''Caduceus'' (1854–1874) was a 1106 ton merchant ship, built in 1854 at Union Dock,
Limehouse
Limehouse is a district in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets in East London. It is east of Charing Cross, on the northern bank of the River Thames. Its proximity to the river has given it a strong maritime character, which it retains throu ...
, London by shipwrights Fletcher Son & Fearnall, which also transported settlers to New Zealand and Australia.
During the
Crimean War
The Crimean War was fought between the Russian Empire and an alliance of the Ottoman Empire, the Second French Empire, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and the Kingdom of Sardinia (1720–1861), Kingdom of Sardinia-Piedmont fro ...
''Caduceus'' served as a hospital ship. In the
Great Storm of 1854 The Great Storm of 1854 occurred in and around the Black Sea on 14 November 1854. It caused severe damage and was a major disruption to armed forces in the region—naval forces especially—engaged in the Crimean War.
Impact
At the time of the ...
, on 14 November, the ship was badly damaged on the
Black Sea
The Black Sea is a marginal sea, marginal Mediterranean sea (oceanography), mediterranean sea lying between Europe and Asia, east of the Balkans, south of the East European Plain, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia. It is bound ...
, losing all three masts. The hull of the Caduceus was relatively intact and was towed by the steamer Melbourne, which had lost two masts, down the
Bosporus
The Bosporus or Bosphorus Strait ( ; , colloquially ) is a natural strait and an internationally significant waterway located in Istanbul, Turkey. The Bosporus connects the Black Sea to the Sea of Marmara and forms one of the continental bo ...
and up the
Golden Horn
The Golden Horn ( or ) is a major urban waterway and the primary inlet of the Bosphorus in Istanbul, Turkey. As a natural estuary that connects with the Bosphorus Strait at the point where the strait meets the Sea of Marmara, the waters of the ...
for repair. Caduceus was captained during the Crimean War by John Cass (1813–1889),
master mariner
A master mariner is a licensed mariner who holds the highest grade of licensed seafarer qualification; namely, a master's license. A master mariner is therefore allowed to serve as the captain (nautical), master of a merchant ship for which natio ...
and brother of the pioneer surveyor of New Zealand
Thomas Cass.
In 1858 Caduceus undertook a voyage as a
convict ship
A convict ship was any ship engaged on a voyage to carry convicted felons under sentence of penal transportation from their place of conviction to their place of exile.
Description
A convict ship, as used to convey convicts to the British colo ...
,
transporting
Transport (in British English) or transportation (in American English) is the intentional movement of humans, animals, and goods from one location to another. Modes of transport include air, land (rail and road), water, cable, pipelines, and ...
a single convict from
Bombay
Mumbai ( ; ), also known as Bombay ( ; its official name until 1995), is the capital city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of Maharashtra. Mumbai is the financial centre, financial capital and the list of cities i ...
,
India
India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...
to
Fremantle
Fremantle () () is a port city in Western Australia located at the mouth of the Swan River (Western Australia), Swan River in the metropolitan area of Perth, the state capital. Fremantle Harbour serves as the port of Perth. The Western Australi ...
,
Western Australia
Western Australia (WA) is the westernmost state of Australia. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east, and South Australia to the south-east. Western Aust ...
. It arrived in Fremantle on 5 February 1858. The convict, Patrick Devlin, was a 31-year-old soldier who had been convicted of a breach of articles of war by
court-martial
A court-martial (plural ''courts-martial'' or ''courts martial'', as "martial" is a postpositive adjective) is a military court or a trial conducted in such a court. A court-martial is empowered to determine the guilt of members of the arme ...
in
Hyderabad State
Hyderabad State () was a princely state in the Deccan region of south-central India with its capital at the city of Hyderabad. It is now divided into the present-day state of Telangana, the Kalyana-Karnataka region of Karnataka, and the ...
in December 1855, and sentenced to 14 years' transportation. In addition to Devlin, there were three other passengers on board.
Between 1859 and 1872 Caduceus made five voyages bringing settlers from London, England to Auckland, New Zealand. The ship was described as 'a fine and roomy ship'. The fastest of these passage took 92 days and the longest 112 days.
[https://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/etexts/Bre01Whit/Bre01Whit063.gif ]
In 1874 the Caduceus was wrecked.
See also
*
List of convict ship voyages to Western Australia
Between 1842 and 1849, 234 juvenile offenders were transported to the Colony of Western Australia on seven convict ships. From 1850 to 1868, over 9,000 convicts were transported to the colony on 43 convict ship voyages. Western Australia was c ...
*
Convict era of Western Australia
The convict era of Western Australia was the period during which Western Australia was a penal colony of the British Empire. Although it received small numbers of juvenile offenders from 1842, it was not formally constituted as a penal colony u ...
References
Sources
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Caduceus (Ship)
Convict ships to Western Australia