Replica of HMAT Supply in Sydney Harbour in 1938
History
Royal Navy Ensign (1707–1801)Great Britain
NameHMAT Supply
Ordered4 April 1759
BuilderHenry Bird, Rotherhithe
Laid down1 May 1759
Launched5 October 1759
Commissioned17 October 1759
Decommissioned21 April 1792
Out of service17 July 1792
FateSold out of Navy service for £600
Great Britain
NameThomas and Nancy
Acquired1792 by purchase for £600
FateLast listed in 1806
General characteristics
Class and type
  • Yard Craft (1759-86)
  • Armed Tender (1786-92)
Tons burthen17476⁄94 or 186[1] (bm)
Length
  • 79 ft 4 in (24.2 m) overall
  • 64 ft 11 in (19.8 m) (keel)
Beam22 ft 6 in (6.9 m)
Depth of hold11 ft 6 in (3.5 m)
PropulsionSail
Complement
  • 14 as yard craft (1759-86)
  • 55 as armed tender (1786-92)
Armament
  • As yard craft: 4 × 3-pounder guns + 6 x ½-pounder swivels
  • As armed tender: 4 x 3-pounder guns, 4 x 12-pounder carronades
Lt. Henry Lidgbird Ball, Commander of HMAT Supply
Lt. David Blackburn, Master of HMAT Supply

Launched in 1759, the third Supply was a Royal Navy armed tender that played an important part in the foundation of the Colony of New South Wales.[2] The Navy sold her in 1792. She then served commercially until about 1806.

HMAT Supply (1759) is not to be confused with the replacement vessel HMS Supply (1793), a 10-gun storeship, of 388 tons (bm), originally the American mercantile New Brunswick, which the Admiralty purchased in 1793 as an armed vessel for the colony at Botany Bay and was broken up there in 1806.

Construction

Supply was designed in 1759 by shipwright Thomas Slade, as a yard craft for the ferrying of naval supplies.[3][4] Construction was contracted to Henry Bird of Rotherhithe, for a vessel measuring 168 20⁄94 tons (bm) to be built in four months at £8.80 per ton. In practice, construction took about five months from the laying of the keel on 1 May 1759 to launch on 5 October. As built, the vessel was also larger than designed, measuring 174 76⁄94 tons (bm) and with a length overall of 79 ft 4 in (24.2 m), a beam of 22 ft 6 in (6.9 m), and a hold depth of 11 ft 6 in (3.51 m).[3]

Rigged as a brig, she had two masts, and was fitted with four small 3-pounder cannons and six 1⁄2-pounder swivel guns. Her armament was substantially increased in 1786 with the addition of four 12-pounder carronades.[3]

Her initial complement was 14 men, rising to 55 when converted to an armed tender for the First Fleet voyage in 1788.[3]

Service history

Supply was used to transport naval supplies between the Thames and Channel ports from 1759 to 1786. Throughout this period, she was based at Deptford Dockyard, undergoing minor repairs as required to maintain seaworthiness.[3][4]

As one of 2 Royal Navy escorts to the First Fleet, she left Spithead on 13 May 1787 and was the first to arrive in Botany Bay on 18 January 1788, as recorded in the journals of William Bradley[5] and John Hunter[6] of HMS Sirius, which arrived on 20 January.[7][8] Supply was under the command of Captain Arthur Phillip (who had transferred from Sirius at Cape Town).[9][10] She was captained by Henry Lidgbird Ball, the master was David Blackburn, and the surgeon was James Callam. Supply was also the first ship to sail into Port Jackson after the original Botany Bay landing was found unsuitable for settlement.[11]

After the establishment of the initial settlement at Port Jackson, Supply was the link between the colony and Norfolk Island, making 10 trips.[9] Following the loss of Sirius in 1790,[6] she became the colony's only link with the outside world. On 17 April 1790, she was sent to Batavia for supplies, returning on 19 September, her captain having chartered a Dutch vessel, Waaksamheid, to follow with more stores.[12]

Supply left Port Jackson on 26 November 1791 and sailed via Cape Horn, reaching Plymouth on 21 April 1792.

A number of David Blackburn's letters to family and friends have survived.[13] These letters describe the events of the voyage and the early days of settlement, including Blackburn's participation in the expedition to Norfolk Island to establish a settlement there in February 1788.[14][15]

Later service

The Admiralty sold her at auction in July 1792 and her new owners renamed her Thomas and Nancy. She then carried coal in the Thames area until 1806.[12][1]

The Admiralty in October 1793 purchased the American mercantile ship New Brunswick, named her HMS Supply, and sent her out to Botany Bay to replace her predecessor.[16]

Postscript

A New South Wales Urban Transit Authority First Fleet ferry was named after Supply in 1984.[17]

See also

Citations

  1. 1 2 Register of Shipping (1806), Seq.№186.
  2. ↑ "H.M.S. SUPPLY". The Sydney Morning Herald. National Library of Australia. 23 May 1927. p. 12. Retrieved 24 January 2013.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 Winfield 2007, p. 358.
  4. 1 2 Marquardt 2003, p. 164.
  5. ↑ "From Terra Australis to Australia – Journals from the First Fleet: William Bradley (1757? – 1833)". Manuscripts, Oral History and Pictures Catalogue. State Library of New South Wales. 2020. Retrieved 18 January 2020. William Bradley served in the Royal Navy for 42 years [and] sailed with the First Fleet in May 1787 following his appointment to First Lieutenant on board HMS Sirius in October 1786
  6. 1 2 "From Terra Australis to Australia – Journals from the First Fleet: John Hunter (1737 – 1821)". Manuscripts, Oral History and Pictures Catalogue. State Library of New South Wales. 2020. Retrieved 18 January 2020. John Hunter sailed with the First Fleet as second captain on board HMS Sirius.
  7. ↑ Bradley, William (1802). A Voyage to New South Wales, December 1786 – May 1792. pp. 57–58 – via State Library of New South Wales. Sunday 20th: ... [s]aw the entrance of Botany Bay, appearing in the middle of land that shew'd like an Island lying a small distance from the shore, We saw the neck of land by which it is joined to the other land when 8 or 9 miles to the S.oward of the entrance of Botany Bay, it has a sandy beach, the shore cover'd with wood, in the sandy beach is the appearance of a Gully or opening ... when within about 2 miles of the S.o Head saw the Supply in the Bay & soon after the 3 Transports that had been dispatch'd under the Command of the Agent. The Master of the Supply came on board as we approach'd the entrance, He informed us that they had only been arrived two days & the Agent one day before us & the heavy ships. Digitised images of page 57 and page 58
  8. ↑ Hunter, John (1793). Journal kept on board the Sirius during a voyage to New South Wales, May 1787 – March 1791. p. 61 – via State Library of New South Wales. When the Bay was quite open, we discovered the Supply & the three Transports at Anchor, the former had Arrivd the 18th. & the latter the 19th. Digitised image of page 61
  9. 1 2 "THE EARLY HISTORY OF NEW SOUTH WALES". The Sydney Morning Herald. 25 March 1889. p. 3. Retrieved 24 January 2013 – via National Library of Australia.
  10. ↑ "The Argus STUDENTS' PRACTICAL NOTEBOOK". The Argus. Melbourne, Vic.: National Library of Australia. 28 August 1954. p. 10. Retrieved 24 January 2013.
  11. ↑ "GUNS AND GUNNERS". The Capricornian. Rockhampton, Qld: National Library of Australia. 18 December 1920. p. 43. Retrieved 24 January 2013.
  12. 1 2 "HMS Supply". First Fleet Fellowship Victoria Inc. Retrieved 23 January 2013.
  13. ↑ "David Blackburn (1753–1795)". Discover Collections. State Library of New South Wales. Archived from the original on 19 December 2013. Retrieved 6 December 2013.
  14. ↑ "Capt. A. Phillip to Blackburn, 25 September 1788". National Library of Australia. 1788. Retrieved 10 January 2023.
  15. ↑ Guide to the Correspondence of David Blackburn. Trove. 1785. Retrieved 11 January 2024. In February 1788 the Supply sailed to Norfolk Island to establish a penal settlement. Blackburn visited Norfolk Island again in September 1788 commanding the transport Golden Grove...
  16. ↑ Winfield 2008, p. 397.
  17. ↑ Sydney Ferries Fleet Facts Archived 12 April 2015 at the Wayback Machine Transport for NSW

References

  • Winfield, Rif (2007). British Warships of the Age of Sail 1714–1792: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates. Seaforth. ISBN 9781844157006.
  • Winfield, Rif (2008). British Warships in the Age of Sail 1793–1817: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates. Seaforth. ISBN 9781861762467.
  • Marquardt, Karl Heinz (2003). The Global Schooner: Origins, Development, Design & Construction 1695-1845. Naval Institute Press. ISBN 9781591143284.
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