What was the fate of the "JAVA" after it left Adelaide ?

From what the author can discern from the various copies of Lloyds Registers held at the State Library of South Australia, the "JAVA" had a 25 year history after its ignominious voyage to South Australia trading between London and many other ports and then a further sixty five year history as a coal hulk. The year after it came to South Australia, the "JAVA" was sold to Joseph Somes and was to return a number of times to Australia as a troop ship, carrying troops both to New South Wales and to New Zealand. Its last such journey to Sydney appears to be in 1856. Several sources give the charter rate as being seventeen shillings and eleven pence per ton per month.

In a paper, "An Old East Indiaman", supplied by the editor of ‘Sea Breezes” for which I can find no citation, H. Fildes gives an example of one of the troop carrying voyages of the "JAVA". Fildes tells us that the "JAVA", with Captain J. Parsons, left London bound for Gibraltar with troops and stores on December 19th 1841. It arrived at Gibraltar on New Year's Day, 1842. The ship then left for Barbados with the 46th Regiment, stayed there for a month and took on board the 81st Regiment for St Johns , New Brunswick and from there conveyed the 36th Regiment to Cork. Continuing a regular shuffling around of troops, the "JAVA" took from Cork the 20th Regiment to Bermuda and then took the 60th Regiment from Bermuda to Halifax, there taking on board the 69th taking these troops to Cork. From Cork some troops were then embarked to Portsmouth, where the "JAVA " was refitted and on the 16th November the 2nd Battalion , 12th Regiment were taken on board to the Cape Province. I have deleted any further reference to troop movements on this voyage -- there were more, but suffice to say that she was well used. On 18th May 1846 "JAVA" left Woolwich with the headquarters staff of the 65th Regiment of Foot, arrived in Sydney on the 15th October and then was rechartered to take the 65th to New Zealand According to an article published in ""'Sea Breezes'( in 1939) the Java carried between 700 and 800 troops out from England to Hobart, where they arrived on the 8th October, 1846, making the passage in 138 days. She went onto Sydney, where the troops disembarked for health and exercise reasons, and after a couple of weeks she re-embarked them with an addition of five officers and 122 more men.

Hugh and Lyn Hughes in their recent "Discharged in New Zealand" , stated that 900 troops were taken on board and she sailed on 8th November. Two companies left the ship at the Bay of Islands and the rest disembarked at Auckland on November 27th, 1846.
In 1854 "JAVA" visited Victorian and New South Wales ports. The "Argus" and "The Australian and New Zealand Gazette" recorded that "JAVA" was in Hobson's Bay (Victoria) from February 17th 1854 and that it sailed for Bombay on April 12th. It had arrived from London with one first class passenger and 73 steerage passengers and general merchandise. The master is recorded as being J.Robertson.

We learn from an examination of "Lloyds Register" for 1854 that the ship had been repaired (felt and doubled in 1836, and felt and clad with yellow metal) in 1853. Again in 1850 it had minor repairs reported.

Another author, in an unsigned article with the title "What is in a name ", suggested that "JAVA" had called into Sydney previously in 1833 carrying 201 convicts from Cork (Ireland). However I believe he must have mistaken this "JAVA 'for another with the same name but smaller tonnage. In fact Bateson, in his definitive work, "The Convict Ships", indicated that on 18th November 1833, a ship with the name "JAVA", built in Calcutta, but of only 411 tons, landed 201 male convicts, having lost 5 males who died on the voyage.

I have accepted that sometime around 1854-5 Somes sold” JAVA" to Mr. John Hall of London who in 1857 sold it to Mr. Smith of Gibraltar and it eventually left the Lloyds Register in 1865

Basil Lubbock, in his "THE BLACKWALL FRIGATES" said of perhaps the most famous of the owners of the "JAVA", Mr. Joseph Somes that it was

"personalities rather than companies that swayed the destinies of British shipping." He said that the "old ship owners ruled their firms like autocrats, and built up the British Mercantile Marine just as the great Empire builders built up the British Empire." He said "that with the demise of the Old John Company these men found their opportunity and one of the first was Joseph Somes. Somes had begun his career as an India husband, but with his enterprise it was not before long that he had ships trading to every part of the world. He was well known for the number of ships taken up for various purposes by the Government. Many of his ships were hired for the transport of convicts.

His house-flag, which only differed from the White Ensign in having an anchor instead of the Union Jack in the canton, is supposed to have been granted to him as a reward for his many services to the Government in time of need. [Winchester in Shipping Wonders Of The World said that the Admiralty granted the anchor in recognition of some piece of meritorious service during one of the Indian Wars in connection with the transport of elephants.] When the Honourable East India Company sold it's fleet, Joseph Somes bought some of its finest ships such as the "Earl of Balcarres", "Thomas Coutts", "Abercrombie Robinson", "Lowther Castle", "George the Fourth”, and "JAVA". Lubbock went on to quote Lieut. Coates' tour of the "JAVA" in the '90s. He noted also that "Joseph Somes was one of the promoters of Lloyd's Register of Shipping and that in his old age he was partnered by his sons and that the firm, at his death had the name 'Merchant Shipping Company'."

Chapters: Contents • Introduction • The ship JAVA • Migration to South Australia • JAVA leaves London • Crossing the line • Arrival in South Australia • Medical board of enquiry • Other ships had great loss of children's lives • JAVA after 1840 • Appendices • Timeline