RootsChat.Com
General => Armed Forces => Topic started by: YoungD on Wednesday 18 December 24 07:27 GMT (UK)
-
I wonder if there is either a passenger list or list of the victims OR survivors of this wreck? This is all I know, from the wikipedia:
"In late 1775, Rockingham was hired to transport three companies of the 32nd Regiment of Foot, along with a number of their families, to Ireland en route to British North America as part of a force under General Cornwallis. On 21 November it was reported that all baggage was loaded, and she was ordered to Gravesend; she sailed in a convoy of six transports on 10 December, but was driven back by heavy wind.
On the night of 23 December 1775, making for the Cove of Cork in a heavy gale, she mistook Robert's Cove for the entrance to the harbour, and was driven onto a lee shore at Reannie's Bay, a few miles distant.
The master and crew of the ship were drowned, as were about ninety of the passengers. A number of officers and soldiers managed to escape in a flat-bottomed boat; the numbers are unclear, but were variously reported as five officers and twenty men, four officers and thirty men, or three officers, thirty men, and two of the ship's crew. The regimental pay chest and records were also lost in the wreck."
Just tracking down an ancestor who "vanished" and might or might not have been in the 32nd Regiment and could have been in this ship.
Thanks in advance for any hint or help about where to get more details if this wreck, if available anywhere...
-
Have you seen this account (https://archive.org/details/historicalrecor00swingoog/page/n68/mode/2up?view=theater) from a history of the 32nd Regiment by Colonel C Swiney (Swiney, Colonel G. C. (1893). Historical records of 32 (Cornwall) Light Infantry 1702-1892. London: Simkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent & Co.) It names some of the officers who reportedly survived.
It is unlikely that any manifest from the ship will have survived. The best you can hope for is that the pay and muster rolls for the regiment for that period will record the men who were lost. By comparing the entries for the months before and after the incident you should be able to deduce the names of those who died. The muster rolls are at the National Archives in WO12/4725 (https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C2464562). Unfortunately that series has not been digitised so a personal visit or paying someone else to make copies of the relevant entries are the only options.
-
Thank you Andy! That is very interesting and very helpful! Appreciated!