Hillsborough (1783 EIC ship)

''Hillsborough'' was a three-decker merchant ship launched in 1782. She made six voyages to India and China as an East Indiaman for the British East India Company. In 1798 she transported convicts from England to New South Wales. After delivering her convicts in 1799, she became a whaler in the South Seas fisheries for several years. She was broken up in 1804.

East Indiaman

Voyage #1 (1784-85)

Captain William Hardcastle left the Downs on 27 January 1784 for Madras and Bengal. ''Hillsborough'' reached Simon's Bay on 24 April and arrived at Madras on 11 July. She then arrived at Kedgeree on 8 August. For her return voyage she passed Saugor on 8 February 1785, reached the Cape on 5 May and St Helena on 5 June, and arrived at the Downs on 17 August.

Voyage #2 (1786-89)

Captain William Hardcastle left the Downs on 13 March 1786, bound for Bengal, Bombay, and China. ''Hillsborough'' was part of a convoy that also included the East Indiamen ''Prince William'', ''Lord Thurlow'', ''William Pitt'', ''Barwell'', ''Earl of Oxford'', ''Fort William'', ''London'', ''Glatton'', ''Houghton'', ''Marquis of Landsdown'', ''Pigot'', , and ''Earl of Abergavenny'', amongst numerous other vessels, merchant and military, most of the non-Indiamen travelling to the Mediterranean.

''Hillsborough'' reached Simon's Bay on 10 June and Diamond Point on 14 August. From there she sailed to Batavia, which she reached on 30 December.
to Bombay via the Sunda Strait, where she saw , which was returning to England from China.

On 23 May 1787 she was at Bombay. She reached Malacca on 24 August and Whampoa on 11 October. For her homeward voyage she crossed the Second Bar, some 20 miles down the river from Whampoa, on 19 February 1788. She reached Benkulen on 23 May and St Helena on 2 October, and arrived at the Downs on 7 February 1789.

Voyage #3 (1790-91)

Captain Edward Coxwell left the Downs on 17 April 1790 for China, and arrived at Whampoa on 27 August. ''Hillsborough'' crossed the Second Bar on 19 December, reached the Cape on 9 April 1791 and St Helena on 28 April, and arrived at the Downs on 27 June.

Voyage #4 (1793-94)

The French Revolutionary Wars having broken out, Captain Edward Brown received a letter of marque on 17 April 1793. He left Portsmouth on 22 May 1793 for Madras and Bengal. ''Hillsborough'' arrived at Madras on 13 September, and Diamond Harbour on 3 November. On her return voyage she passed Saugor on 27 December, and reached Madras on 31 January 1794. By 1 May she was at St Helena. On 20 July she reached Galway, and on 27 August she arrived at the Downs.

Voyage #5 (1795-96)

Captain Richard Hutt left Portsmouth on 24 May 1795, bound for Madras and Bengal. ''Hillsborough'' arrived at Madras on 2 September and Diamond Harbour on 6 October. On 4 December she passed Saugor, reaching Madras on 7 Feb 1796 and St Helena on 7 May, and arriving at the Downs on 3 August.

Voyage #6 (1797-98)

Hutt left Portsmouth on 18 March 1797, bound for Madras. ''Hillsborough'' reached the Cape on 4 June and arrived at Madras on 7 August. By 24 December she was back at the Cape. She reached St Helena on 3 February 1798 and Cork on 24 June. On her way, on 27 May, ''Hillsborough'' captured the sloop ''Rosario'' (or was in sight at the capture). ''Hillsborough'' arrived at the Downs on 7 July.

Convict transport and whaler

Robert Preston and the other owners sold ''Hillsborough'' and she disappeared from the list of the EIC's ships. Her new owner was Daniel Bennett.British Southern Whale Fishery Database – voyages: ''Hillsborough''.
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Under the command of William Hingston (or Kingston), ''Hillsborough'' sailed from Gravesend via Portland Roads, England, on 23 December 1798, and arrived at Port Jackson on 26 July 1799. She had left with 300 male convicts, but 95 died of yellow fever and dysentery on the voyage, and six more shortly after landing. This high death toll gave rise to ''Hillsborough'' becoming known as the "fever ship". Governor Hunter wrote a letter to the Secretary of the Colonies:

While at Port Jackson ''Hillsborough'' received a new master, Captain Robert Rhodes, who had come out to New South Wales as mate on ''Hillsborough''.

As ''Hillsborough'' was preparing to sail from Sydney Cove in October, a strict search found 30 stowaways aboard her. They were removed and punished. Two sailors who had aided the stowaways were also brought on shore and punished before being returned to ''Hillsborough''. Rhodes then sailed for the south seas fisheries to engage in whaling.

''Hillsborough'' spent eight months sealing and whaling around the Kerguelen Islands, also known as the Desolation Islands. During this period Rhodes prepared a chart of the islands, and named a bay "Hillsborough Bay". Forty years later, James Clark Ross spent some months in the islands during his expedition to the Antarctic in and . Ross found Rhodes's charts useful and so named a bay after Rhodes in tribute to him.

''Hillsborough'' then returned from South Georgia. She reached Gravesend on 15 April 1801 with 450 tuns of oil.

''Hillsborough'' again sailed for the South Seas on 11 August 1801. Daniel Bennett now shared her ownership with Charles Price, and her master was Captain Thomas Pittman (or Pitman). Pittman received a letter of marque on 17 July 1801, shortly before ''Hillsborough'' left England. ''Hillsborough'' was also listed on the Protection List, which exempted her crew from impressment. In 1802 she was valued at £11,000. ''Hillsborough'' returned from the South Seas on 20 March 1803.

''Hillsborough'' apparently made one more voyage for Bennett and Price, this time to Peru. ''Cyrus'' reported that in October 1805 ''Hillsborough'' was near the Galapagos Islands with 60 barrels of oil and on her way to New Zealand.

Fate

The volume of the ''Register of Shipping'' for 1804 carried the annotation that ''Hillsborough'' was broken up.''Register of Shipping'' (1804), Seq. №H486.
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Notes

Citations

References

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*Stanbury, Myra, Kandy-Jane Henderson, Bernard Derrien, Nicolas Bigourdan, & Evelyne Le Touze (2015) "Chapter 18: Epilogue" nline In: Stanbury, Myra. ''The Mermaid Atoll Shipwreck: A Mysterious Early 19th-century Loss''. (Fremantle, WA: Australian National Centre of Excellence for Maritime Archaeology and the Australasian Institute for Maritime Archaeology): 235-290

ited 20 Aug 18

External links

Convicts to AustraliaConvicts on the transport ship Hillsborough - 1799Convicts: Transported on ship HillsboroughWilliam Noah - 'A Voyage to Sydney in New South Wales in 1798 & 1799' and 'A Few Remarks of the County of Cumberland in New South Wales, 1798-1799

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Ships of the British East India Company
Convict ships to New South Wales
1783 ships
Age of Sail merchant ships
Merchant ships of the United Kingdom
Whaling ships