Barretto Junior was a wood-hulled barque built in Calcutta in 1818 that served as a passenger-cargo ship and expeditionary support vessel as well as a transport for both troops and convicts. She is best known for supplying Franklin's lost expedition.[1]

History

Early history

Barretto Junior was launched in June 1818 by Michael Smith at Howrah, Calcutta (modern day Kolkata, West Bengal) for R. Ford & Company,[2] and likely named after the Portuguese-descended Joseph Barretto Junior, of wealthy India-based merchants Barretto & Co.[1] She was initially a cargo ship, measured as 485 tons burthen, and later as 523 gross register tons.[2][3] Licensed to use the facilities of the East India Company and to carry their cargoes, Barretto Junior was recorded at Canton (modern day Guangzhou) in October 1818.[2][4] In Autumn 1826 she brought an East India company cargo to London, where she was put up for sale at auction in the East India Docks.[5][6]

In 1829 the ship was bought by Fairlie & Co, London who refitted her in 1831 as a passenger ship for the London-Madras-Calcutta route, which continued until 1838.[7][8] In 1836 Barretto Junior's registered owner became Reid & Co, but two years later she was bought by a leading British shipowner, Joseph Somes of London.[9][10] In September 1838 she sailed from Cove of Cork with troops for Cape Town and Mauritius, a prelude to being taken up as an army transport in 1839.[1][11][12] After Somes' death in June 1845, Barretto Junior was transferred to J & F Somes, and re-rigged as a barque.[13]

Franklin expedition

Still owned by Somes, in 1845 Iden Huggins was appointed master of Barretto Junior.[14] Royal Navy lieutenant Edward Griffiths was put in charge of the ship on 18 April 1845, and placed under orders of John Franklin at the Woolwich Dockyard, to help preparation for his expedition to chart the Northwest Passage.[14] Barretto Junior was to carry stores of supplies, provision, and clothing which would be transferred to the expedition ships HMS Erebus and HMS Terror once they had arrived in the arctic.[1] This allowed a larger amount of supplies to be brought on the expedition without overburdening the main vessels, and helped safeguard supplies for the journey across the Atlantic.[14] Barretto Junior also carried live cattle to be slaughtered for fresh meat.[15]

Barretto Junior was accompanied by two steam tugs that helped tow Erebus and Terror to Greenland: HMS Rattler and HMS Blazer. All five ships arrived in Disko Bay on 4 July 1845, and Barretto Junior's stores were transferred to the two expedition ships.[1] On 12 July 1845, she took on all mail from the personnel of the expedition to deliver to England.[1] Among these was a scientific paper entitled "On the Anatomy of Forbesia," written by Harry Duncan Spens Goodsir, which was published posthumously by his brother John Goodsir five years later.[16] Five men of the expedition also returned to England aboard Barretto Junior: William Aitken (marine, Terror), John Brown (able seaman, Terror), Thomas Burt (armourer, Erebus), Robert Carr (armourer, Terror) and James Elliot (sailmaker, Terror).[17]

The ship returned to Deptford, Kent on 11 August 1845 and Griffith reported that Franklin's men were confident and in good health.[1] She briefly reverted to troop transport duties with a round trip to Halifax, Nova Scotia, returning to the Thames on 6 November.[18]

Convict transport

From December 1845 to 1850, Barretto Junior operated as a convict transport, firstly to Bermuda, as well as delivering naval stores and troops.[19][20][21] In 1850 she carried female convicts from England to Van Diemen's Land (from 1856, Tasmania), Australia. Most of the women were young first-time offenders, mostly convicted for theft, and the ship's conditions were dangerous, with prevalent disease, malnourishment, and abuse.[1] On a July 1850 voyage, three women and two children died before reaching land, and the ship was caught in a hurricane off the Cape of Good Hope.[1] One of the women, 23 year old Elizabeth Wilson, committed suicide by jumping overboard and drowning.[22] The 1850 voyage ended this period as a Government transport, and she reverted to commercial trading. Changing hands by 1853 to Hall, Brothers & Co, London, she was sent in June as an emigrant ship to Port Phillip, Colony of Victoria.[1][23][24]

Final years and loss

During the Crimean War, Barretto Junior was again taken up as a cargo transport, loading a cargo of huts at Lowestoft, Suffolk, in 1855 for the British troops and returning to the Thames the following year with stores.[25][26]

On 10 June 1859, on a voyage from the Tyne to Alicante with 750 tons of coal, she put in to Portsmouth, having developed a leak, but on departure on 25 June gave destination as "Mayotte, Mozambique".[27][28] When nearing Mayotte on 25 October, she struck a reef and then capsized. Eleven of the eighteen crew died, with the survivors being picked up by HMS Brisk.[1][29]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Edgar, Lea (18 March 2015). "The Barretto Junior: a biography of Franklin's supply ship". BC Shipping News. p. 18-19.
  2. 1 2 3 Hackman, Rowan (2001). Ships of the East India Company. Gravesend, Kent: World Ship Society. p. 252. ISBN 0-905617-96-7.
  3. ↑ The Register of Shipping. London: Society of Merchants, Ship-owners and Underwriters. 1828. p. 107. Retrieved 28 May 2023.
  4. ↑ "Home Intelligence". Asiatic Journal. June 1819. p. 673. Retrieved 28 May 2023 – via Hathi Trust.
  5. ↑ "Home Intelligence". Asiatic Journal. November 1826. p. 626. Retrieved 28 May 2023 – via Hathi Trust.
  6. ↑ "Sales by the Candle". Public Ledger and Daily Advertiser. No. 20446, Vol.LXVI. London. 7 November 1826. p. 4. Retrieved 28 May 2023 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  7. ↑ The Register of Shipping. London: Society of Merchants, Ship-owners and Underwriters. 1829. p. 78. Retrieved 28 May 2023.
  8. ↑ "For Sale or Charter". Public Ledger and Daily Advertiser. No. 21945, Vol.LXXII. London. 9 April 1832. p. 1. Retrieved 28 May 2023 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  9. ↑ Lloyd's Register. London: Lloyd's Register of British and Foreign Shipping. 1836. p. 96. Retrieved 28 May 2023.
  10. ↑ Lloyd's Register. London: Lloyd's Register of British and Foreign Shipping. 1838. p. 78. Retrieved 28 May 2023.
  11. ↑ "The Army". Morning Post. No. 21129. London. 22 September 1838. p. 3. Retrieved 28 May 2023 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  12. ↑ "Naval Intelligence". Morning Advertiser. No. 15175. London. 11 November 1839. p. 3. Retrieved 28 May 2023 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  13. ↑ Lloyd's Register. London: Lloyd's Register of British and Foreign Shipping. 1846. p. 137. Retrieved 28 May 2023.
  14. 1 2 3 Jones, A. G. E.; Cyriax, R. J. (1953). "Lieutenant Edward Griffiths and the Franklin Expedition". The Mariner's Mirror. 39 (3): 178–186. doi:10.1080/00253359.1953.10658166. ISSN 0025-3359 – via Taylor and Francis Online.
  15. ↑ "Food on board an Arctic expedition - Wrecks of HMS Erebus and HMS Terror National Historic Site". Parks Canada | Government of Canada. 31 October 2018. Retrieved 4 February 2022.
  16. ↑ Goodsir, Harry D. S. (1850). "On the anatomy of Forbesia". In Goodsir, John (ed.). Annals of Anatomy and Psychology. Edinburgh: Sutherland and Knox. pp. 1–17.
  17. ↑ Woodman, David C. (2000). Unravelling the Franklin Mystery: Inuit Testimony (Second Edition) (2nd ed.). Montréal: McGill-Queen's University Press. p. 330. ISBN 978-0-7735-8217-0. OCLC 953666769.
  18. ↑ "Ship News". Morning Post. No. 22444. London. 8 November 1845. p. 7. Retrieved 28 May 2023 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  19. ↑ "Woolwich". The Globe. No. 13788. London. 10 December 1845. p. 2. Retrieved 28 May 2023 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  20. ↑ "Portsmouth, March 13, 1847". Hampshire Advertiser. No. 1230, Vol.XXIV. Southampton. 13 March 1847. p. 8. Retrieved 28 May 2023 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  21. ↑ "Portsmouth". Brighton Gazette. No. 1388. 18 November 1847. p. 5. Retrieved 28 May 2023 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  22. ↑ Clark, Robert Whitmore (26 August 1850). "Surgeon's Journal of Her Majesty's Female Convict Ship Barretto Junior" (PDF).
  23. ↑ Lloyd's Register. London: Lloyd's Register of British and Foreign Shipping. 1853. p. 154. Retrieved 28 May 2023.
  24. ↑ "Australia". British Banner. No. 277, Vol.VI. London. 20 April 1853. p. 16. Retrieved 29 May 2023 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  25. ↑ "Huts for the Crimea". Norfolk Chronicle and Norwich Gazette. No. 4426, Vol.XCIV. Norwich. 8 September 1855. p. 3. Retrieved 29 May 2023 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  26. ↑ "Naval and Miilitary Intelligence". Caledonian Mercury. No. 20873. Edinburgh. 20 August 1856. p. 4. Retrieved 29 May 2023 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  27. ↑ "Latest Shipping". Liverpool Shipping Telegraph. No. 12664, Vol.XXXIV. 11 June 1859. p. 1. Retrieved 29 May 2023 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  28. ↑ "Mercantile Shipping". Hampshire Telegraph and Sussex Chronicle. No. 3117. Portsmouth. 2 July 1859. p. 4. Retrieved 29 May 2023 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  29. ↑ "Maritime Extracts". Shipping and Mercantile Gazette. No. 6826. London. 9 January 1860. p. 4. Retrieved 29 May 2023 – via British Newspaper Archive.
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