HMS Porpoise (1799)

HMS "Porpoise" was a ten gun ship wrecked in 1803 on the North coast of New South Wales, Australia.

Originally built in Spain as the "Infanta Amelia" as a sloop, she was 308 tons, 93ft long on the gun deck and a beam of 27ft, 11 inches. She was captured in 1799 by HMS "Argo" off the coast of Portugal. On 10 August 1803, HMS "Porpoise" left Sydney in the company of the ships "Cato" and "Bridgewater" bound for India. On 17 August the three ships got caught near a sandbank, 157 north and 51 miles east of Sandy Cape. With shrinking leeway, both the "Cato" and HMS "Porpoise" were grounded. "Bridgewater" sailed on, despite knowing that the other two ships had come to grief. The crew and passengers of both ships were able to land on a sandbank as both their ships broke up. On 26 August 1803 with no sign of rescue, Matthew Flinders who was a passenger on HMS "Porpoise" and Captain John Park, from the "Cato" took the largest cutter (which they named "Hope") and twelve crewmen and headed to Sydney to seek rescue. Through marvellous navigation, "Hope" made it to Port Jackson by 8 September. Three lives were lost in the joint shipwreck. The remaining passengers were rescued. [ "Australian Shipwrecks - vol1 1622-1850", Charles Bateson, AH and AW Reed, Sydney, 1972, ISBN 0 589 07112 2 p35 ]

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