The Ship

Mangles was built of East Indian teak by Hudson, Bacon & Company of Calcutta. She was built in late 1802 and launched in February 1803. A month later she left on her maiden voyage for England on behalf of the East India Company. Mangles first appeared in the Lloyds Register in 1804 after being admitted to the British Registry that year. Her first documented survey (online) was in 1835, the full report of which can be found here.

She was a ship rated at 594 tons and on her 1804 return to Bengal was armed with 20 x 18 pounder cannonades. This seemed not to deter a French privateer who, in 1807 captured the ship which was not returned to British ownership until the end of hostilities with France in 1815. Mangles then returned to her career with the E.I.C. for a further five voyages, the last in 1828. In between these sailings and thereafter, Mangles made a total of nine convict voyages to Australia – from 1820 to 1840 – eight to New South Wales and one to Van Diemen’s Land. On her last voyage to Australia in 1839/40, she disembarked 53 convicts at Sydney and then continued to Norfolk Island with a further 236 prisoners.

The Ship’s Owners

Her original owner was James Mangles (1768-1838) who, with his three brothers, was owner of a number of ships in the whaling industry. James was also a director of the E.I.C., Member of Parliament for Guildford and High Sheriff of Surrey. His daughter Ellen (seventh child) married Captain James Stirling R.N., first Governor of Western Australia. Mangles was owned by Hussem & Co. (1815-1818) after her return to Britain at the end of the war in France. In 1819 she was listed with Porcher & Co. as owners.

In 1820 – the year of her first convict voyage – she was owned by Buckle & Co.  John William Buckle was a businessman, wine merchant, insurance broker and solicitor of Mark Lane, London. He was a partner in the ship-owning company Buckle, Bagster and Buchanan, with his brother Thomas Henry Buckle, Henry Bagster and Walter Buchanan. All nine of Mangles‘ convict voyages were in the ownership of Buckle and Co. who employed the same two masters for their nine convict voyages: John Cogill 1820 to 1825/26 and William Carr 1828 to 1840. When the ship arrived at Sydney in 1826, Cogill had decided to remain in Australia, thus Carr, the second mate, became master on the return journey to England until his last voyage as master in 1840; he was listed as owner for part of 1841.

The Ship’s Unwilling Passengers

Mangles sailed from London on 14th December 1832 with 236 male convicts on board. Eighty prisoners embarked from convict hulks at Woolwich and the balance from Sheerness. These men had been convicted and sentenced in Assizes and Quarter Sessions courts in many counties throughout Britain as well as from gaol deliveries in Middlesex and London. Ten of them were sentenced in Justiciary Courts in Scotland. There was one convict death on board – William Buck (named Charles by the surgeon) who died at Sheerness aged 35 of cholera asphyxia (Case No. 2 in the journal). He was put on the sick list on 26th November and died three days later.

The Ship’s Guards and Carers

Mangles was one of 21 convict ships arriving in New South Wales from British ports in 1833 – plus another ship wrecked en-route. The 21st Regiment troops were convict guards on most of these ships.

Two of the 21st guards were placed on the surgeon’s sick list: George Sheppard and John Moloney both aged 29 years. Sheppard was suffering from tonsillitis and Moloney from sunburn!

Those who guarded the convicts on Mangles are listed left: one sergeant and 27 rank and file troops, accompanied by women and children. All but three of the troops would serve in the Swan River Colony, arriving within months from their first port of call in eastern Australia. Five of those serving in the Colony took their Army discharges and settled there: Sergeant Roger Guerin and Privates John Hagarty, George Sheppard, Martin Walsh and James White.

The Master for this voyage was Captain William Carr and the Surgeon Superintendent James Rutherford R.N.

17 Nov 1832  21st guards embarked on Mangles at Deptford.
26 Nov 1832  80 prisoners embarked on Mangles at Woolwich
Dec 1832  156 prisoners embarked on Mangles at Sheerness
14 Dec 1832  Departed London
19 Apr 1833  Arrived at Port Jackson, New South Wales
Passage 126 days. Disembarked 235 convicts
03 Jun 1833  Mangles sailed for China.

The Ship’s Journal

James Rutherford R.N. maintained his surgeon superintendent’s journal on Mangles from 8th November 1832 to 9th May 1833. He was appointed surgeon with the Royal Navy in 1803 and was conferred with his MD (Edinburgh) in 1814 and MRCS in 1822.

Rutherford served on four convict ships to NSW: Regalia 1826, Pyramus 1831/32, Mangles 1832/33 and Hooghly 1834.

A small article appeared in the Sydney Gazette 30th April 1833 which would have pleased James Rutherford, Among the prisoners per Mangles are a considerable number of useful mechanics [tradesmen]. The whole of the prisoners who have arrived by that vessel, are in the most perfect state of health, which says much for the judicious treatment of the parties under whose management they have been placed. Indeed to land the full complement bar one of 236 prisoners was a good achievement; and none required hospitalisation.

Rutherford nursed 18 cholera victims back to good health – the disease being the most prevalent on board. The second wave of a cholera epidemic had reached London in 1832, thus the chances of the hulk prisoners along the Thames contracting the disease was high.

The Ship’s Demise

Mangles made her last appearance in Lloyds Register in 1844 with her master recorded as ‘Driscoll’ and her owner T Ward. Her last documented survey was in December 1841 after changing ownership earlier in the year from William Carr to T Ward. She had been a good old ship, sailing great distances in sometimes dangerous waters for over forty years. Her fate is currently unknown.

Sources
Wikipedia, Wikipedia Commons.
Lloyds of London Registers 1802-1844.
Lloyds Register Foundation, Heritage and Education Centre.
The Convict Ships, 1787-1868, Charles Bateson, 1974.
Claim a Convict website.
State Library of Queensland website.
State Library of Victoria (illustration).
Free Settler or Felon? website [Jen Willetts].
Australian Medical Pioneer Index.
21st Regiment Embarkation Roll WO25-3503, National Archives, Kew.
Musters & Pay Lists WO12-3802 to 3809, National Archives, Kew.
Journal of Her Majesty’s Ship Mangles, ADM101-47-6, National Archives, Kew.

Shipping Intelligence
Sydney Monitor 20 Apr 1833.
Sydney Herald 22 Apr 1833.
Sydney Gazette 30 Apr 1833.

© Diane Oldman 2023