Parmelia (barque)

Parmelia "was more of a plain working girl than the great and beautiful lady of the sea".[3] Parmelia sailed to London and on 17 November she was transferred from the Quebec to the London register. In 1826 she was used as a troop carrier.

Some time in the first half of 1827, Parmelia was sold to Joseph Somes, who was also a director of the EIC. For the next year, she operated under charter to the British East India Company, carrying goods and passengers between London and Bengal.

Captain John Wimble sailed from the Downs on 19 June 1827, bound for Bengal and Madras. Parmelia arrived at Calcutta on 3 December. Homeward bound, she was at Fultahm, on the Hooghly River, on 18 January 1828. She was at Vizagapatam on 30 January, and Madras on 9 February. She reached Saint Helena on 30 April and arrived at the Downs on 3 July.[4]

In 1828 the British government, at the urging of Captain James Stirling, decided to establish a colony at the Swan River in Western Australia. HMS Challenger was despatched under Charles Fremantle to annex the colony, and it was arranged that a contingent of soldiers, officials and settlers would follow on HMS Sulphur. Stirling, whom the government had appointed the civil superintendent of the colony,[5], however argued that the passengers and goods to be carried exceeded the capacity of Sulphur, and asked that an additional ship to be chartered. The government reluctantly agreed to the extra cost, chartering Parmelia in December 1828. It was then arranged that Sulphur would carry a detachment of the 63rd Regiment,[5] with Parmelia carrying the civilian officials and settlers.

Sulphur and Parmelia sailed from Spithead off Portsmouth, England on 3[6] or 6[7] February 1829, sighting their destination on 1 June. Contrary to popular belief, Stirling did not captain Parmelia (J. H. Luscombe did[7]); on arrival, however, he assumed the duties of pilot. He initially tried to enter Cockburn Sound through a passage that he had discovered in 1827, but was prevented by strong winds and a heavy swell. Instead he chose to remain off Rottnest Island for the night. The following day, he tried to bring Parmelia into the Sound from the north, against the advice of Fremantle, and ran aground on a sand bank, later to be named Parmelia Bank. Despite the best efforts of the crews to dislodge her, Parmelia remained on the bank for over 18 hours, finally coming off the bank by herself early the following morning. By that time, she had lost her foreyard, rudder, windlass, spare spars, longboat and skiff, and was leaking at a rate of 4 inches (10 cm) per hour. Parmelia then rode out a storm at anchor for three days before finally being brought to a safe anchorage. The passengers were able to disembark on 8 June.

Challenger was due to depart once Sulphur and Parmelia had arrived, but Parmelia needed repairs that it could not get without access to the skilled labour amongst Challenger crew. Fremantle therefore took the decision to remain and assist with the repairs, which were completed many weeks later. Later that year, Stirling chartered Parmelia to bring food supplies from Java. In 1830, she returned to England via Singapore. She carried to Singapore members of the crew of Cumberland, which had wrecked on 4 March.[8]

Parmelia then continued to sail as a London-based transport. She was last listed in 1838 with J. Spence, master, J. Somes, owner, and trade London-transport.[13] In 1839 Parmelia was refitted to carry migrants to the Americas. She was intended to run between Britain and Quebec, but on 1 May 1839,[2] as her refit was almost complete, a fire in Bank's Yard, at Frank's Queery, Cremyll, destroyed her. Eight days later she was surveyed and declared a constructive total loss. She was then sold for breaking up.[2]

The Kwinana suburb of Parmelia is named in honour of Parmelia, as is Parmelia Bank.

The following people embarked Parmelia when she left Portsmouth in February 1829.[6][14]

• Appleyard, Reginald; Manford, Toby (1979). The beginning. Nedlands, Western Australia: University of Western Australia Press. ISBN 0-85564-146-0.
• Bateson, Charles (1959). The Convict Ships. Brown, Son & Ferguson. OCLC 3778075.
• Hackman, Rowan (2001). Ships of the East India Company. Gravesend, Kent: World Ship Society. ISBN 0-905617-96-7.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• Henderson, Graeme (1980) Unfinished Voyages: Western Australian Shipwrecks 1622–1850. (University of Western Australia). ISBN 0855641762
• Johnson, G. L. (Les) (1987). "The Parmelia Barque". Early Days. 9 (5).
• Marcil, Eileen Reid (1995) The Charley-Man: a history of wooden shipbuilding at Quebec 1763-1893 Kingston, Ontario: Quarry). ISBN 1-55082-093-1
• Marshall, John (1830). Royal naval biography, or, Memoirs of the services of all the flag-officers, superannuated rear-admirals, retired-captains, post-captains, and commanders, whose names appeared on the Admiralty list of sea officers at the commencement of the present year 1823, or who have since been promoted ... Supplement – Part 4. London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme and Brown.