page_title: Lucy Ann (1810 ship)
section_title: Deep-sea whaling
hierarchical_section_title: Lucy Ann (1810 ship) / Whaling and trading / Deep-sea whaling
caption_attribution_description: Français&#160;: Entrée de la Baie des Îles. Atlas pittoresque, planche 182English: Entrance to the Bay of Islands, circa 1840. Atlas pittoresque, planche 182
context_page_description: Lucy Ann was built in Canada early in the 19th century and was brought to Australia in 1827. She was first employed as a trading vessel before purchase by the New South Wales government in 1828. In government service the ship was used to help establish a number of new coastal settlements. She was also used to transport descendants of the Bounty mutineers from Pitcairn Island to Tahiti in 1830.
  Sold out of government service in 1831, Lucy Ann served as a trading vessel and support ship for whaling stations in New Zealand. She was then converted into a pelagic whaler and in that role made 11 deep-sea whaling voyages from Sydney between 1835 and 1852. One of the crewmen who served aboard, in 1842, was American seaman Herman Melville, who later wrote about his time aboard. The vessel was taken to Melbourne in the 1850s, and ended her days there as a storage hulk in the Yarra River.
context_section_description: Late in 1835 the Weller brothers decided to send the vessel sperm whaling. Lucy Ann was modified for pelagic whaling and departed Sydney under the command of Captain Thomas Richards in mid December 1835. The vessel cruised off New Zealand and called several times at the Bay of Islands for food, wood and water. She returned to Sydney on 13 April 1837 with 75 tuns of sperm whale oil.
  Her second dedicated whaling voyage, again under Captain Richards, began in mid June 1837 and ended 11 months later when she returned to Sydney having taken 500 barrels of right whale oil and 300 of sperm whale oil. It seems the "black" oil was landed at Otago in October 1837, for transhipment to Sydney, after which she went sperm whaling.
  Her third voyage began 8 July 1838 under a new master, Captain Charles Aldrich. The voyage lasted 15 months during which time she was reported among the Solomon Islands and at Tahiti. She visited Lord Howe Island in September just before returning to Port Jackson on 13 October 1839 with a reported 800 barrels of sperm whale oil.
  Under Captain Aldrich, she next made a brief three-month voyage, departing 24 November, to New Zealand to collect oil from the Weller brother's whaling establishment at Otago. She returned 10 February 1840 with 700 barrels worth of right whale oil and a 22-man whaling gang and other passengers.
  Her fourth pelagic whaling voyage began, under Captain Aldrich, in mid May 1840. She was reported off Woodlark Island late that year and at Port Stephens, in August 1841, in a very leaky state. She returned to Port Jackson 11 August with just 260 barrels of sperm whale oil. Back in Sydney the vessel received considerable repairs and was put up for sale. Her new owners sent her on another whaling voyage, under the command of Henry Ventom.
  Lucy Ann departed Sydney 14 February 1842, equipped with four whaleboats, and with a crew of about 30 men. She was at Lord Howe Island late in February and was reported on the equator by late June. On 7 July 1842 she arrived at Santa Christina in the Marquesas Islands for fresh provisions, wood and water. While here nine crewmen deserted and another eight were put in irons for “mutinous conduct.” By 8 August the vessel was at Nuku Hiva in the Marquesas where a more crewmen deserted. A few replacements were found on the island, one of them an American seaman, Herman Melville. Melville would later describe the vessel in his book Omoo as,
  ... a small slatternly looking craft, her hull and spars a dingy black, rigging all slack and bleached nearly white, and every thing denoting an ill state of affairs aboard. The four boats hanging from her sides proclaimed her a whaler ... [she was in] a miserable plight. The lower masts were said to be unsound; the standing rigging was much worn; and, in some places, even the bulwarks were quite rotten ... All over, the ship was in a most dilapidated condition, but in the forecastle it looked like the hollow of an old tree going to decay. In every direction the wood was damp and discoloured, and here and there soft and porus. Moreover, it was hacked and hewed without mercy, the cook frequently helping himself to splinters for kindling-wood from the bitts and beams. Overhead, every carline was sooty, and here and there deep holes were burned in them, a freak of some drunken sailors on a voyage long previous.
  The vessel called at Tahiti in September 1842 where eleven crewmen, including Melville, were put ashore for refusing to obey orders. Lucy Ann returned to Sydney on 20 May 1843 with just 250 barrels of sperm whale oil.
  Lucy Ann departed on her next voyage 25 June 1843 under the command of Captain Richard Lee. She touched at Norfolk Island in February 1843 and was reported off Lord Howe Island in March. She was at Port Stephens on the coast of New South Wales in May and in August at Port Cooper (Lyttelton) New Zealand. She returned to Sydney 26 September 1844 with 614 barrels of oil. The vessel was purchased in January 1845 by high-profile entrepreneur Benjamin Boyd who again sent her whaling.
  Her commander on this voyage was 
caption: The Bay of Islands c.1840
exif: {}