http://www.transport.nsw.gov.au/content/sydney-ferries-fleet-facts |date=12 April 2015 }} Transport for NSW
See also
Citations
{{reflist|30em}}
References
- {{cite book |title =The Convict Ships | first =Charles | last =Bateson | year =1959 | publisher =Brown, Son & Ferguson | oclc =3778075}}
- {{cite book |last=Collins |first=David |url=http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/12565 |publisher=Project Gutenberg |title=An Account of the English Colony in New South Wales |year=2004 |origyear=1798}}
- {{cite book |last1=Hackman |first1=Rowan |year=2001 |title=Ships of the East India Company |location=Gravesend, Kent |publisher=World Ship Society |isbn=0-905617-96-7}}
- {{cite book|last=Gillen |first=Mollie |title=The Founders of Australia: A Biographical Dictionary of the First Fleet|year=1989 |location=Sydney |publisher=Library of Australian History}}
External links
- {{cite web | url = http://dictionaryofsydney.org/artefact/friendship | title = Friendship | accessdate = 2 October 2015 | author = David Morgan | date = 2015 | work=Dictionary of Sydney}}
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Category:Ships built in England
Category:Ships of the First Fleet