History
Kingdom of France
Launched	1779[1]
Great Britain
Name	Matilda
Acquired	1790
Fate	Wrecked in 1792
Notes	Three decks. Copper sheathing.[1] Underwent a good repair in 1791
General characteristics
Tons burthen	460[1] (bm)
Draft	18 ft (5.5 m)[1]
Sail plan	Full-rigged ship

Matilda was a ship built in France and launched in 1779. She became a whaling ship for the British company Camden, Calvert and King, making a whaling voyage while under the command of Matthew Weatherhead to New South Wales and the Pacific in 1790.^[2]

She enters Lloyd's Register in 1791 with Weatherhead as master, Calvert & Co., as owners, and trade London—Botany Bay.^[1] That year, either owned or leased by Samuel Enderby & Sons, she transported convicts from England to Australia as part of the third fleet.

She departed Portsmouth on 27 March 1791 and arrived on 1 August in Port Jackson, New South Wales.^[3] She had embarked 250 male convicts in England, 25 of whom died during the voyage.^[4] Nineteen officers and men of the New South Wales Corps provided the guards. On her arrival at Port Jackson the ship required repairs.

After he had delivered his convicts, Weatherhead took Matilda whaling in the New South Wales fishery or off Van Diemen's Land.^[5]

New South Wales records show Matilda as leaving for India in November.^[6] She apparently sailed via the Marquesas Islands. Other records have Matilda leaving Port Jackson on 28 December, bound for Peru.^[7]

Loss

Suzanne Bambridge, great-granddaughter of James O'Connor, painted by Paul Gauguin in 1891.

Matilda was wrecked on 25 February 1792^[8][9] on a shoal, later named Matilda Island.^{[10][lower-alpha 1]} The crew were saved and returned to Tahiti on 5 March 1792.^[7]

The survivors, 21 crew members and one convict stowaway, were later rescued. Captain William Bligh, on HMS Providence, picked up some at Matavai Bay, while Jenny and Britannia rescued others.^[12] Six (James O'Connor, James Butcher, John Williams, William Yaty, Andrew Cornelius Lind and Samuel Pollend) refused to return, and chose to settle in Tahiti.^[13]

Notes

Citations

References

• Bateson, Charles (1959). The Convict Ships, 1787-1868. Brown, Son & Ferguson. ISBN 978-0-85174-195-6.
• Bligh, William; Lee, Ida (2015). Captain Bligh's Second Voyage to the South Sea. Andesite Press. ISBN 978-1-296-80333-9.
• Clayton, Jane M. (2014). Ships employed in the South Sea Whale Fishery from Britain: 1775-1815: An alphabetical list of ships. Berforts Group. ISBN 978-1-908616-52-4.
• David, Andrew (2016). William Robert Broughton's Voyage of Discovery to the North Pacific 1795-1798. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-134-76750-2.
• Houzel, Ghislain (2006). "Le naufrage de la Matilda à Moruroa en 1792". Tahiti-Pacifique (in French) (179): 15–18.
• Langdon, Robert (1968). Tahiti. Island of Love. Sydney: Pacific Publications. ISBN 978-0-85807-043-1.
• Quanchi, Max (2005). Historical Dictionary of the Discovery and Exploration of the Pacific Islands. The Scarecrow Press. ISBN 978-0-8108-5395-9.
• Schuft, Laura (2010). Couples 'métropolitain' – 'polynésien' à Tahiti. Enjeux de l'ethnicité, du genre et du statut socioéconomique dans un contexte postcolonial (in French). Université Nice-Sophia-Antipolis. p. 108.
• Vancouver, George; Vancouver, John (1798). A voyage of discovery to the North Pacific ocean, and round the world. London: G.G. & J. Robinson, and J. Edwards.

External links

• "Convict Ships to NSW 1788-1800".
• "Convict Ship Matilda 1791". Free Settler or Felon?.