Arniston was a British East Indiaman that made eight voyages for the East India Company (EIC). She was wrecked on 30 May 1815 during a storm at Waenhuiskrans, near Cape Agulhas, South Africa, with the loss of 372 lives – only six on board survived. She had been chartered as a troopship and was underway from Ceylon to England on a journey to repatriate wounded soldiers from the Kandyan Wars.
Controversially, the ship did not have a marine chronometer on board, a comparatively new navigational instrument that was an "easy and cheap addition to her equipment" that would have enabled her to determine her longitude accurately. Instead, she was forced to navigate through the heavy storm and strong currents using older, less reliable navigational aids and dead reckoning. Navigational difficulties and a lack of headway led to an incorrect assumption that Cape Agulhas was Cape Point. Consequently, Arniston was wrecked when her captain headed north for St Helena, operating on the incorrect belief the ship had already passed Cape Point.
Overview East Indiamen operated under charter or licence to the Honourable East India Company, which held a monopoly granted by Queen Elizabeth I of England for all English trade between the Cape of Good Hope and Cape Horn. Arniston was built by William Barnard at Barnard's Thames Yard at Deptford on the Thames and launched in 1794.Mitchell 2007, tertiary sources. She was probably named after Lord Arniston rather than the tiny village of Arniston near Edinburgh.
Arniston was heavily armed, with her fifty-eight guns making her the equivalent of a Royal Navy fourth-rate ship of the line. A classification of "ship of the line" – a class of ship that later evolved into the battleship – meant that a ship was powerful enough to stand in a line of battle and explained why these ships of commerce were sometimes mistaken for men-o-war. The armament was necessary for the ship to protect herself and her valuable cargo from pirates and commerce raiders of other nations during long voyages between Europe and the Far East. Arniston, like other East Indiamen, was slow and unmanoeuvrable, but able to carry a large quantity of cargo.Port Cities UK, secondary sources
Voyages (1794–1812)
For her first five voyages she sailed under the ownership and management of John Wedderburn (probably John Wedderburn of Ballindean) and the next three EIC voyages under ownership of Robert Hudson.
Arniston sailed from Great Britain to the Far East eight times before her last voyage.BL 1812, primary sources. On one of her homeward journeys from China, she struck an uncharted rock at , near the island of Pulo Goondy (modern day Pulau Legundi), located just south of Sumatra. She did not suffer any ill effects as a result of this incident however, which is mentioned in journals of the time only for its noteworthiness as a navigation hazard to other shipping.
Apart from this and another incident in 1800, Arnistons first eight voyages were uneventful.
Voyage number 1: St Helena, Madras, and China (1795–1797) Captain Campbell Marjoribanks: 3 April 1795: Portsmouth 14 April: Tenerife 2 June: St Helena 9 August: Cape of Good Hope 27 September: Madras 14 November: Penang 3 December: Malacca 11 March 1796: Whampoa 23 April: Second Bar 29 June: Macau 20 November: St Helena 1 March 1797: Deptford
While Arniston was at St Helena on her outward journey, she undertook to transport troops from there to join Lord Elphinstone, who was undertaking an expedition to capture Cape Colony from the Dutch. On 10 July George Vancouver arrived in . Vancouver was returning to England after his four-and-a-half-year long voyage of exploration. He transferred to Arniston four field guns that he had been carrying, together with what ammunition he had left for them, for onward transmission to Elphinstone. Discoverys boats also helped in the ferrying of troops from shore to Arniston.Vancouver (1798), Vol. 3, p.476.
Arniston was to ferry nine field pieces, as well as a company of artillery and three of infantry (393 men in all), to Elphinstone.Hardy (1835), p.163.
Voyage number 2: China (1797–1798) On this voyage Arniston sailed under a letter of marque in the name of Captain William Macnamara, and dated 13 May 1797. Her itinerary was: 5 June 1797: Portsmouth 29 August: Cape of Good Hope 9 December: Whampoa 14 February 1798: Second Bar 26 March: Macau 5 August: St Helena 23 October: Long Reach
Voyage number 3: St Helena, Benkulen, and China (1800–1801) On this voyage Arniston sailed under a letter of marque in the name of Captain Campbell Marjoribanks, and dated 29 November 1799. Her itinerary was: 7 January 1800: Portsmouth 4 April: St Helena 27 June: Benkulen 29 July: Penang 27 August: Malacca 21 September: Whampoa 29 November: Second Bar 18 January 1801: Macau 15 April: St Helena 17 June: Long Reach
During this voyage Arniston had just anchored at Benkulen on 27 June 1800, when the 26-gun French privateer Confiance attacked her. Arniston cut her anchor and gave chase, firing several broadsides into the other ship, but the faster French ship was able to make an escape.Lindsay 1874, primary sources. On 9 October 1800, the East Indiaman Kent would be less fortunate; Confiance would capture Kent after a two-hour engagement.James, 1837, primary sources.
Voyage number 4: St Helena, Benkulen, and China (1801–1803) Captain Campbell Marjoribanks: 31 December 1801: Downs 9 March 1802: St Helena 10 June: Benkulen 12 July: Penang 31 August: Whampoa 24 October: Second Bar 11 February 1803: St Helena 26 April: Long Reach
Voyage number 5: China (1804–1805) On this voyage Arniston sailed under a letter of marque in the name of Captain James Jameson, and dated 24 March 1804. Her itinerary was:
On 9 June 1804, Arniston left St Helens, Isle of Wight, as part of a convoy of nine East Indiamen of the British East India Company, all bound for China. The Indiamen were , , Cuffnells, , , , , and . provided the escort.Evans: Finding my ancestors: Voyage of the Athenienne to China in 1804/1805.
The fleet arrived at Rio de Janeiro around 14–18 August. It then passed the Cape of Good Hope. From here, rather than passing through the Indian Ocean and the Straits of Malacca, the fleet sailed south of Western Australia and through Bass Strait. The objectives were two-fold: to avoid French ships reported to be in the Indian Ocean, and to improve the charting of Bass Strait.Lee (2003).
The ships then sailed to Norfolk Island, which was the next rendezvous point after Saint Paul Island, for members that had separated. Taunton Castle had separated in the South Atlantic and although she arrived at Norfolk Island three days after the fleet had sailed on, did not rejoin the rest of the fleet until she arrived at Haerlem Bay, in China.
The arrival of Athenienne and the East Indiamen at Norfolk Island sowed panic among the colonists there who feared that a French flotilla had arrived.
The fleet arrived at Whampoa in mid-January 1805. The fleet then returned to England via the Straits of Malacca. Arniston, for example, crossed the second Bar on 14 February, reached Malacca on 21 March and St Helena on 30 June, and arrived at Long Reach on 15 September.
Voyage number 6: China (1806–1807) On this voyage Arniston sailed under a letter of marque in the name of Captain Peter Wedderburn dated 20 March 1806. Her itinerary was: 14 May 1806: Portsmouth 7 August: Cape of Good Hope 10 October: Penang 21 January 1807: Whampoa 4 May: off Lintin Island 1 July: Penang 17 July: Acheh 19 September: Cape of Good Hope 13 October: St Helena 6 January 1808: Lower Hope
Voyage number 7: Bombay and China (1810–1811) Captain Samuel Landon: 21 January 1810: Portsmouth 9 April: Cape of Good Hope 26 May: Bombay 1 September: Penang 12 October: Whampoa 29 December: Second Bar 28 May 1811: St Helena 13 August: Long Reach
Voyage number 8: Bombay and China (1812–1813) On this voyage Arniston sailed under a letter of marque in the name of Captain Walter Campbell. Her itinerary was: 4 January 1812: Torbay 5 April: Johanna 7 May: Bombay 11 September: Whampoa 4 January 1813: Macau 27 March: St Helena 7 June: Long Reach
The British government then chartered Arniston as a troop transport to the Cape and India.
Voyage number 9: Madeira, Cape, and Ceylon (1814–1815) Captain George Simpson left England on 8 June 1814. At Ceylon, Arniston embarked soldiers of the 73rd Regiment, who were wounded in the Kandyan Wars in Ceylon, to repatriate them to England.
Wreck (1815)
Critically, the ship did not have a chronometer—a comparatively new navigational instrument that was an "easy and cheap addition to her equipment" at the time—for this voyage. Captain George Simpson could not afford the 60–100 guineas for one,Hall 1820, primary sources. and the ship's owners were also unwilling to purchase one, even threatening to replace him with another captain if he refused to set sail without one.Hall 1833, primary sources.
Arniston sailed from Port de Galle on 4 April 1815 in a convoy of six other East Indiamen, under the escort of HMS Africaine and .Grocott 1997, primary sources Among her 378 passengers were many invalid soldiers and sailors, plus 14 women and 25 children.
During the passage from Ceylon, at one o'clock every day, the ships signalled each other their longitude that they calculated using their chronometers. In this way, the ships were able to compare their respective instruments, and the master of the Arniston was able to learn his longitude too, as long as he remained in the convoy.
On 26 May, while rounding the southern tip of Africa, Arniston separated from the convoy in bad weather after her sails were damaged. Without accurate daily longitudinal information from the other ships, Arniston had to rely instead on older, less accurate navigation methods. Navigation via dead reckoning proved particularly difficult as there were strong ocean currents combined with inclement weather that prevented a fix being obtained for several days via celestial navigation.
On 29 May, land was sighted to the north at 7 am, and given the dead reckoning estimates, was presumed to be the Cape of Good Hope. The ship sailed west until 4:30 pm on 29 May, then turned north to run for St Helena. However the land sighted had in fact been Cape Agulhas (then known as "Cape L'Agullas") and the ship had also not made good headway against the current since this sighting. Compounding these navigational errors, the master had not taken any depth soundings (which would have confirmed his location over the Agulhas Bank), before heading north. Consequently, instead of being west of the Cape of Good Hope as presumed, the ship was closing on the reef at Waenhuiskrans near Cape Agulhas. The anchors were unable to hold the heavy ship in the storm, so on 30 May near 4 pm, Lieutenant Brice advised Captain Simpson to ground the ship to save the lives of those aboard. Eight minutes later, at about 8 pm, the ship struck rocks half a mile offshore and heeled into the wind. The guns on the opposite side were cut away in a failed attempt to level the ship, which soon started to break up in the waves.AJ 1816, primary sources.
Only six men (the ship's carpenter and five sailors of the 378 people on board survived, after reaching the shore only with great difficulty through the high surf. The following morning the sternpost was the only part of the vessel still visible. The ship and her passengers had been lost for lack of a chronometer, or as an officer from the same convoy later wrote:
Aftermath