Name Matilda Tons burthen 460 (bm) Launched 1779 | Fate Wrecked in 1792. Sail plan Ship rig | |
Matilda was a ship built in France and launched in 1779. She became a whaling ship for the British Company Calvert & Co., making a whaling voyage while under the command of Matthew Weatherhead to New South Wales and the Pacific in 1790. Then in 1791, either owned or leased by Samuel Enderby & Sons, she transported convicts from England to Australia as part of the third fleet.
She departed Portsmouth on 27 March 1791 and arrived on 1 August in Port Jackson, New South Wales. She embarked 250 male convicts, 25 of whom died during the voyage. Nineteen officers and men of the New South Wales Corps provided the guards. On her arrival at Port Jackson the ship required repairs.
After he had delivered his convicts, Weatherhead took Matilda whaling in the South Seas fisheries. She left Sydney for the Marquesas Islands.
Matilda was wrecked in February 1792 on a shoal, later named Matilda Island, but confirmed to be Moruroa by Frederick Beechey of the HMS Blossom (1806), who discovered the wreckage in 1826
The survivors, 21 crew members and one convict stowaway, were later rescued. Captain William Bligh, on HMS Providence, picked up some at Matavai Bay, while Jenny and Britannia rescued others.