Name Indefatigable Builder Ing. Eskdale Launched 1799 | Owner Atty & Co. Tons burthen 549 (bm) Length 39 m | |
Fate Burnt to the waterline in 1815 Beam 31 feet 8 inches (10 m) | ||
Indefatigable was a square-rigged, three-decked, three-masted merchant ship launched in 1799 at Whitby for James Atty & Co. for the West Indies trade. She twice transported convicts to Australia; on the first trip she was chartered to the British East India Company (EIC). She burned to the waterline in 1815.
Contents
Career
Indefatigable spent her 11 years as a transport, first sailing out of London and then out of Cork. She was armed for the first few years but then her owners apparently removed her guns.
Convict transport
Indefatigable was under charter to the EIC and under the command of John Cross, when she left England on 4 June 1812, passing the Lizard on 7 June. She sailed together with Minstrel and they reached Rio de Janeiro on 29 July. There they joined the Archduke Charles, which was transporting convicts from Ireland, also for Port Jackson. The three vessels left Rio together on 11 August, but Archduke Charles parted the next day. Six days after they left Rio, a gale separated Minstrel and Indefatigable.
She arrived at Hobart Town on 19 October. Indefatigable had left with 200 convicts and she landed 199, one having died on the way.
Indefatigable left Hobart Town and arrived at Port Jackson on 6 December. She left Port Jackson on 7 January 1813 bound for England. She arrived at the Cape on 6 August, Indefatigable had been at Canton, where she had loaded a modest cargo of tea and no textiles. From the Cape she sailed to St Helena, where she arrived on 5 September. She apparently did not leave St Helena until 1 March 1814, but then reached Blackwall on 19 May.
On her second convict voyage, under the command of Matthew Bowles, Indefatigable left England in 1814. She sailed via Rio de Janeiro and arrived at Port Jackson on 26 April. She transported 200 male convicts, two of whom died on the voyage. Indefatigable left Port Jackson on 13 July bound for Bengal.
Fate
While anchored at Batavia (now Jakarta), Indefatigable was burnt to the waterline in an accident on 23 October 1815 and declared a total loss.