Guardian (ship, 1784)

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Overview
Type 44-gun two-decker
Launch 1784 in Limehouse
1. Period of service flag
Whereabouts Grounded in Table Bay in 1790.
Technical specifications
displacement

879 tons builder's measurement

length

140 feet

width

37 feet 10 inches

Draft

16 feet 4 inches

crew

300 (as a warship)

Armament

As a warship:
20 × 18 pounder
22 × 12 pounder
2 × 6 pounder

The Guardian was a Royal Navy ship . It was built in 1784 as a 44-gun Roebuck- class two-decker . Because ships of this type were found to be ineffective during the American Revolutionary War , many of them were used as transport ships in later years. For this role, the guns on the lower deck of the Guardian were also removed. On September 12, 1789, the ship ran from Spithead under the command of Lieutenant Edward Riou to Port Jackson in New South Wales . It was part of the retrospectively notorious Second Fleet .

She had 1,003  short tons (910 tons) of supplies for the Australian convict colony on board. 25 specially selected convicts and several servants for the colony also drove on it. In Santa Cruz de Tenerife she took an additional 7,500 liters of wine on board. On November 24th she reached the Cape of Good Hope , where she took over cattle and horses and left on December 11th.

Painting by the HMS Guardian

After a journey of 2,100 km in the Southern Ocean , a large iceberg was seen on Christmas Eve at 44 degrees south and 41 degrees east . The captain ordered the dinghy and the cutter to be lowered into the water to knock ice out of the iceberg to replenish the drinking water supplies. However, the fog set in so thick that the iceberg could no longer be seen from the ship from a 3/4 mile distance. The boats were then taken back on board and the Guardian set sail. However, her bow hit an underwater ledge. Although she was released, the keel and rudder were damaged.

The ship leaked badly and was kept afloat by bilging and throwing cargo and cattle overboard. During the night several sails were torn by a rising breeze. Many of the officers, sailors, and convicts believed the ship was going to sink any minute, so they broke through the liquor store and got drunk.

On December 25, 5 boats were launched and left heavily laden with people but left with no water or food on board. 62 people, including 21 of the convicts, stayed on board with Lieutenant Riou. The ship was kept afloat by ongoing pumping and temporary sealing of the leak (by placing a sail filled with fibers made from rope from the outside over the leak). Instead of the rudder, a rope was used for steering. The Guardian dragged itself back to the African coast. On February 21, 1790 she reached Table Bay . Part of the cargo was rescued, but on April 12 the wind drove it to the coast, where it was completely destroyed.

Only one of the five boats was saved, the 10 survivors were brought back to the Cape of Good Hope; no one heard of the other four boats.

Of the 21 rescued castaways, one died at the Cape, the others reached their destination Australia at the end of June 1790 with other ships of the Second Fleet . They were granted a partial amnesty based on Riou's reports of their good conduct.

The loss of the Guardian was used by Patrick O'Brian as the basis of his novel Desolation Island from the Aubrey-Maturin series.

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