Success

A wooden fullrigged ship built of teak in 1840 at Natmoo, Tenasserim [Moulmein?], Burma. Dimensions: 117'3"×26'8"×22'5" and tonnage: 621 tons. Equipped with two decks, forecastle and poop and had a square stern with single quarter galleries.

1840: Launched at Natmoo, Tenasserim [Moulmein?], Burma, for Cockerell & Co., Calcutta. Employed in the Indian country trade. [Bateson gives that she was built for Phillips, Shaw & Lowther, Exchange Bld, London]
1842: Sold to Frederick Mangus & Co., London. A female bust had taken the place of the original scroll figurehead. Employed in the Australian emmigrant trade.
1845: Sold to Wm. Phillips & Wm. H. Tiplady, London.
1847 September 29 - January 27: Sailed from Plymouth to Adelaide in 120 days with 245 emmigrants.
1852 January 29 - May 31: Sailed from Plymouth to Melbourne in 123 days with emmigrants. The crew subsequently deserted her for the goldfields while at anchor in Corio Bay, Geelong.
1852: Sold to the Victorian State Government, Melbourne, and her certificate of registry cancelled. Hulked and fitted with cells and used as a temporary gaol while the shore facilities were being built.
1857: Used as a reformatory ship for seamen.
1885: Sank in the Sydney harbour.
1891: Raised and sold to a syndicate which fitted out the ship as a convict hulk. Toured the Australian coast exhibiting the Success as the "convict ship".
1895 September 12: Arrived at Dungeness, 166 days out from The Semaphore, South Australia under command of Captain Allen.
1912: Re-rigged as a barquentine at the Glasson Dock. Sailed from Liverpool under command of Captain D.H. Smith to Boston, MA, where she arrived after a voyage of 98 days.
1918: Fitted out as a merchant ship and equipped with an oil engine. Sank off Carrollton due to ice damage.
1946 July 4: Burned at Lake Erie Cove, Cleveland, OH, while being dismantled for her teak.

References:

(Note.)
Sea Breezes Vol. VII (1924), p 111-112, ill.
(Note.)
Sea Breezes Vol. XI (1928), p 160.
(Note.)
Sea Breezes Vol. XII (1929), p 147.
(Note.)
Sea Breezes Vol. XII (1929), p 248.
(Note.)
Sea Breezes Vol. XIII (1929), p 120-121, ill.
(Note.)
Sea Breezes Vol. XIII (1929), p 182.
The Convict Ship Success. Catalogue.
c1930. 8vo, 24 pp.
The Famous Australian Convict Ship Success. Catalogue.
1891. 8vo, 16 pp.
The History of the Convict Ship Success, and Dramatic Story of Some of the Success Prisoners. A Vivid Fragment of Penal History.
c1912. 8vo, 150 pp.
"Sinbad": Convict Ship Success.
Sea Breezes Vol. 2 (1946), p 322-323.
Bateson, Charles: The Convict Ships 1787-1868.
Brown, Ferguson & Son, Glasgow, 1959, 8vo, 355 pp, ill.
Cuthbert, Henry: Commodore of the "Felon Fleet".
Sea Breezes Vol. 2 (1946), p 414-415, ill.
Felgate, T.M. & "F.A.B." & Garwood, A.W. & Woad, C.A. & "G.B.": Convict Ship Success.
Sea Breezes Vol. 2 (1946), p 469-470.
Harvie, Joseph C.: The History of the convict hulk Success and Success prisoners.
Petty, London, 1895. 8vo, 80 pp.
McNeill, C.: Cabin Boy in the Success.
Sea Breezes Vol. 3 (1947), p 73.
Wardle, Arthur C.: Official History of the "Convict" Ship.
Sea Breezes Vol. 3 (1947), p 73-74.
"HHB": An Age Competition.
Mariner's Mirror Vol. 6 (1920), p 218.

Updated 1998-11-20 by Lars Bruzelius

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