Name Borrowdale Type Storeship Beam 22 ft (6.7 m) Length 23 m Launched 1785 | Fate Sunk, 31 October 1789 Tons burthen 272, or 340 (bm) Sail plan Full-rigged ship Construction started 1785 Builder Sunderland | |
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Place built Sunderland, United Kingdom | ||
Borrowdale was a three-masted, square rigged merchant ship, launched in 1785, that served as a storeship of the First Fleet, a convoy of 11 ships taking settlers and convicts to establish the first European colony in Australia. She was wrecked in 1789.
Contents
Career
Borrowdale was built in Sunderland in 1785, perhaps for the British East India Company (EIC). However, the British government immediately chartered her to participate in the First Fleet.
She left Portsmouth on 13 May 1787, and arrived at Botany Bay, Sydney, Australia on 20 January 1788. Along with most other ships of the First Fleet, Borrowdale sailed on to Port Jackson arriving 26 January 1788, the colonists having found Botany Bay unsuitable.
She left Port Jackson on 14 July 1788 to return to England via Cape Horn. The crew was so badly affected by scurvy that the master, (Readthorn) Hobson Reed, took her to Rio de Janeiro, where the harbour master and his men had to bring the ship to its berth. Five of the crew died on the homeward voyage. Borrowdale arrived at Plymouth from Botany Bay on 25 March 1789.
Fate
After returning to England Borrowdale served as a collier. A violent storm developed of the coast of Norfolk on 30 October 1789 that damaged many vessels, and sank some. On 31 October 1789 Borrowdale sank off Great Yarmouth, taking Reed and all but one man of his crew with her.
Lloyd's Register
Unfortunately, information is only as correct and up-to-date as the information vessel owners provided.
Post-script
An Urban Transit Authority First Fleet ferry was named after Borrowdale in 1985.