Shipwreck.- Roberts (M., sergeant, 46th Regiment) Narrative of the Shipwreck of the "Royal Charlotte" in the Eastern Seas, manuscript, drophead title, 48pp. excluding blanks, browned, original straight-grained morocco, rubbed, spine crudely repaired with tape, 153 x 100mm., n.d. [c. 1825].
⁂ "At day-light in the Morning the breeze again increased... the Ship struck... on a reef of rocks with great violence, the sails were immediately thrown aback but without effect, she continued still on the Rocks, & at length fell down on her larboard beam ends, still continuing to strike violently while the water rushed rapidly into the hold... the roaring of the surf, the crashing of the Ship on the rocks, and the dismal cries of the Women and the Children who crowded on deck... added to the uncertainty of the fate that awaited us... ." - Roberts.
Royal Charlotte was a three-masted merchant ship launched in 1819. The vessel carried convicts to Australia in 1825. On her return she was engaged to take detachments of the 20th, 46th and 49th Regiments of Foot to India via Batavia. Royal Charlotte was shipwrecked on Frederick Reef in the Coral Sea Islands over 220 nautical miles northeast of Queensland, but most people survived.
Please Login or Register to request further information and images