Final Journey
The schooner left York on 7 October 1804 at the insistence of autocratic Lieutenant-Governor Peter Hunter, despite the reluctance of the ship's captain, Lieutenant Thomas Paxton. Paxton, an experienced British Naval officer, was concerned about an incoming storm and the condition of the ship.
Although only six years old, Speedy suffered from extensive weakening of the hull from dry rot due to the timber used in her rushed construction. Two of Speedy's crew were required to constantly operate manual bilge pumps in order to keep her afloat for the journey. Under threat of court martial, Paxton departed. Almost immediately upon her launch, she ran aground in the harbour due to the heavy load she was carrying, resulting in a six hour delay.
After freeing herself, she sailed due east - this on the evening of October 7 - Speedy stopped briefly at Port Oshawa to pick up the Farewell brothers who were business partners of the murder victim and key witnesses for the prosecution, a handful of natives who were also to provide testimony. Interestingly the Farewell brothers refused to board the ship, expressing concern that it was already overloaded, crowded, and unsafe. They elected to accompany Speedy in a canoe.
Speedy and the canoe were separated as the storm deteriorated into blizzard conditions during the afternoon and evening of 8 October. The wind had turned and was blowing out of the north-east. By the morning of 9 October, the brothers managed to reach Newcastle's harbour, not so for the Speedy. Soon the schooner was sighted passing Presqu'ile Point at dusk on the 8th. The crew fired one of her cannons to signal her situation and position. In response; shoreline bonfires were lit ostensibly to guide her to safety.
Unfortunately, the schooner vanished on approach to the mouth of the bay. All that was found of the ship, her passengers, cargo, and six-man crew were a chicken coop and compass box. These washed up on the beach opposite the bay.
This inspired a great deal of speculation about her fate. Theories ranged from sabotage by parties wishing to prevent the establishment of new fledgling provincial capital of Newcastle, to those promoting a supernatural hypothesis - one of alien abduction ultimately - the ship having effectively been scooped off the face of the earth by parties unknown.
Read more about this topic: HMS Speedy (1798)
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