Name Eliza Fate Wrecked, June 1808 Sail plan Full-rigged ship | Owner Brown & Ives Type Brig Tons burthen 122,500 kg | |
Homeport Providence, Rhode Island | ||
The Eliza was an American brig wrecked in Fiji in 1808.
The Eliza was a brig of some 135 tons that had been constructed and registered at Providence, Rhode Island, United States. It carried a crew of ten and was owned by Brown & Ives.
On 22 April 1808 the Eliza left Sydney, Australia for Norfolk Island and Fiji. In June the ship was totally wrecked SSW of Nairai Island. One man, who had been rescued from earlier by the Eliza from the wreck of the Port au Prince was drowned. While the rest of the crew waited the Master of the Eliza, E. Hill Corri and his two mates travelled in a whaleboat to Sandalwood Bay where on 29 June 1808 they found the brig Elizabeth and the American ship Jenny lying at anchor. Corri and a rescue crew from both these ships travelled the sixty or seventy miles back to the Eliza wreck, where they were promptly attacked by natives. The cooper from the Elizabeth was killed but the remaining sailors, led by the second officer of the Eliza, Seth Barton, counterattacked and defeated the natives.
Corri and his crew then sailed on the Jenny for China but the Jenny was dismasted in Guam and so he and his crew left the ship there.
Eliza is also notable for being the ship that carried Charlie Savage from Tonga to Fiji.