Rosebud was a

schooner A schooner ( ) is a type of sailing ship, sailing vessel defined by its Rig (sailing), rig: fore-and-aft rigged on all of two or more Mast (sailing), masts and, in the case of a two-masted schooner, the foremast generally being shorter than t ...

originally built at Henry Barrick,

Whitby Whitby is a seaside town, port and civil parish in North Yorkshire, England. It is on the Yorkshire Coast at the mouth of the River Esk, North Yorkshire, River Esk and has a maritime, mineral and tourist economy. From the Middle Ages, Whitby ...

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ) is an area of Northern England which was History of Yorkshire, historically a county. Despite no longer being used for administration, Yorkshire retains a strong regional identity. The county was named after its county town, the ...

(

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

), of oak, coppered and copper-fastened in 1841, the vessel was long, had a breadth of , and a depth of .

Ownership

The Vessel is known to have been sold sometime in January 1855, to James Purves from Luttrell Bros. (The company owned by the grandparents of Dr. Edmund Hobson and his illegitimate brother Edward William Hobson). It appears that the vessel had a different configuration of sails at the time of selling being that of a

Brigantine A brigantine is a two-masted sailing vessel with a fully square-rigged foremast and at least two sails on the main mast: a square topsail and a gaff sail mainsail (behind the mast). The main mast is the second and taller of the two masts. Ol ...

. James Purves stated he was owner and was a plaintiff in a number a court cases over a two-year period, over the

insurance Insurance is a means of protection from financial loss in which, in exchange for a fee, a party agrees to compensate another party in the event of a certain loss, damage, or injury. It is a form of risk management, primarily used to protect ...

claim of the vessel.

Fate and Grounding location

It is thought that the vessel has beached and wrecked in Rosebud on 2 June 1855, though historical newspaper evidence disputes this claim. A series of court cases brought by James Purves, showed the in fact the vessel was abandoned, the advertised location of the vessel is stated to be a mile from Arthurs Seat closer to Mt Martha and not South, and also lay intact with little damage and for a period of almost two years, considering the first advertisement so far found from 28 December 1855 to the last on 23 December 1857, with the vessel being sold to the highest bidder at 12pm by H.A. Coffy on behalf of the underwriters of the vessel W.M. Tennent and Co. at the Hall of Commerce in Collins Street. Based on this information it is high likely that the vessel was indeed salvaged.

More information to be uncovered

Considering the number of legal cases that ran over a two-year period around the vessel by James Purves, it is highly likely that a large amount of factual information lies undisclosed from the cases, in the

Public Record Office Victoria Public Record Office Victoria (PROV) is the government archives of the Australian State of Victoria. PROV was created by the Victorian Public Records Act 1973 with responsibility for the better preservation management and utilisation of the publ ...

. Purves v. Smyth - At least two cases. Purves v. Kent - One case. Purves v. Martin - At least two cases. There is also a second vessel called Rosebud also a schooner around at the time that the Purves owned ship lay abandoned in 1856. Shipping intelligence shows another "Rosebud" schooner entering in and out of Port Phillip bay, it may be possible that once sold the salvaged vessel Rosebud was renamed.

Urban Myth

Advertising for the vessel also stated that the vessel has all it tackle and gear, on board the ship. This now raises substantial questions about how Rosebud was named as it looks like the ship was not ransacked or plundered, it had been stated by Isobelle Moresby in her 1955 brochure "Rosebud, Flower of the Peninsula", that "her planks made fishermen's huts and fences, and house wives delighted in her salvaged damask." The article also points out that the original name of the town Rosebud was in fact Wul-Wulu-Buluk cited by Isobelle Moresby as "Wooloowoolooboolook" and not Banksia Point as some people think.

References

{{reflist Schooners Ships built in Whitby 1841 ships