Draft:James Matthews (ship)
32°07.9158′S 115°44.62932′E / 32.1319300°S 115.74382200°E
| History | |
|---|---|
| Owner | to 1837: Francisco Félix de Sousa |
| Completed | early 1830s |
| Fate | Wrecked 22 July 1841 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type | Snow brig |
| Tonnage | 107 tons |
| Length | 80.2 feet (24.4 m) |
| Beam | 21 feet (6.4 m) |
| Depth | 11.5 feet (3.5 m) |
James Matthews was a merchant snow brig that wrecked off the coast of Western Australia in 1841. The vessel had been earlier used as an illegal slave ship on the Atlantic slave trade and remains one of the best preserved illegal slavers from the early 19th century.
The vessel was built secretly in France as Le Voltigeur. It was renamed Don Francisco after being acquired by Brazilian slave trader Francisco Félix de Sousa and was used to illegally import slaves to Brazil from the Portuguese colony of São Tomé and Príncipe. In 1837, while attempting to deliver a cargo of over 400 slaves to Cuba, Don Francisco was captured by the Royal Navy off of Dominica. The ship was seized and many of its slave cargo were forcibly conscripted into the British Army and subsequently joined the St. Joseph Mutiny.
After being captured by the Royal Navy, Don Francisco was sold to a British merchant firm and renamed James Matthews. In 1841 it was transporting farm equipment to the Swan River Colony when it wrecked in a storm off of Woodman Point. The vessel's contents were lost but there was no loss of life. The wreck of James Matthews was rediscovered by an Australian diving club in 1973. Subsequent research by Graeme Henderson uncovered the connection between
History
[edit]As Le Voltigeur and Don Francisco
[edit]James Matthews was built in France in the early 1830s under the name Le Voltigeur (English: "vaulter"). It was not insured with the Bureau Veritas, likely suggesting that it was intended to be used in the illegal slave trade. In about 1834 the ship sailed to the Portuguese colony of São Tomé and Príncipe off the coast of central Africa, where it was renamed Don Francisco. It subsequently took a cargo of slaves to Bahia, Brazil, .[1]
According to evidence given by Antonio Pereira Lisboa, the ship's master, de Sousa bought Le Voltigeur at auction in Principe for around US$12,000 (equivalent to $330,000 in 2024) from Gabriel Giron, a Frenchman.[2] Giron remained aboard the ship as supercargo.[3]
As James Matthews
[edit]Captured by HMS Griffon in 1837.
On 23 May 1837, the ship was bought for 2,550 Spanish dollars by prominent Dominican plantation owner Charles Leathem, owner of the Woodford Hill estate. Leathem took the ship to Bridgetown, Barbados, six months later, where it was registered and renamed in honour of his business partner, James Matthews.[4] The ship was on-sold to two Barbados merchants, John Torrance and James McClery, who employed it on voyages to Halifax, Nova Scotia, and Liverpool, England. In January 1841, James Matthews was sold to Frederick Leith of Kent, who leased the ship to brothers Henry and Robert De Burgh of Naas, Ireland.[5]
The De Burgh brothers intended to settle in the Swan River Colony in present-day Western Australia, where a relative had settled in the Avon Valley in 1837. They loaded James Matthews with general cargo, farming equipment, 7,000 slate tiles and engaged a crew of fifteen men, including ship's captain Edward Roberts. The ship left London on 24 March 1841 bound for the port of Fremantle, sailing via Cape Verde and Cape Town.[5]
James Matthews reached Australia on 18 July 1841, anchoring in Cockburn Sound. The harbourmaster Daniel Scott moved the ship to the less-protected Owen Anchorage the following day.[6]
Wreck
[edit]The wreck of James Matthews was discovered in 1973 by members of the Underwater Explorers' Club of Western Australia. The wreck was buried in sand at a depth of 3 metres (9.8 ft) around 100 metres (330 ft) off of Woodman Point. The finders of the wreck received a reward of A$600 from the Western Australian state government in accordance with the Museums Act 1969.[7]
In 2016, maritime archaeologists photographed the wreck to allow the development of a 3D model.[8]
References
[edit]- ^ Henderson 2008, p. 41.
- ^ Henderson 2008, p. 42.
- ^ Henderson 2008, p. 43.
- ^ Henderson 2009, p. 230.
- ^ a b Henderson 2009, p. 231.
- ^ Henderson 2009, p. 255.
- ^ Henderson 2008, p. 39.
- ^ Perpitch, Nicolas (11 December 2016). "James Matthews shipwreck off Perth coast mapped using 3D modelling". ABC News. Retrieved 11 June 2023.
Sources
[edit]- Adams, Daniel; Baker, Patrick; McAllister, Madeline; Winton, Trevor; Woods, Andrew (2020). "Successful Creation of a Photogrammetric Model of the James Matthews (1841) Wrecksite from Legacy Photography". Australasian Journal of Maritime Archaeology. 44: 71–89. doi:10.3316/informit.850868964476359.
- Henderson, Graeme (2008). "The Wreck of the Ex-Slaver James Matthews". International Journal of Historical Archaeology. 12: 39–52. doi:10.1007/s10761-007-0042-6.
- Richards, Vicki (2012). "In Situ Preservation and Monitoring of the James Matthews Shipwreck Site". Conservation and Management of Archaeological Sites. 14 (1–4): 169–181. doi:10.1179/1350503312Z.00000000014.
Further reading
[edit]- Henderson, Graeme (2009). Redemption of a Slave Ship: The James Matthews. Western Australian Museum. ISBN 9781920843991.