Katherine Stewart Forbes (1818 ship)

History
Great Britain
Name: Katherine Stewart Forbes
Owner: Chapman
Operator: Captain Alfred Fell
Builder: Kent
Launched: 1818
General characteristics
Type: Barque
Tons burthen: 457 (bm)
Length: 117 ft 3 in (35.7 m)
Beam: 29 ft 4 in (8.9 m)
Draught: not recorded
Sail plan: Ship rig

Katherine Stewart Forbes was a barque built at Northfleet docks in Kent in 1818 to "second description first class" for the Chapman company and was variously recorded as a ship and a barque.[1][2] She is recorded to have conveyed convicts to Australia in 1830, 1832,[3] and 1837 [4] , early settlers to New Zealand, and mapped part of the coast of Borneo. Her officers included Captains Alfred Fell, James Berry, John Hobbs, and Wm. Wright; chief officer William Donovan; second officer W B Willoughby; and third officer Duncan Donovan.

She made several trips from England to Australia; also several voyages between Australian settlements, and was variously employed in the seagoing transport trade.[5]

Notable voyages

1829: Plymouth to Port Jackson

She sailed from Plymouth on 18 October 1829 carrying 200 convicts and arrived at Port Jackson on 18 February 1830.

1832: Woolwich to Van Diemen's Land

The voyage began with a cholera outbreak on board the day she sailed from Woolwich. She anchored in Plymouth Sound but was ordered to put to sea again after receiving medical supplies and the services of an assistant surgeon from the Royal Navy. She returned to the Thames Estuary and was laid up in Stangate Creek until the end of March before being allowed to resume her voyage. Of the 222 convicts aboard, 30 men developed cholera and 13 died before she finally set sail from Woolwich in February 1832 bound for Van Dieman's Land (arriving on 16 July) carrying 222 male convicts under the command of Captain James Berry.[6]

1836: Transport

On 31 May 1836 Katherine Stewart Forbes arrived at Portsmouth from Jersey. She carried the depot of the 1st Battalion, the Rifle Brigade, numbering 13 fficers and 218 men. She then went into dock for refitting.[7]

1837: Gravesend to Adelaide

She sailed from Gravesend on 27 July 1837 under the command of Captain Alfred Fell and arrived at Holdfast Bay, South Australia, on 17 October 1837. She carried 177 passengers, who came from England and Ireland. There were six aged over thirty, of whom five paid their own way. There were 129 aged between fifteen and thirty, of whom only four were required to pay, and there were forty-two aged under fifteen, all of whom were granted free passage.[8]

The voyage left England one month after King William IV died and Princess Victoria was ascended to the throne. On Catherine Stewart Forbes's arrival at Adelaide a public proclamation was made regarding the death of King William IV and the accession of Queen Victoria.[9]

1838: Launceston to Port Adelaide

Departed Launceston, arrived Port Adelaide on 17 June 1838. The only recorded passenger was Mr John Brown.

1839: London to Adelaide

She departed London on 20 October 1838 and after a stop at the Cape of Good Hope, she arrived in Adelaide on 21 March 1839.

1840: Adelaide to London

Departed Port Adelaide on 11 April 1840, carrying with her the former Governor of South Australia, George Gawler, his aide-de-camp, James Collins Hawker and his gardener and Derbyshire botanist, Joseph Whittaker. The vessel was delayed for five days at Kingscote on Kangaroo Island in order to fill with wood and water for the journey. She then called in at Mauritius and St Helena and then stopped at Corvo in the Azores for just two hours to obtain provisions. The vessel reached England on 23 September 1840. The journey back to England was described in some detail in Hawker's 1899 book, Early Experiences in South Australia. Pressed plant specimens collected by Joseph Whittaker from the island stops that Katherine Steward Forbes made en route were subsequently supplied to Kew Gardens.[10][11]

1841: London to Wellington

Under Captain John Hobbs, she left Gravesend on 5 February 1841 and arrived at Port Nicholson on 24 June with 176 emigrants.[12]

1842?: Sarawak

Between 1841 and 1843, J.S.Hobbs, hydrographer, of Katharine Stewart Forbes, master John Hobbs, made a 'Sketch of part of the N.W.Coast of Borneo showing the approaches to and entrances of the Sarawak River'. This map was then drawn up in London and sent by Henry Wise to the Admiralty [13] in November, 1843. The map notes two of the anchorages, at one of which 'Katharine S.Forbes anchored and loaded Cargo'.

1851: London to Auckland

Under Captain William Wright, Katharine Stewart Forbes left St Katherine's Dock on 22 October 1851 and arrived at Auckland on 9 March with 65 emigrants.[14]

References

  1. ↑ State Records Authority of NSW 'Mariners and Ships in Australian Waters' Archived 2014-06-22 at the Wayback Machine.
  2. ↑ Geni "New Zealand Settler Ships"
  3. ↑ State Library of Queensland Convict Records. "Katherine Stewart Forbes Voyages to Australia". Retrieved 23 December 2017.
  4. ↑ State Records of South Australia. "Pioneers and Settlers Bound for South Australia; Katherine Steward Forbes 1837". Retrieved 20 August 2013.
  5. ↑ State Library of South Australia. "Katherine Steward Forbes". Retrieved 20 August 2013.
  6. ↑ University of Melbourne Research Data Registry "FAS Convict Ship 360.41 Katherine Stewart Forbes arrived 1832 at VDL Prosopography Index"
  7. ↑ "PORTSMOUTH, Saturday." Times [London, England 31 May 1836: 5. The Times Digital Archive. Web. 1 May 2018.]
  8. ↑ The Pioneers Association of South Australia "Ship departure log"
  9. ↑ South Australia Archives. "Katherine Steward Forbes Passenger Lists". Retrieved 20 August 2013.
  10. ↑ Hawker, J. C. (1899). Early Experiences in South Australia. Adelaide. Retrieved 12 October 2015.
  11. ↑ Kraehenbuehl, DN; Moyes, N (1999). "Joseph Whittaker: early English botanical visitor to South Australia". South Australian Naturalist. 73 (3–4): 44–60.
  12. ↑ Catherine Stewart Forbes, Henry Brett, White Wings (volume II), The Brett Printing Company Limited, 1928, Auckland, page 28
  13. ↑ A Selection from Papers Relating to Borneo and the Proceedings at Sarāwak... (1846), p.25
  14. ↑ Katherine Stewart Forbes - Diaries – Diaries transcribed from original diary entries
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