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William Bryan

Posted: Mon Jan 10, 2011 2:54 pm
by john sefton
WILLIAM BRYAN. Barque Built 1816 at Southampton. 312tn. LRS 1840 lists owner as Domett & Partners. Projected voyage London‑Australia. Brought first settlers to New Plymouth, New Zealand 31 March 1841.


Log Book November 1989

New Zealand SG1112

Re: William Bryan

Posted: Tue Jan 11, 2011 6:55 pm
by aukepalmhof
For the Centenary of the town New Plymouth the New Zealand post issued in 1976 an 8c stamp.

.The stamp design featured a graphic portrayal of the first emigrant ship, the WILLIAM BRYAN, with Mount Egmont/Taranaki in the background.
On 19 March 1841 the WILLIAM BRYAN hove to in Cloudy Bay off the future site of the New Plymouth settlement. As an indication of the forethought put into planning of the settlement, the township was surrounded by a large area of trees and pack lands which was known as the Town Belt. The settlement was constituted a Town Board in 1863 and in 1876 was incorporated as a Borough.


The WILLIAM BRYAN was built in 1816 by Buckler’s Hard (about 10 mile from Southampton) on the banks of the River Beaulieu by Edward Adams the Master Shipbuilder for N. Domett & Co at London.
Tonnage 312 tons, the only dimensions I have is the draught fully loaded of 16 ft.
Registered in London. Ship rigged when built, around 1830 barque rigged.

Her maiden voyage was under command of Captain Urquhart; she sailed from London on 15 February 1817 bound for Jamaica. The ships of N. Domett & Co. were mostly employed in the sugar trade from the West Indies, and I think the WILLIAM BRYAN was used for the same trade. She returned in the Thames on 30 October 1817.
Mostly every year she made a voyage, the first 5 voyages under command of Captain Urquhart.
Her captain on voyage six was Captain Davis, again for Jamaica, but the next voyage in late 1822 was she again under the command of Captain Urquhart. During the 9th voyage she sailed out under Captain Urquhart but returned under Captain England on 17 September 1825 on the Thames. (when I read this I am always wondering what has happened with the captain, did he died and was the command taken over by the first mate?) Found now on the net that William Urquhart, master of the WILLIAM BRYAN was buried on 05 July 1825 at the Portland church yard in Jamaica.
She sailed again on 05 January 1826 but now again under command of Captain Davis, the name is also given as Davies, Davy or Davey, the next voyages until voyage 11.
On the 12th voyage to Jamaica from London she sailed on 23 November 1827 for Jamaica under command of Captain Johnson, he was the captain only for one voyage, after returning to London was he replaced by Captain Roman in 1829.
He was the captain the next voyages to Jamaica until July 1832.
Altogether she made 16 voyages between London and Jamaica, before she was chartered to carry convicts to Australia in 1833.
She sailed from the Thames under command of Captain Roman on 16 June 1833, arrived off Deal 18 June under quarantine, arrived Portsmouth 26 June and sailed on 04 July for Hobart, Tasmania, with on board 130 female convicts, during the voyage 7 women convicts died.
Arrived Hobart on 23 October after a passage of 11 days. Sailed Hobart 09 March 1834 bound for Bahia now-a-days Salvador, Brazil, where she arrived 16 May after a voyage of 68 days.
Bateson in his book The Convict Ships says; the homeward cargoes were almost non-existent at this period, the bigger and better vessels were permitted by the Honourable East India Comp. to go to China or India for a return homeward cargo. Most probably the WILLIAM BRYANT was too old and was sent to Bahia to load sugar for England. She arrived on the Thames on 27 July 1834.
Voyage 18 and 19th were also to Australia, but not with convicts, most probably with cargo or emigrants she sailed to Sydney and thereafter again Bahia, she arrived on the Thames the last voyage on 10 September 1837.

Then she was chartered by the Plymouth Company an offshoot of the New Zealand Company for £1,600 for the voyage and in addition the owners were allowed £60 a head for victualling the cabin passengers, £40 for a second class passenger and £18.15.0 for a steerage passenger, the lower deck were the passengers lived was only 105.3 ft. with a height of 6 feet maximum.
August 1840 surveyed.

19 November 1840 she sailed from Plymouth, U.K. with on board 148 people including 70 children. She was this voyage under command of Captain Alexander McLean.
Arrived off the Cook Strait whaling station Port Underwood on 20 March 1841. At this position she got orders from Colonel Wakefield of the New Zealand Company at Wellington, to proceed to Taranaki on the 25 March.
The barque sailed on 28 March and arrived off Taranaki near the Sugar Loaves. Everything had to be boated ashore, and by the 6th April all stores livestock and passengers were safely landed. There was noting and they had to camp in tents, before the buildings could be erected.
The site is now known as New Plymouth.
Lloyds Register gives for 1845, surveyed at London 1844, owners then given as Tullock & Co. and she was registered at Poole.
Owner amended to Frampton & Co., and surveyed at Poole in August 1845, for a voyage to Nova Scotia, most probably for a timber cargo, that voyage she was under command of Captain J Heiter.
Classed Æ1. She made also a voyage to Peru and to the Black Sea.
Lloyds Register 1850 gives out of class.
Lloyds Register of 1855 gives, class upgraded to*Æ in 1854, also sheathed with felt and yellow metal for tropic sea use.
The Mitchells Maritime List of Sept./Dec. 1856 no mention of arriving out or home, no as “being spoken’, not as a casualty.
Not again mentioned in Lloyds Register after 1860, most probably lost or broken up?
An other source gives not listed in Lloyds Register after 1860.

Source: Mr. Benn of the World Ship Society. White Wings, Immigrant Ships to New Zealand 1840-1902 by Henry Brett. Log Book Volume 20 page 186. Info from New Zealand Post.