Guide to the Collection of the India Office Library - Logs of East India Company Ships (as filmed by the AJCP)
M1620-M1627
National Library of Australia View Catalogue Record
Created: 2019
Collection Summary
- Creator
- India Office Library
- Title
- Logs held by the India Office Library (as filmed by the AJCP)
- Date Range
- 22 July 1759 - 6 June 1827
- Collection Number
- M1620-M1627
- Extent
- 35 items
- Language of Materials
- English
- Repository
- Australian Joint Copying Project
- Sponsor
- The Australian Joint Copying Project (AJCP) online portal was created with the assistance of the Australian Public Service Modernisation Fund, 2017-2020. The National Library of Australia gratefully acknowledges the contribution of the other foundation AJCP partners, the State Library of New South Wales and The National Archives of the UK, and all other organisations which supported the work of the AJCP, the world's most extensive collaborative copying project, operating from 1948 to 1997.
Introduction
Scope and Contents
Logs of the following convict ships: Coromandel, Royal Admiral, Warren Hastings, Ganges, Sovereign, Bellona, Prince of Wales, Young William, Resolution, Warwick, Ceres, Minerva, Hercules, Canada, Nile, Minorca, Friendship, Duff, Barwell, Atlas I, Atlas II, Marquis of Wellington, Henry Porcher, Guilford, England, Alexander, Providence, William Pitt, Ocean, General Graham, Mary, Rolla, Perseus and Indefatigable.
Conditions Governing Access
Available for Access.
Conditions Governing Use
Many of the records digitised as part of the AJCP are still in copyright. Readers wishing to publish or reproduce documents should seek permission, in the first instance, from the owner of the original material.
Preferred Citation
Acknowledgement of use of this material should refer to the location of the original material and to the Australian Joint Copying Project.
Citation items from this collection should include references to the location of the original material and to the AJCP nla.obj number, which serves as the online identifier for the digital copy.
Example: M Series: Journal of Capt. James Cook, 18 February 1770, British Library Add. MS 27885 (AJCP ref: http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-1234)
Archival History
Filmed at the British Library, London, as part of the Australian Joint Copying Project, 1983-84 (AJCP Reel: M1620-M1627). Original microfilm digitised as part of the NLA AJCP Online Delivery Project, 2017-2020.
Existence and Location of Originals
British Library. Oriental and India Office Collections, 197 Blackfriars Road, London SE1 8NG, England
Institutional Identifier: IOR/L/MAR
For further information, see Ships' journals, logs and related records (http://hviewer.bl.uk/IamsHViewer/Default.aspx?mdark=ark:/81055/vdc_100000000035.0x0000b5).
Existence and Location of Copies
The original AJCP microfilm of the records filmed from this collection is available at the National Library of Australia [https://nla.gov.au/nla.cat-vn1740735] as well as other institutions holding AJCP microfilm.
Finding-aid Notes
This finding aid is a revised online version of the original finding aid prepared by the Australian Joint Copying Project (AJCP), published by the National Library of Australia in 2019. The original AJCP finding aids were unpublished typescripts or photocopies available from libraries that held copies of the original microfilm.
Dates used in this finding aid refer to the date range of the records selected for filming rather than to the date range of the Series or Files.
Subjects
Australia; convicts; East India Company; Young William, ship; William Pitt, ship; Warwick, ship; Warren Hastings, ship; Sovereign, ship; Royal Admiral, ship; Rolla, ship; Resolution, ship; Providence, ship; Prince of Wales, ship; Perseus, ship; Ocean, ship; Nile, convict ship; Minorca, ship; Minerva, ship; Mary, ship; Marquis of Wellington, ship; Indefatigable, ship; Hercules, ship; Henry Porcher, ship; Guildford, convict ship; General Graham, ship; Ganges, ship; Friendship, ship; England, ship; Duff, ship; Coromandel, convict ship; ; Ceres, ship; Canada, ship; Bellona, ship; Barwell, ship; Atlas II, ship; Atlas I, ship; Alexander, ship; Convict ships
Bibliography
Originally cited in Australian Joint Copying Project Handbook. Part 8: Miscellaneous (M) Series. Third Edition, published 1998. Entry 247, p92.
Biographical / Historical
The East India Company was formed in 1600 and its charter gave it a monopoly of all English (and later British) trade east of the Cape of Good Hope and west of Cape Horn. The monopoly began to be challenged in the late eighteenth century, for instance by whaling companies. In 1813 the Company's new charter limited the monopoly to the China trade. The Company ceased to be a trading organisation in 1833 and it was nationalised in 1858.
In the seventeenth century the Company sent about eight ships each year to India, the East Indies and later China. The number grew significantly in the eighteenth century. In 1787/88, for instance, there were 33 sailings, in 1807/8 there were 43 sailings, and in 1827/28 there were 38 sailings.
By the eighteenth century the East Indiamen were not owned by the Company but were built to specifications agreed on between the Company and the managing owners on the understanding they would be hired by the Company. A Principal Managing Owner represented the shareholders in their negotiations with the Company. The owners were responsible for providing the officers and crews. At the end of a voyage the commander of a ship would normally hand over a fair copy of his journal to East India House. After the Company was nationalised, the journals were transferred to the India Office Library.
The East India Company was unenthusiastic about the formation of a convict settlement at New South Wales. The British Government, in an effort to reduce costs, was keen to use East Indiamen to transport convicts to Botany Bay. At first, the Company was sometimes willing to charter convict ships on the return voyage. For example, three of the ships in the First Fleet, the Charlotte, Lady Penrhyn and Scarborough, were charted and sailed from Port Jackson to China in May 1788. (With one or two exceptions, journals that only cover the return voyages have not been filmed.) After about 1795, a growing number of East Indiamen were charted to bring convicts, free settlers, provisions and other goods to New South Wales (and occasionally Tasmania). After visiting Port Jackson, the ships invariably sailed to China or India where they loaded tea, textiles and other goods before returning to Britain.
Reference: Anthony Farrington. Catalogue of East India Company ships journals and logs 1600-1834 (London, British Library, 1999).
Explanatory note
The Downs is a roadstead in the southern North Sea, lying between the Dover Strait and the Thames Estuary, where ships sailing into or out of the Thames waited for favourable winds. Long Reach is a point near Gravesend, Kent, where East Indiamen traditionally stopped to lighten their loads before sailing up the Thames.
Whampoa, Second Bar and Lintin were anchorages on the Pearl River between Macao and Canton (Guangzhou) used by East Indiamen and other European vessels.
Item Descriptions
Series IOR/L/MAR/B. Ships' journals, logs and related records, 22 July 1759 - 6 June 1827
35 itemsArchival History
Originally filmed on AJCP Reels M1620-M1627.
Coromandel: Journal, Captain Alexander Stirling, 3 November 1801 - 4 July 1803 (File 206A)
Portsmouth (departed 8 Feb. 1802) – Port Jackson (13 June – 23 July 1802) – Whampoa – Lintin – St Helena – Long Reach.
Convicts embarked : 138 men.
Royal Admiral: Journal, Captain Essex H. Bond, 8 April 1792 - 24 August 1793 (File 338F)
Torbay (departed 30 May 1792) – Cape of Good Hope – Port Jackson (7 Oct. – 13 Nov. 1792) – Whampoa –Bocca Tigris – St Helena –Downs.
Convicts embarked: 299 men, 49 women.
Royal Admiral: Journal, Captain William Wilson, 8 April 1800 - 9 August 1802 (File 338I)
Portsmouth (departed 23 April 1800) – Rio de Janeiro – Port Jackson (21 Nov. 1800 – 30 March 1801) – Barrier Island – Tahiti (10 July – 2 Aug. 1801) – Whampoa – Cape of Good Hope – St Helena – Downs.
Convicts embarked: 300 men.
Warren Hastings: Journal, Captain John P. Larkins, 22 January 1787 - 23 October 1788 (File 9D)
(Francis Leigh, Chief Mate)
Downs (departed 13 April 1787) – Bombay – Whampoa – Second Bar – St Helena –Downs.
Ganges: Journal, Captain John H. Dempster, 27 July 1781 - 9 May 1785 (File 86B)
Portsmouth (departed 6 Feb. 1782) – Bombay – Madras – Saugor – Benkulen – Batavia (21 Nov. - 4 Dec. 1783) – Whampoa – Second Bar – Simons Bay – Cork – Deptford.
Sovereign: Journal, Captain George Storey, 11 May 1795 - 24 February 1797 (File 195A-B)
Downs (departed 24 May 1795) – Rio de Janeiro – Port Jackson (5 Nov. – 27 Dec. 1795) – Sulu – Penang – Calcutta – Kedgeree – Cape of Good Hope – St Helena – Cork – Downs.
Bellona: Journal, Captain Matthew Lloyd, 24 July 1791 - 29 September 1794 (File 353A)
Downs (departed 8 Aug. 1792) – Rio de Janeiro – Port Jackson (16 Jan. – 20 Feb. 1793) – Penang – Malacca – Whampoa – St Helena – Galway.
Convicts embarked: 17 women.
Prince of Wales: Journal, Captain William Milner, 10 June 1796 - 18 July 1797 (File 404R)
Portsmouth (departed 26 June 1796) – Port Jackson (2 – 24 Nov. 1796) –Macao – Whampoa – Second Bar.
Young William: Journal, Captain James Mortlock, 11 September 1794 - 4 August 1796 (File 427A)
Portsmouth (departed 25 May 1795) – Rio de Janeiro – Port Jackson (4 - 29 Oct. 1795) –Whampoa – Second Bar – St Helena – Downs.
Resolution: Journal, Captain Thomas Poynting, 19 December 1778 - 31 December 1780 (File 466D)
Portsmouth (departed: 7 March 1779) – Anjengo – Bombay – Madras – Cochin – Calcutta – Colombo – Cape of Good Hope – St Helena – Downs.
Warwick: Journal, Captain James Dewar, 5 November 1759 - 7 July 1762 (File 585H)
Portsmouth (departed 7 March 1760) – Madras – Batavia (13 Nov. – 29 Dec. 1760) – Whampoa – Balambangan – St Helena – Downs.
Ceres: Journal, Captain Thomas Hedley, 22 July 1795 - 20 March 1797 (File 215I)
Portsmouth (departed 9 Aug. 1795) – Rio de Janeiro – Port Jackson (24 Jan. – 2 March 1796) – Whampoa – Second Bar – St Helena – Long Reach.
Minerva: Journal, Captain Joseph Salkeld, 6 August 1798 - 26 May 1801 (File 14F)
Downs (departed 6 Aug. 1798) – Cork – Rio de Janeiro – Port Jackson (11 Jan. - April 1800) – Calcutta – Kedgeree – St Helena – Downs.
Convicts embarked: 165 men, 26 women.
Hercules: Journal, Captain Luckyn Betts, 2 July 1801 - 5 July 1803 (File 77A)
Portsmouth (departed 11 Sept. 1801) – Cape of Good Hope – Port Jackson (26 June – 12 Aug. 1802) – Whampoa – Second Bar – St Helena – Downs.
Convicts embarked : 140 men, 25 women.
Canada: Journal, Captain William Wilkinson, 16 May 1801 - 25 March 1803 (File 314A)
Portsmouth (departed 21 May 1801) – Rio de Janeiro – Port Jackson (14 Dec. 1801 – 7 Feb. 1802) – Whampoa – Second Bar – Timor (4 Oct. 1802) – St Helena – Long Reach.
Convicts embarked : 104 men.
Nile: Journal, Captain John Sunter, 30 March 1801 - 5 March 1803 (File 334A)
Portsmouth (departed 21 June 1801) – Rio de Janeiro – Port Jackson (14 Dec. 1801 – 5 Feb. 1802) – Whampoa – Lintin – Amboina – Cape of Good Hope – St Helena – Downs.
Convicts embarked : 96 women.
Minorca: Journal, Captain John Leith, 30 March 1801 - 28 February 1803 (File 335A-B)
Portsmouth (departed 21 June 1801) – Rio de Janeiro – Port Jackson (15 Dec. 1801- 7 Feb. 1802) – Whampoa – Macao – Amboina – Cape of Good Hope – St Helena – Downs.
Convicts embarked: 104 men.
(Some pages are very faint)
Friendship: Journal, Captain Hugh Reid, 10 May 1800 - 17 July 1801 (File 358B)
Port Jackson (departed 10 May 1800) – Malacca – Penang – Culpee - St Helena – Long Reach.
Duff: Journal, Captain James Wilson, 21 July 1796 - 31 July 1798 (File 407A-B)
Downs (departed 13 Aug. 1796) – Rio de Janeiro – Matavai, Tahiti (6 – 26 March 1797) – Tonga (10-14 April 1797) – Resolution Bay, Marquesas (5-27 June 1797) – Matavai (6 July – 4 Aug. 1797) - Tonga (18 Aug. – 7 Sept. 1797) – Whampoa – Malacca – Cape of Good Hope – St Helena – Cork – Long Reach.
Barwell: Journal, Captain John Cameron, 26 July 1797 - 17 October 1799 (File 420G)
Portsmouth (departed 7 Nov. 1797) – Cape of Good Hope – Port Jackson (18 May – 17 Sept. 1798) – Whampoa – Second Bar – Malacca – Cape of Good Hope – St Helena – Long Reach.
Convicts embarked: 296 men.
Atlas: Journal, Captain Richard Brooks, 16 July 1801 - 27 June 1803 (File 27E)
Deptford (departed 16 July 1801) – Waterford – Cork – Rio de Janeiro – Cape of Good Hope – Port Jackson (7 July – 7 Oct. 1802) – Whampoa – St Helena – Deptford.
Convicts embarked: 151 men, 28 women.
Atlas: Journal, Captain Thomas Musgrave, 15 December 1801 - 12 January 1804 (File 27F)
Downs (departed 20 Feb. 1802) – Cork – Rio de Janeiro – Port Jackson (30 Oct. 1802 – 8 Jan. 1803) – Whampoa – Macao – St Helena – Cork – Deptford.
Convicts embarked: 208 men.
Marquis of Wellington: Journal, Captain George Betham, 20 June 1814 - 3 February 1816 (File 56B)
Portsmouth (departed 1 Sept. 1814) – Rio de Janeiro – Port Jackson (27 Jan. – 2 April 1815) – Whampoa – Second Bar – Batavia – St Helena – Portsmouth.
Convicts embarked: 200 men.
Henry Porcher: Journal, Captain John Thomson, 3 June 1825 - 8 October 1826 (File 73B)
(Archibald Morris, Chief Mate)
Guildford: Journal, Captain Magnus Johnson, 14 June 1811 - 21 November 1812 (File 78A)
Portsmouth (departed 4 Sept. 1811) – Rio de Janeiro – Port Jackson (18 Jan. – 30 March 1812) – Calcutta – Saugor.
England: Deck log, Captain John Reay, 21 October 1826 - 6 July 1827 (File 88A)
Downs (departed 6 May 1826) - Port Jackson (21 October 1826 -) – Whampoa.
Alexander: Journal, Captain James Normand, 8 February 1802 - 18 December 1803 (File 174C)
England (departed 28 April 1802) – Rio de Janeiro – Port Jackson (16 October 1802 – 2 Jan. 1803) – Colombo – Bombay – St Helena – Downs.
Providence: Journal, Captain Andrew Barclay, 7 June 1810 – 17 October 1812;14 May 1811 – 17 October 1812 (File 176B-D)
Portsmouth (departed 7 Sept. 1810) – Cork – Rio de Janeiro – Port Jackson (2 July – 19 October 1811) – Whampoa – Second Bar – Simons Bay – St Helena – Downs.
Convicts embarked: 140 men, 41 women.
William Pitt: Journal, Captain John Boyce, 4 May 1805 - 7 August 1807 (File 184G)
Falmouth (departed 10 Aug. 1805) – Cork – Madeira – San Salvador – Cape of Good Hope – Port Jackson (11 April – 25 June 1806) – Whampoa – Penang – Cape of Good Hope – St Helena – Downs.
Convicts embarked: 120 women.
Ocean: Journal, Captain John Mertha, 15 February – 27 October 1803;26 August 1804 – 15 October 1805 (File 222J-K)
Portsmouth (departed 25 April 1803) – Rio de Janeiro – Port Phillip (7 October 1803 - 30 Jan. 1804) – Port Jackson (24 Aug. – 3 October 1804) – Whampoa – Macao – Malacca – St Helena – Downs.
(Some pages are very faint.)
General Graham: Journal, Captain William Watson, 12 June 1811 – 18 May 1813;3 July 1812 – 16 May 1813 (File 254A-B)
Downs (departed 4 Aug. 1811) – Rio de Janeiro – Port Jackson (29 Jan. – 29 March 1812) – Whampoa – Malacca – Cape of Good Hope – St Helena – Downs.
(Some pages are very faint.)
Mary: Journal, Captain David Lachlan, 16 September 1811 - 12 August 1813 (File 261H-I)
Portsmouth (departed 26 November 1811) – Madeira – Rio de Janeiro – Port Jackson (5 May – Aug. 1812) – Malacca – Calcutta – Point de Galle – St Helena – Downs.
Rolla: Journal, Captain Robert Cumming, 4 November 1802 - 5 November 1804 (File 312A)
Cork (departed 4 Nov. 1802) – Port Jackson (12 May – 20 Sept. 1803) – Whampoa – Second Bar – Malacca – St Helena – Downs.
Convicts embarked: 127 men, 37 women.