Name/TitleReplica model of the ship HMS PORPOISE
About this objectReplica of HMS PORPOISE.
HMS PORPOISE was a 12-gun sloop originally built in Spain, as the packet ship INFANTA AMELIA but after her capture by the British in 1799 she was renamed HMS PORPOISE. She was 93ft long and 308 tons.
On 10 August 1803, PORPOISE left Sydney under the command of Lieutenant Robert Fowler in the company of the CATO and the East Indiaman BRIDGEWATER, bound for India. Matthew Flinders was returning to England as a passenger on PORPOISE after his surveying voyages in Australia.
On the evening of the 17th August breakers were seen ahead but too late to take avoiding action and both the CATO and PORPOISE struck the reef. BRIDGEWATER inexplicably sailed on and later reported both ships lost with no survivors, although ironically she herself was lost with all hands at a later date. The crew and passengers of CATO and PORPOISE were able to land on a sandbank as both ships broke up and on 26 August 1803, with no sign of rescue, Flinders and Park took the largest cutter, which they named Hope and together with twelve crewmen, they headed to Sydney to seek rescue.
Through marvellous navigation, Hope made the 800-mile voyage to Port Jackson by 8 September. Three lives had been lost in the joint shipwreck but Flinders was able to return with the ship ROLLA and the schooners CUMBERLAND and FRANCIS and rescue all the remaining passengers.
MakerThe Model Shipyard - Model maker
Maker RoleModel maker
Date MadeModern reproduction
Place MadeAustralia
Medium and MaterialsWood, canvas
Object TypeShip Models
Object numberSF001640
Copyright LicenceAttribution - Non-commercial - No Derivatives (cc)
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The mug is decorated with an underglaze and a blue transfer print. On the body, it is titled ‘Emigrants to Australia’. This type of body and glaze was discontinued by 1840. Comparison of the handle shape and the profile of the foot, point to the attribution of manufacture by the Davenport Factory.
Delta was a ship-rigged vessel with two decks and three masts. It was built in Dordrecht, Netherlands in 1839 at the shipyard of Jan Schouten and registered in the same port. Its hull was constructed of oak and sheathed in ‘yellow metal’. Delta was owned by H. van der Sande at the time of its loss and was engaged as a cargo trader.
The Delta carried 29 crew and passengers, while sailing from Melbourne to Batavia in ballast when wrecked at Kenn Reefs on 30 May 1854 whilst under the command of Captain J.G. Kunst. This vessel loss supports the pattern of shipwrecks located on a well-travelled shipping route that was poorly charted until the mid-nineteenth century. The crew of the Delta could see four other shipwrecks at Kenn Reefs at the time of their vessel’s loss.
Important image of a ship associated with Matthew Flinders, that would shortly become one of the most famous early shipwrecks in eastern Australian waters. This is a fine ship’s portrait, by one of the great exponents of the art