Jump to content

Santa Anna (1806 ship)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Acad Ronin (talk | contribs) at 00:02, 1 July 2017. The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Santa Anna
History
Spain
NameSanta Anna
BuilderBrazil[1]
Captured18 June 1806
History
Owner
  • 1806: Lord, Kable, & Underwood
  • 1810: William Dagg
Acquired18 June 1806 by capture
FateWrecked 1812
General characteristics
Tons burthen220 or 225[2] (bm)

Santa Anna was a Spanish brig that a British privateer captured in 1806. Her new owners then employed Santa Anna as a whaler. She wrecked in the Straits of Timor in 1812.

Capture

On 18 June 1806 the British privateer Port au Prince's boats entered San Blas Bay (possibly San Blas, Nayarit), and captured Santa Anna. Santa Anna was a "corbetta" under the command of Captain Francisco Puertas and carrying a cargo of pitch, tar, and cedar boards to Guayaquil. The next day Captain Isaac Duck of Port au Prince sent 20 of his Spanish prisoners ashore in his longboat. Two Spaniards and two negro slaves joined Port au Prince. The slaves belonged to Santa Anna's owner and legally Duck should have sent them ashore too, but they pleaded not to go have to go ashore and Duck yielded to their pleas. Duck then put Mr. Charles Maclaren in command of Santa Anna and gave him a crew of 12 men, plus a Spaniard, to navigate her to Port Jackson.

Subsequent career

Santa Anna arrived at Port Jackson on 24 October 1806.[2][3] There the Vice admiralty court condemned her and Maclaren sold her for £3200. A list of ship arrivals and departures gives the cargo of the "Santa Anna prize" as "sugar, etc."[4] The last of her cargo was sold on 8 December 1806, and it included a "bale of chillies".[5]

Lord, Kable, & Underwood purchased her for use as a whaler. She left Port Jackson on 14 July 1807,[3] under the command of Captain William Moody, and with a crew of 20 men. She was bound for the New Zealand seal fisheries and then London.[6] At the Bay of Islands Moody picked up Ruatara (or Duaterra), a Maori chief who wanted to travel to London to meet King George. Santa Anna then sailed to the Bounty Islands, where she left a "gang" for what would be 10 months.[7] The men left included Ruatara, another Maori, two Tahitians, and ten British sailors.[6] Santa Anna then sailed to Norfolk Island and Sydney.

Santa Anna reached Sydney from Norfolk Island on 6 June, and left for the Bounty Islands on 15 October 1808. There she picked up 8000 sealskins and the 11 survivors of the shore party that she had left. She had left the shore party with short rations, and despite reports that a resupply vessel had been sent, the shore party did not get resupplied until the whaler King George arrived a few weeks before Santa Anna returned.[8]

Santa Anna reached London in July 1809.[6] There Ruatara did not get to see King George. Moody refused to pay him back wages and clothing, but offered to send him back via the Ann (or Anne), which the government had hired to take some 200 prisoners to New South Wales. Captain Charles Clarke, of Ann refused to take Ruatara on board without seaman's clothing, which the Reverend Samuel Marsden, who was returning to Australia on her, purchased for him. Ann left Portsmouth shortly after 25 August, with Marsden taking the opportunity of the voyage to learn Maori and to teach Ruatara more English.[7] Ann arrived in Sydney on 17 or 27 February 1810. After more misadventures Ruatara eventually reached home in 1812 or so. There he reciprocated Marsden's kindness and friendship by facilitating the Reverend's mission to the Maori.[8]

In 1810 William Dagg acquired Santa Anna; between 1803 and 1806 he had been captain of the whaler Scorpion. Santa Anna was on the Protection List in 1810, and in May Dagg sailed her for the South Sea Whale Fishery.[1] Santa Anna arrived at Sydney on 5 February 1811 and left for the seal fishery on 10 April.[4] At the time of sailing she was carrying 45 tons of sperm whale oil, but wished to complete her cargo.[6]

Loss

On the way back to England she was wrecked in the Straits of Timor. On 21 February 1812 Lloyd's List reported that Santa Anna, Dagg, master, had been lost on the coast of New Holland, but that all the crew had been saved.[9] Henderson, based on an account by a surviving crew member, gives the date of loss as 11 August, and the location as north of New Guinea.[6]

Misattribution

Some have hypothesized that Santa Anna is the Mahogany Ship of Warnambool.[10] However, this is incorrect as Santa Anna was wrecked north of Australia in 1812. All the ship's crew were saved.[11]

Citations and references

Citations

  1. ^ a b Lloyd's Register (1811), supplement sequence no. S107. - accessed 13 November 2015.
  2. ^ a b Clayton (2014), p.213.
  3. ^ a b Bladen (1898), Vol. 6, p.339, fn.
  4. ^ a b "Arrival of Vessels at Port Jackson, and their Departure". Australian Town and Country Journal, Saturday 3 January 1891, p.17. Retrieved 17 November 2015.
  5. ^ Barnard (2015), p.67.
  6. ^ a b c d e Henderson (2007), Vol. 1, Section 2: Santa Anna.
  7. ^ a b Letter of Samuel Marsden dated Rio de Janeiro 15 November 1809. Christian Observer, Vol. 9, pp.639-40.
  8. ^ a b McNab (1907), pp.95-97.
  9. ^ Lloyd's list, n°4641, - accessed 17 November 2015.
  10. ^ Loney (undated pamphlet, c.1975), p.13.
  11. ^ Bateson (1972), p.48.

References

  • Bateson, Charles (1972). Australian Shipwrecks. Vol. 1: 1622-1850. Sydney: AH and AW Reed. ISBN 0-589-07112-2.
  • Bladen, Frank Murcot (1898) Historical Records of New South Wales. (C. Potter,). Volume 6
  • Clayton, Jane M. (2014) Ships employed in the South Sea Whale Fishery from Britain: 1775-1815: An alphabetical list of ships. (Berforts Group). ISBN 978-1908616524
  • Barnard, Edwin (2015) Emporium: Selling the Dream in Colonial Australia. (National Library of Australia). ISBN 9780642278685
  • Henderson, Graeme (2007) Unfinished Voyages: Western Australian Shipwrecks 1622-1850. (UWA Publishing). ISBN 978-1920694883
  • Loney, Jack (undated pamphlet, c.1975) The Mahogany Ship. Marine History Publications, Geelong. National Library of Australia Card 0 909244030
  • McNab, Robert (1907) Murihiku and the Southern Islands: A History of the West Coast Sounds, Foveaux Strait, Stewart Island, the Snares, Bounty, Antipodes, Auckland, Campbell and Macquarie Islands, from 1770 to 1829. (W. Smith).