Arniston was an East Indiaman that made eight voyages for the British East India Company (EIC). She was wrecked on 30 May 1815 during a storm at Waenhuiskrans, near Cape Agulhas, South Africa, with the loss of 372 lives – only six on board survived. She had been chartered as a troopship and was underway from Ceylon to England on a journey to repatriate wounded soldiers from the Kandyan Wars.
Controversially, the ship did not have a marine chronometer on board, a comparatively new navigational instrument that was an "easy and cheap addition to her equipment" that would have enabled her to determine her longitude accurately. Instead, she was forced to navigate through the heavy storm and strong currents using older, less reliable navigational aids and dead reckoning. Navigational difficulties and a lack of headway led to an incorrect assumption that Cape Agulhas was Cape Point. Consequently, Arniston was wrecked when her captain headed north for St Helena, operating on the incorrect belief the ship had already passed Cape Point.
Overview
East Indiamen operated under charter or licence to the Honourable East India Company, which held a monopoly granted by Queen Elizabeth I of England for all English trade between the Cape of Good Hope and Cape Horn. Arniston was built by William Barnard at Barnard's Thames Yard at Deptford on the Thames and launched in 1794. She was probably named after Lord Arniston rather than the tiny village of Arniston near Edinburgh.
Arniston was heavily armed, with her fifty-eight guns making her the equivalent of a Royal Navy fourth-rate ship of the line. A classification of "ship of the line" – a class of ship that later evolved into the battleship – meant that a ship was powerful enough to stand in a line of battle and explained why these ships of commerce were sometimes mistaken for men-o-war. The armament was necessary for the ship to protect herself and her valuable cargo from pirates and commerce raiders of other nations during long voyages between Europe and the Far East. Arniston, like other East Indiamen, was slow and unmanoeuvrable, but able to carry a large quantity of cargo.
Voyages (1794–1812)
For her first five voyages she sailed under the ownership and management of John Wedderburn (probably John Wedderburn of Ballindean) and the next three EIC voyages under ownership of Robert Hudson.
Arniston sailed from Great Britain to the Far East eight times before her last voyage. On one of her homeward journeys from China, she struck an uncharted rock at , near the island of Pulo Goondy (modern day Pulau Legundi), located just south of Sumatra. She did not suffer any ill effects as a result of this incident however, which is mentioned in journals of the time only for its noteworthiness as a navigation hazard to other shipping.
Apart from this and another incident in 1800, Arnistons first eight voyages were uneventful.
Voyage number 1: St Helena, Madras, and China (1795–1797) Captain Campbell Marjoribanks: 3 April 1795: Portsmouth 14 April: Tenerife 2 June: St Helena 9 August: Cape of Good Hope 27 September: Madras 14 November: Penang 3 December: Malacca 11 March 1796: Whampoa 23 April: Second Bar 29 June: Macau 20 November: St Helena 1 March 1797: Deptford
While Arniston was at St Helena on her outward journey, she undertook to transport troops from there to join Lord Elphinstone, who was undertaking an expedition to capture Cape Colony from the Dutch. On 10 July George Vancouver arrived in . Vancouver was returning to England after his four-and-a-half-year long voyage of exploration. He transferred to Arniston four field guns that he had been carrying, together with what ammunition he had left for them, for onward transmission to Elphinstone. Discoverys boats also helped in the ferrying of troops from shore to Arniston.
Arniston was to ferry nine field pieces, as well as a company of artillery and three of infantry (393 men in all), to Elphinstone.
Voyage number 2: China (1797–1798) On this voyage Arniston sailed under a letter of marque in the name of Captain William Macnamara, and dated 13 May 1797. Her itinerary was: 5 June 1797: Portsmouth 29 August: Cape of Good Hope 9 December: Whampoa 14 February 1798: Second Bar 26 March: Macau 5 August: St Helena 23 October: Long Reach
Voyage number 3: St Helena, Benkulen, and China (1800–1801) On this voyage Arniston sailed under a letter of marque in the name of Captain Campbell Marjoribanks, and dated 29 November 1799. Her itinerary was: 7 January 1800: Portsmouth 4 April: St Helena 27 June: Benkulen 29 July: Penang 27 August: Malacca 21 September: Whampoa 29 November: Second Bar 18 January 1801: Macau 15 April: St Helena 17 June: Long Reach