Page 1 of 1

ELIZABETH brig 1809

Posted: Wed Dec 10, 2008 3:35 pm
by shipstamps

The name ELIZABETH is a very common name and in that times the newspapers of that time has to explain exactly which ELIZABETH had just arrived or sailed.
There were ELIZABETH, ships, brigs and barques from Britain, America, New South Wales and France.

One of this vessels I found in Shipping Arrivals and Departures of Sydney, and I am now pretty sure she is depict on the stamp is the trading brig ELIZABETH. She is the only vessel under the name ELIZABETH in the Pacific Island trade during that time, also she is the only vessel given as a brig and fitting the timeframe 1809.

When the brig HARRINGTON in May 1804 sailed from Port Jackson for a privatering voyage to the coast of South America, she returned the next year to Port Jackson with two Spanish prizes. After arrival the HARRINGTON and her two prizes were detained on the ground that England not being in war with Spain, and it was virtually an act of piracy.
When 1806 Spain entered the war the two prizes were auctioned by the Admiralty Court, one a brig of 160 ton (other source 110 ton) under the name SAINT FRANCISCO (other source gives SAN FRANCISCO) was purchased by John McArthur and G Blaxland in July 1806 and renamed ELIZABETH after McArthur wife Elizabeth.

The intention of McArthur was to use the ELIZABETH in the sandalwood trade together with the HARRINGTON which was owned by Chace, Chinnery & Co., of Madras. The ELIZABETH would be used as a tender for the HARRINGTON.
01 March 1807 the ELIZABETH sailed out from Port Jackson under command of Capt. William Stewart and a crew of 17 cleared for Tahiti, with on board cargo and passengers, first she crossed the Tasman Sea and during the passage she had very bad weather, she arrived in the Bay of Islands, New Zealand 30 March 1807 for repairs. After 12 days she sailed from Bay of Islands bound for Tonga, where she dropt of one of the passengers, she missed her rendezvous with the HARRINGTON at Fiji due to bad weather, and she headed to Tahiti. At Tahiti (most probably Fare) she was loaded with a cargo of salted pork. She arrived back in Port Jackson on 09 November 1807.
After arrival she was fitted out for a sandalwood voyage to the Fiji islands, but William Bligh (of Bounty fame) at that time governor of New South Wales was against this plan, for sandalwood was a good market in China but it was not allowed by vessels owned in New South Wales to sail to China due to East India Company regulations. The owner of the ELIZABETH played an important role in the removal of Governor Bligh from his post during the ‘Rum Rebellion’.
After Bligh was removed from his office in January 1808, the ELIZABETH sailed out on 24 January again under command of Stewart with destination, Sandalwood Bay.
She crossed first the Tasman Sea for the Bay of Islands for fresh provision before heading to Tonga, on arrival Tonga on 14 April 1808 a large canoe manned by 30 to 40 natives and one white men approached the ELIZABETH, with the intention to attack. The ELIZABETH well armed kept the attackers at bay, and she sailed the same day from Nakualofa, bound for the Fiji Islands. When passing the islands to Sandalwood Bay Capt. Stewart made some surveys of the islands.
26 April 1808 dropt anchor at Sandalwood Bay on Vanua Levu.
Procuring the sandalwood was an arduous process, first the trade goods had to be landed and a trade post set up, then the native workers through their Chiefs had to be contracted, to cut and load the logs.
The sandalwood had to come from a place about 50 miles from where the ship was at anchor, and a boat from the ELIZABETH with 5 men was attacked by a native canoe with 80-100 men from the island of Tavea, three men in the boat were killed, the body of John Smith being eaten, the other two crewmembers from Tahiti were taken prisoner, later again freed by the crew of the ELIZABETH. Later a other man of the ELIZABETH was killed by the natives.
10 September 1808 after a cargo of 120 tons of sandalwood was loaded the ELIZABETH set sail and after a call made at Norfolk Island she arrived on 16 October 1808 at Port Jackson.
Command was changed to Captain Patterson in Port Jackson and on 18 December 1808 she sailed bound for Canton, with still on board the 120-ton sandalwood.
From a website I got; the vessel ELIZABETH under command of Capt. Patterson in 1809 discovered the islands Arorae and Maiana of the Gilbert and Ellice Islands, which is now named Kiribati.
The same year she visited also some islands in the Marshall Group.
The son Hannibal of the owner was on board as a supercargo, but McArthur wrote later the voyage of the ELIZABETH to China was a serious financial loss.
The brig ELIZABETH and the cargo were sold in Canton, the brig for only $2.000 although she was insured for $10.000 and the wood for only $13 a picul or about $27.413, and it was reported that she ended her days as the Chinese brig of war TIGRES on the Whampoa River.

Tuvalu 1981 10c sg 162, scott 151

Source; http://www.micsem.org/pubs/articles/his ... shalls.htm
http://www.janeresture.com/davisdiaries ... iaries.htm
William Stewart, Sealing Captain trader and speculator by John O.C.Ross. The Sydney Traders by D.R. Hainsworth.