HMS Roebuck (1690) - Roebuck Is Lost On The Voyage Home

Roebuck Is Lost On The Voyage Home

Concerned at the state of his ship, and the apparent ineptitude of his carpenter in effecting repairs in March 1700 abandoned his plan to proceed further south to explore the eastern Australian coast, leaving these explorations to Lt James Cook RN well over half a century later. After travelling back into the Indian ocean Dampier headed off south in search of the elusive ‘Tryal Rocks’, scene of the loss of the English East India Company ship Tryal Trial in 1622, the first known European ship lost on the Australian coast. Being sick and unable to continue in the search, Roebuck headed to Batavia, the headquarters of the Dutch East India Company (VOC) and the centre of a vast trading network with links to China, Japan, India and Europe generally. After effecting repairs they left Batavia, arriving back at the Cape of Good Hope at the end of December. In mid January they left and after staying at St Helena till 13 February they proceeded to Ascension Island, which they sighted on 21 February 1701. While there the ship sprang a very serious leak four strakes from the keel which proved impossible to stem. When a sea breeze began to blow, they ran in toward the shore but were forced to anchor in 7 fathoms when the breeze died. After carrying a small anchor ashore on the night of 23 February the crew warped the vessel in till it grounded in three and a half fathoms of water. The crew then left the ship after saving some items including Dampier’s journals and some specimens. After finding a spring of fresh water inland they remained alive and after many privations they left on 8 April soon after four ships entered the Bay in which Roebuck lost and took them on board. In the process one vessel HMS Hastings elected to recover the anchor and cable, apparently the one used to warp Roebuck ashore. This proved successful, but a grappling anchor was lost. The ships then transported Dampier and his crew home where he published an account of the voyage entitled A Voyage to New Holland again to great acclaim. Though this further cemented his reputation as an explorer, at the inevitable court martial into the loss of his ship Dampier was roundly criticised for his treatment of Fisher, effectively destroying any further attempt at official patronage (See entry on Dampier). He later gave the plant collections he saved from the wreck to the Royal Society and they eventually found their way to the Fielding-Druce Herbarium at the Department of Plant Sciences at the University of Oxford.