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The convict transport ship Fortune left Spithead on 28 January 1806, bound for Sydney Cove, in Australia. Richard Woodbury was on board; one of 260 male convicts, a ship’s company of 49, and 30 guards from the Royal Veterans Battalion, some with wives and children (Hawkings, 1988). The ship was owned by Peter Everitt Mestaer of London and under the command of Master Henry Moore, (Lt, Royal Navy) from Greenwich. As well as commanding the vessel, Moore had acquired a 1/3 share in ownership of the vessel only one month before departure.
Fortune was one of a small fleet of ships that left Spithead that day under the overall command of Captain William Bligh, travelling to Sydney to take up his appointment as Governor of New South Wales. Bligh travelled on the Lady Madeleine Sinclair in the company of his married 22-year-old daughter, Mary Putland. Also in the fleet were the armed escort ships HMS Woolwich, HMS Elizabeth; and HMS Porpoise under the command of Captain Joseph Short and his First Officer, Lieutenant John Putland (Mary’s husband and Bligh’s son-in-law). Convict transports, Justina, Alexander and Fortune made up the fleet.
Convicts transported to Australia were housed behind bars below decks. They received a daily ration of food that included salt meat, biscuit and flour with small quantities of lime juice to guard against scurvy. Prisoners were organized into messes for distributing and cooking food and for going on deck for exercise and fresh air, usually for 2 hours spells each day.
Fortune was a Spanish prize ship “legally condemned and made free in August 1795” (Hawkings, 1987). She was a mid-sized vessel with three masts and two decks, rated at 626 tons capacity, about 120 foot long (36.8 m) and about 35 foot wide (11 m). She was described as a “square stern ship with poop and quarterdecks”, but no other description or image of her has been found. This image of a typical Spanish "galleon" of the age (at left) might give a sense of her (graphic by www.floridahistory.com). These ships were ideal for transporting people and goods over very long distances.
The fleet sailed west out of Spithead, then south making for Tenerife and the Cape Verde Islands towards the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa. However, within a month of departure Fortune was running low on water and Captain Short (from HMS Porpoise) asked Bligh to transfer a number of convicts to the Lady Madeleine Sinclair – a request Bligh denied for security reasons. However, on 1 March 1806, 12 convicts were transferred from Fortune to HMS Porpoise to help work the rigging during the voyage.
By 15 March the convicts aboard Fortune were in a debilitated state and there were concerns about the breakout of disease. Bligh gave permission for Fortune to “proceed with utmost dispatch to Rio De Janeiro” to replenish food and water. By the end of that month, there were signs of scurvy on board Alexander and she and Elizabeth were given permission to proceed to Rio also.
During the voyage a disagreement occurred between Bligh and Joseph Short, commander of HMS Porpoise who believed he had been given general command of the convoy. The disagreement came to a head when Bligh peremptorily ordered a change of course. Short ordered First Officer Putland to fire warning shots across the bow of HMS Porpoise which was carrying his wife Mary and her father; an order that Putland was forced to carry out. This prickly relationship between Short and Bligh existed during the voyage. When the fleet eventually arrived in Australia Bligh relieved Captain Short of his duties and sent him home to England on a returning ship. Back home, he was subsequently acquitted at a court martial.
Fortune arrived in Rio de Janeiro for replenishment of water and other essentials on 11 April 1806. She sailed out of Rio harbour nineteen days later, on 30 April 1806, leaving Alexander and Elizabeth in port. The other vessels in the fleet sailed to Australia via the Cape of Good Hope.
Fortune arrived at Sydney Cove on 12 July 1806 after a journey lasting 165 days (slightly quicker than average for convict transport ships at the time). Three of Richard’s fellow convicts died en route, along with a member of the military guard. By the standard of the times, this was a better than expected outcome given the overall poor health of the convicts prior to their departure for Australia.
The following day (13 July 1806) the Sydney Gazette announced the arrival of the ship in the colony and advertised Fortune’s considerable “investment” (cargo) for public sale. The goods for sale included ship chandlery items, building products and hardware, crockery and cutlery, groceries, horse tack, an assortment of jewellery, gents and ladies clothing and shoes, woollen cloth, tobacco, and wine, spirits, brandy and cider “sold subject to His Excellency’s permission” (Sydney Gazette, 1806).
Interestingly, Fortune’s goods were advertised in Sydney as goods “imported in the ship La Fortune”. This suggests that when the ship was seized it may have been renamed using the Anglicised version of its former Spanish name “La Fortuna”. However, no record of a captured Spanish ship of this name (that fits the time frame) has so far been found.
Fortune sailed out of Sydney Cove for Bengal on 9 August 1806, less than a month after her arrival. She made another trip back to Australia seven years later with 196 male convicts on board, arriving in Sydney on 11 June 1813. She sailed away, bound for China, in September 1813 and disappeared without trace, presumed lost at sea (Lloyd’s Register, 28 October 1814).
Hawkings, David T. Bound for Australia (1987).
Page created on 11 March 2012.
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