HMS Rodney?

[Top-of-the-hill]

   I know there was a RN vessel called the Rodney, launched 1833. There also appears to have been a ship called Rodney taking transported criminals to Tasmania between August 1850 and February 1853. Were they really the same ship? A friend who has written an extensively researched family history seems to think so.

[ShaunJ]

I wouldn't have thought so.

Is this the one? https://www.hawkesbury.net.au/claimaconvict/shipDetails.php?shipId=925

[Top-of-the-hill]

  I have not seen that website - I see that ship was built in 1850, if it sailed to Tasmania in August that year, it seems like good going! I checked the site and it has my friend's relative listed on the first voyage, which tallies with what he wrote. He was also puzzled by the fact that the ship apparently didn't put in anywhere en route, is this likely?
    The site I looked at was convictrecords.com.au.

[seaweed]

 The RODNEY in question was a Merchant ship. Built in Sunderland in 1850, registered in London UK.
http://passengersinhistory.sa.gov.au/node/935064
She would have returned to a UK port in 1852 . He crew agreement/logbook for the voyage would be catalogued under 1852.
Available from
http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C4067411
Ideally you would need to visit.

[Top-of-the-hill]

  Thanks Seaweed and Shaun, my suspicions confirmed!
  Can I also ask about the voyages? As I said above, my friend was puzzled that the voyage appeared to be non stop?
   I was already wondering about the route taken to Australia, as a relative went at about the same time. When my gr grandfather went with the R.N. in 1854, they crossed to South America, Rio I think, then round the Cape of Good Hope. In that case they then detoured up to Oman, but would the usual route have been via S.America and the Cape?

P.S. Seaweed, whenever I see your avatar, I start singing "Fiddlers Green"! I have it on a vinyl disc - the Yetties I think.

[seaweed]

I searched Lloyd's List And Trove. All I could find was that she sailed from Portsmouth and arrived in Queenstown 15/09/1851. Sailed 23/09/1851. Called at Gibraltar 1/10/1851 and sailed  05/10/1851 She made a 74 day passage from Gib, direct to Hobart Town.
It would appear that she sailed eastwards crossing the Southern Ocean. Her masters name was Alexander Maclean.
To be 100% certain then her Logbook, if it has survived, should tell you her exact route.

See https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/2959714?searchTerm=rodney

Hear https://mainlynorfolk.info/steeleye.span/songs/fiddlersgreen.html

[Top-of-the-hill]

  Thank you.

[Zaphod99]

This might not help, but you never know. There is a pub named for The Rodney in Little Baddow, Essex.

Zaph

[John Dowdell]

It does appear that the Rodney made several trips back and forward to the colonies in Australia between 1850 and 1858 when it was shipwrecked. This article from the  convict voyage in 1853 states that Captain Maclean's 75 day voyage was the fastest on record at the time : https://www.tdob.org/rodney
references on that page to :
"SHIPPING INTELLIGENCE." Hobarton Guardian, or, True Friend of Tasmania (Hobart, Tas. : 1847 - 1854) 16 February 1853: 2. Web. 16 Feb 2020; http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article172859469.
&
"LOCAL INTELLIGENCE." Hobarton Guardian, or, True Friend of Tasmania (Hobart, Tas. : 1847 - 1854) 16 February 1853: 3. Web. 16 Feb 2020; http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article172859463.

The Rodney also transported convicts families through the assisted immigration programme. My ancestors made the trip in 1853/1854 to join their convict relatives. They had some rough weather on the way:
https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/686888?searchTerm=Rodney#

The UK national archives has some medical/surgical journals of the convict trips archived:
https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/results/r?_q=convict%20ship%20rodney&_p=1800&_hb=tna

It seems this Rodney was lost June 6 1858 on Kenn Reef off Queensland along with another ship in convoy:
https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/154876615?browse=ndp%3Abrowse%2Ftitle%2FA%2Ftitle%2F809%2F1858%2F10%2F12%2Fpage%2F18217999%2Farticle%2F154876615#

Several ships were lost on this reef over the years. Some people believe that some remaining artifacts found at the reef belong to the Rodney:
https://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/gladstone/identity-of-cq-reef-wreck-revealed-as-historic-convict-ship/news-story/4fe752a045a5af283b1c6cbb9b3d075f

Interesting that the captain was travelling with his wife.

South Australia's Passengers n history website has some good links and clues regarding Duncan Dunbar who seems to have owned the ship at least in it's later years
https://passengers.history.sa.gov.au/node/935064

Some of the Duncan Dunbar Jr story is documented here:
http://www.danbyrnes.com.au/networks/periods/1800after/1800dunbar.htm

Some other Dunbar shipping history. Dunbar apparently had his own ship yard in Moulmein, Burma:
https://www.maritimeheritage.org.au/documents/burningham%20hougoumont%20talk.pdf

The McGann family tree story also has their family emmigrating on the same ship Rodney as my ancestors.
https://sites.rootsweb.com/~jray/mcgann/index.htm#5

A partial crew/passenger list in Sydney 1853/1854:
http://marinersandships.com.au/1854/03/058rod.htm

And crew/passenger list from Sydney in the week before it ran aground 1856 - you can see there are a couple of shipmates in common from the years previous:
http://marinersandships.com.au/1856/06/001rod.htm


I'd be interested in finding out any more of the 1853/1854 trip. I haven't found any medical/journal or other log of that journey. Gouch's Island (is it maybe Gough Island -South Atlantic?) is mentioned as well as exchanging signals with the Annie Armstrong and the rudder issue.

 It seemed that a lot of these assisted immigration ship left from Plymouth, so passengers had to get there first.
The Plymouth Emigration Depot facility was built to marshal and house passengers until embarkation:
https://www.britishempire.co.uk/article/plymouth/emigrationdepot.htm

Also, regarding the builder, It sounds like it's not clear whether the Rodney was built by James Laing, Arrow Leithead or a Lainey at Sunderland?:

http://www.searlecanada.org/sunderland/sunderland123.html#1850
http://www.searlecanada.org/sunderland/sunderland097.html#rodney2

Leithead built a ship Cambodia for John Hay in 1850. It is thought that maybe after buying? the ship from John Hay, Dunbar renamed it to Rodney. It would go along with the theme of several of Dunbar's ships being given names of British naval commanders and battles.
The Lloyd's Register shows several ships around this time changing hands from John Hay to others. I'm curious what the situation was there. Was John Hay a ship salesman/broker around the port or had he ordered ships built and then was unable to pay for them? or unable otherwise to keep them?

http://www.searlecanada.org/sunderland/images6/leithead4.jpg

There have been several ships name Rodney that saw service in and around Australia.

glendon2@rogers.com has some interest in the Rodney also.

Rodney is a small part of my family history but it's been interesting to discover the ship's own story.

JD