Coromandel (1834 ship)


Coromandel was 662 tons burthen, sailing ship built at Quebec in 1834. She was owned by Ridgeway and her home port was Glasgow. She was the first ship to bring settlers to South Australia after it was proclaimed a colony in 1836 and one of the early ships bringing New Zealand Company settlers to Wellington, New Zealand in 1840.

Construction

Coromandel measured x x. She was a 3 masted square rigged ship with 13 foresails, 3 top sails, 3 fore topmast stay sails, 2 main sails, 3 main top sails and well found. She had one long boat and two quarter boats. The ship was made from oak, black birch, and red pine. She was sheathed in yellow metal.

Voyages

In 1836, before Coromandel sailed for Australia, the South Australian Commission gave a dinner on board to about 150 young married persons and 36 children. On 1 September 1836 she sailed from Blackwell Dock, London under Captain William Chesser to South Australia, berthing at the South Australia Company's Kingscote, Kangaroo Island base on 10 January 1837 and on 12 January anchoring at Holdfast Bay. Apart from the settlers, Coromandel also had South Australia's first bank on board as well as £10,000 in notes.
In June 1838 she sailed from London to Sydney in 110 days under Captain Neale.
Captained by Edward French, the ship advertised to depart November 20 and Portsmouth Nov 25 sailed, from St Catherines docks, London on 10 December 1839 with 47 passengers. It arriving in New Zealand after a long voyage of 260 days on 29 August 1840. It took shelter from poor weather in the Bay of Biscay for 6 weeks, and also stopped at Cape Town for supplies. It docked at Sydney where it collected a further 3 passengers and also 200 sheep, 40 bullocks, and 4 horses for New Zealand.
On 7 July 1843 it sailed under Captain Harewood from Gravesend to Bombay carrying troops.
In 1845 she was sailing on the run from Liverpool to New Orleans.
The ship was listed in Lloyd's register of 1855 as being owned by Brooke & Co under Captain Walker.

Coromandel Valley

in the Adelaide Hills and Coromandel Street in Wellington, New Zealand are named after the ship.

Citations