Australian National Maritime Museum finds Royal Charlotte shipwreck

An Australian National Maritime Museum expedition currently taking place on the Coral Sea has located the remains of the India-bound ship Royal Charlotte, wrecked in 1825.

Led by museum curator and maritime archaeologist Kieran Hosty, the 24 divers and observers set out from Gladstone, Queensland, on 4 January to look for the ship’s final resting place. The 471-ton, wooden, three-masted Royal Charlotte was en route to India with a contingent of troops when it ran aground in June 1825 on the inaccurately charted Frederick Reef, approximately 450 km off the Queensland coast, during a gale.

Built in India, the ship reflects aspects of Australia’s strong colonial links with Asia. On running aground, most of the Royal Charlotte’s crew, the soldiers and their families moved to a small cay (Observatory Cay) which was partially submerged at high tide. They used timber and cargo from the wreck to build up the sand cay and to repair their boat, which was soon dispatched to Moreton Bay for help.

The survivors huddled for six weeks on the sand cay and the wreck of the Royal Charlotte, perched high and almost dry on the reef just ¾ mile south-west of the cay, with water and provisions salvaged from the ship. They were finally rescued by the government brig Amity on 1 August 1825.

Just two days out of Gladstone the museum team, hauling magnetometers (submersible metal detectors) from small boats, located a site ‘of interest’ and found timber, a gudgeon and pintle (rudder fittings) which appeared to be from the wreck.  In the subsequent days they located copper fastenings, an anchor chain, anchor and cannon that confirmed they had found the Royal Charlotte. 

“We are elated,” Hosty says. “Very few Indian-built ships have been identified and surveyed and there has been much excitement in the expedition team.

“Locating the remains of the Royal Charlotte provides us with interesting historical detail and information on convict and troop transportation in the 19th century.”

Mary-Louise Williams, museum Director said, “Congratulations to Kieran Hosty and the team. The Australian National Maritime Museum is proud that its maritime archeology program is helping to survey, excavate, interpret and preserve our underwater cultural heritage sites.”

The Australian National Maritime Museum has three curator/maritime archaeologists and a shipwright, who is also an expert diver. All four are taking part in the Royal Charlotte project.  

The 18-day expedition, which is operating from the Gladstone-based vessel MV Kanimbla and Silentworld II, is mounted by the Australian National Maritime Museum in collaboration with Silentworld Foundation*, part of Silentworld Ltd, an Australian shipping company that operates in the South Pacific and the Caribbean. 

This is the same dive team that in January 2009, located and identified the government schooner Mermaid wrecked in 1829, 20 km south of Cairns. 

The expedition is part of an Australian Research Council project, a joint project between the Australian National Maritime Museum, the Silentworld Foundation and Sydney University.

* The Silentworld Foundation is a not-for-profit Foundation established to further Australian maritime archaeology and research, and to improve Australia’s knowledge of its early maritime history.