Mangles

From The Convict Ships 1787 – 1868, Charles Bateson (1959) AH & AW Reed

Built in Calcutta, Bengal, 1802, 594 tons; class E1

Convict Journeys to Australia

Mangles (7) to Hobart, Mangles (9) to Sydney via Norfolk Island

Convict Complement

from Page 235:

The Mangles was built at Calcutta for the London firm whose name she bore, and was initially registered at Calcutta on March 1, 1803. Built of teak, she was a vessel of 574 58/94 register tons, and was pierced for 22 guns. She was a three-master, ship-rigged, and had two decks, with poop, and forecastle. Her stern was square, but when her registry was transferred to London on May 16, 1804, it was not stated whether she had quarter galleries. Her registered owners were then John and James Mangles, the part owners of the Guildford, John Bannister Hudson, of St Helen’s, Bishopgate-street, esquire, Thomas Reid, of Wapping, gentleman, and Hugh Reid, of Wellclose-square, the latter also being her master. The dimensions of the Mangles were: length, 121 ft. 2 ins., breadth, 32 ft. 3 ins., and depth, 5 ft. 6 ins. She was thus two and a half feet shorter than the Guildford, but the bean was greater by 15 ins. In 1806, when rice cargoes were plentiful and freights good, the Mangles was employed in the Bengal rice trade to China, and in September the following year she was the second rice-ship captured by the famous French privateer, Robert Surcouf, who, evading the British squadron blockading Mauritius, had entered Port Louis the previous June in his 18-gun ship, the Reverant. The Mangles remained in the possession of the French until recaptured in 1813, when she was registered de novo at London by order of the Commissioners of the East India Company, dated October 8, 1813.

Her 1813 registry gives her dimensions as: Length, 121 ft. 2 ins., breadth, 32 ft. 11 ins., and depth, 5 ft. 5 ins. She was recorded as being of of 560 58/94 register tons, and was still a three-master, ship-rigged vessel, with two decks and poop and forecastle decks. She was now shown, however, as having quarter galleries and a woman as figurehead. Her new owners were Thomas Watkin Court, a mariner of Union Court, Broad-street, London, and two Calcutta merchants, Thomas Askin and Shaik Gollaum Hassen, but the latter became her sole owner in 1814 and within a few days of purchasing her had again sold her. She was owned in Calcutta until 1816, when she was purchased by Thomas Henry Buckle, Henry Mole Bagster, Walter Buchanan, and John William Buckle, all merchants of Mark-lane, London, and another London merchant, William Parker, of John-street, America-square. Buckle, Buckle, Bagster and Buchanan were a well-known firm of London ship-owners, and many of their vessels found employment in the convict service. On Apriol 5, 1816, the firm sold a quarter of its interest in the Mangles to the ship’s master, George Bunn, but he sold these rights back again the same day. The reason for this transaction is not apparent, but a similar incident occurred in 1818, when the firm, on the same day, first sold a sixth and then a fifth of their interest in the Mangles to Benjamin Bunn the younger, of Hackney, and next day he sold back to them all his interest in a quarter share. When Buckle & Company registered the Mangles anew at London in 1816, she was recorded as being of 594 38/94 register tons. The vessel’s description was unaltered, but her dimensions were given as: length, 123 ft. 2 ins., breadth, 33 ft., and depth, 5 ft. 5 ins.

The Mangles made her first visit to Australia with convicts in 1820, when she arrived at Port Jackson on August 7. She was still owned by Buckle & Co., and her master was John Cogill, whose name, in English records, is spelt Coghill. She continued to be regularly employed as a convict ship until 1828. The following year she was put into the China tea trade. She was now owned by Buckle, Bagster & Buckle and McGhie, Hawkes & Carr, the last mentioned partner in the latter firm being her master, William Carr of Waterloo-terrace, Commercial-road, London. Carr took her from London to Capsing-moon, some miles north of Macao, during the south-west monsoon in the remarkable time of 94 days, running from Anjer to her destination in 9 days. She returned to convict service in 1832 and made her last voyage with prisoners in 1840.

As her outward passage to China in 1829 indicates, the Mangles possessed a turn of speed unusual in a vessel of her build, and, next to the Morley, she was probably the most consistent passage-maker among the regular convict ships …

On the first four of (her) passages she was commanded by John Cogill, and averaged 120½ days. She was very nearly lost when leaving Sydney, homeward bound with passengers and colonial produce, on February 2, 1825, being becalmed as she was clearing Port Jackson Heads. A strong current and swell threatened to put her on shore, but with the assistance of a number of boats which answered her distress signals she was kept off land, and, after having been in danger for seven hours, a favourable breeze sprang up in the evening and she was able to bear away to sea. On her arrival at Sydney in 1826, Cogill left her to become a settler and was succeeded in the command by the chief mate, William Carr, who on September 9, 1839, became the sole owner of the Mangles.

Carr was probably a more intrepid sail-carrier than Cogill, or perhaps more fortunate in the weather he encountered. At any rate, it was under his command that the Mangles really showed her capabilities. In 1828 she ran out to Sydney form Dublin in 100 days, and the following year made her smart passage to China. On her five passages as a convict ship under Carer’s command, four of which were to Sydney, one to Hobart, she average 117 days, and on the first four of these her average was 109 days. Her second voyage under Carr, in 1833, began inauspiciously. Sailing from London on December 16, 1832, she struck a winter gale in the Channel and was forced to seek shelter at the Scilly Isles. She did not sail from there until January 1. Thus, although she was 126 days out from London when she arrived at Port Jackson, the Mangles made the passage from St. Mary’s Sound, in the Scillies, to Port Jackson in 100 days.

Her slowest passages were made in 1822, under Cogill, and in 1840, under Carr. On the first, she called at Rio, from which port she recorded a passage of 68 days to Port Jackson, which was rather better than average. In 1840 she put into the Cape, presumably because of an outbreak of scurvy among her prisoners, and her passage of 57 days from the Cape to Port Jackson was only fair. By then, however, her bottom was probably foul, and she was nearing the end of her long career. Carr died in 1841, and the Mangles passed into the ownership of the Ratcliffe shipowner, Thomas Ward. He transferred her to a Kingston-upon-Hull shipbuilder, Thomas Humphrey the elder, the following year, and when the latter went bankrupt the same year, the Mangles passed into the hands of a firm of Hull bankers, Pease and Liddells, in 1845. She was broken up that year.