View source for HMS Providence (1791)

{{short description|Sloop of the Royal Navy}}
{{Other ships|HMS Providence}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2017}}
{{Use British English|date=January 2017}}
{|{{Infobox ship begin}}
{{Infobox ship image
|Ship image=PROVIDENCE 1791 RMG J2025.jpg
|Ship caption=''Providence''
}}
{{Infobox ship career
|Hide header=
|Ship country=Great Britain
|Ship flag=[[File:Naval Ensign of Great Britain (1707-1800).svg|60px|Royal Navy Ensign]]
|Ship name=HMS ''Providence''
|Ship ordered=
|Ship builder=Perry & Co, [[Blackwall Yard]]
|Ship laid down=
|Ship launched=23 April 1791
|Ship acquired=February 1791
|Ship commissioned=April 1791
|Ship decommissioned=
|Ship in service=
|Ship out of service=
|Ship renamed=
|Ship struck=
|Ship reinstated=
|Ship honours=
|Ship captured=
|Ship fate=Wrecked 16 May 1797<ref name=Crosley>{{cite web|last1=Crosley|first1=John|title=Ship's Log|url=http://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/MS-RGO-00014-00067/343|website=Cambridge Digital Library|publisher=Cambridge University Library|accessdate=15 April 2015}}</ref>
|Ship notes=
}}
{{Infobox ship characteristics
|Hide header=
|Header caption=
|Ship class=[[Sloop-of-war]]
|Ship tons burthen=406 ([[Builder's Old Measurement|bm]])
|Ship length=*{{convert|107|ft|10|in|m|1|abbr=on}} (overall)
*{{convert|89|ft|6|in|m|1|abbr=on}} (keel)
|Ship beam={{convert|29|ft|1|in|m|1|abbr=on}}
|Ship draught=*{{convert|7|ft|8|in|m|abbr=on}} (standard)
*{{convert|10|ft|m|abbr=on}} (deep) 
|Ship hold depth={{convert|12|ft|3|in|m|abbr=on}}
|Ship sail plan=[[Full-rigged ship]]
|Ship complement=100
|Ship armament=*10 × 4-pounder guns (increased to 18 × 4-pounder guns in 1797)
*14 × ½-pounder [[swivel gun]]s
|Ship notes=
}}
|}

'''HMS ''Providence''''' was a [[sloop-of-war|sloop]] of the [[Royal Navy]], famous for being commanded by [[William Bligh]] on his second [[breadfruit]] voyage between 1791 and 1794.

==Construction and commissioning==
The [[Admiralty (United Kingdom)|Admiralty]] purchased ''Providence'' on the stocks from Perry & Co, [[Blackwall Yard]] in February 1791. She was launched on 23 April 1791 and commissioned under Bligh that month. She was [[copper sheathing|coppered]] at [[Woolwich]] for the sum of £1,267, and then again at [[Deptford]] for £3,981.

==Second Breadfruit Voyage==
Rated as a [[sixth rate]], ''Providence'' sailed for the Pacific on 2 August 1791 on Bligh's [[Second Breadfruit Voyage]].  Bligh completed a mission to collect [[breadfruit]] trees and other botanical specimens from the Pacific, which he transported to the [[West Indies]]. Specimens were given to the [[Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Botanic Gardens]].  ''Providence'' returned to Britain in August 1793, having been re-rated as a sloop on 30 September 1793.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.fatefulvoyage.com/providence.html |title=The Voyage of the Providence and Assistant 1791-1793 |work=Fateful Voyage |access-date=14 July 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160314160005/http://fatefulvoyage.com/providence.html |archive-date=14 March 2016}}</ref> 
Serving as midshipman on board was [[Matthew Flinders]]. Then a teenager, later in his career as a captain, Flinders would determine that Van Diemen’s Land (Tasmania) was an island, would be the first to circumnavigate Australia, and be the first to call it Australia. This voyage was Flinders' first direct association with the island continent.
In [[Adventure Bay, Tasmania]], third lieutenant [[George Tobin (sailor)|George Tobin]] made the first European drawing of an [[echidna]].<ref name="Tobin">{{cite web |title=George Tobin journal and sketches on HMS Providence, 1791-1793, with additional material to 1831 |url=http://archival.sl.nsw.gov.au/Details/archive/110327638 |website=State Library - New South Wales |access-date=4 December 2020 |language=en}}</ref>

==Vancouver Expedition==
''Providence'' underwent another refit at Woolwich and was recommissioned in October 1793 under the command of Commander [[William Robert Broughton]]. Broughton was ordered to rejoin the [[Vancouver Expedition]].

''Providence'' was at [[Plymouth]] on 20 January 1795 and so shared in the proceeds of the detention of the Dutch naval vessels, [[East Indiamen]], and other merchant vessels that were in port on the outbreak of war between Britain and the Netherlands.<ref>{{London Gazette|date=15 September 1801|issue=15407|page=1145}}</ref>

''Providence'' departed Britain on 15 February 1795. Reaching Monterrey long after the expedition made its final departure, Broughton  decided (correctly) that Vancouver would not have left his surveying task unfinished and departed to chart the coast of east Asia.<ref>
{{Citation
 | last=Broughton |first= William Robert
 | author-link = William Robert Broughton
 | title=A voyage of discovery to the north Pacific Ocean : in which the coastal Asia, ... Japan ... as well as the coast of Corea have been examined and surveyed, performed in His Majesty's Sloop Providence and her tender in the years 1795, 1796, 1797, 1798
 | publication-date=1804 
 | publisher=T. Cadell and W. Davies 
 | url=http://pds.lib.harvard.edu/pds/view/12329001
 |ol=24159440M
 | accessdate=20 January 2012 }}
</ref>

In the course of his explorations, he named [[Caroline Island]]
''Carolina'' (which later became "[[Caroline Islands|Caroline]]") "in compliment to the daughter of [[Sir Philip Stephens, 1st Baronet|Sir Philip Stephens]] of the [[Admiralty (United Kingdom)|Admiralty]]."<ref name="ARB">{{cite journal | first = A.K. | last = Kepler | author2 = C.B. Kepler | date = February 1994 | title = The natural history of the Caroline Atoll, Southern Line Islands | journal = Atoll Research Bulletin | volume = 397–398 | url = http://www.botany.hawaii.edu/faculty/duffy/arb/397-398/ | url-status = dead | archiveurl = https://web.archive.org/web/20060909154919/http://www.botany.hawaii.edu/faculty/duffy/arb/397-398/ | archivedate = 9 September 2006 | df = dmy-all }}</ref> This name superseded that given by [[Pedro Fernández de Quirós]], a [[Portugal|Portuguese]] explorer sailing on behalf of [[Spanish Empire|Spain]]; his account names the island "San Bernardo."<ref name="ARB"/>

''Providence'' voyaged to [[Asia]] as the crew surveyed the coast of [[Hokkaidō]] [[Muroran]] before wintering at [[Macau]] in August 1796. There Broughton purchased a small [[schooner]], which proved providential when on 16 May 1797 ''Providence'' was wrecked when she struck a [[coral reef]] at the northwestern tip of [[Yabiji]], a reef group in the [[Miyako Islands]]  north of [[Miyako-jima]] and south of [[Okinawa Island|Okinawa]], flooded from the bottom, and sank.<ref name = Crosley/><ref name=miyakojimakidsnet>{{cite web | title = 八重干瀬（やびじ）・ 宮古島の八重干瀬サンゴ礁 | publisher = 宮古島キッズ ネット | url = http://miyakojima-kids.net/yabiji.html | accessdate = January 27, 2019}} ("'Yabiji, Miyakojima's Yabiji Coral Reef.' Miyakojima Kids Net. Retrieved January 27, 2019") (in Japanese)</ref><ref name=providencekidsnet>{{cite web | title = プロビデンス号| publisher = 宮古島キッズネット| url = http://miyakojima-kids.net/R-providence.html| accessdate = January 27, 2019}} ("'Providence.' Miyakojima Kids Net. Retrieved January 27, 2019.") (in Japanese)</ref><ref name=underwater24>{{cite web| title = 水中考古学 其の二十四 八重干瀬沖海底遺跡群第1地点 『プロビデンス号』の座礁地 | author1 = 山本遊児| author2 = 片桐千亜紀| publisher = Diver Online| url = https://www.diver-online.com/column/detail/id/6134/| accessdate = January 27, 2019}} ("'Underwater Archeology Part 24: The 1st site of the underwater ruins off Yaehize, the grounding site of the Providence.' Diver Online. Retrieved January 27, 2019.") (in Japanese)") (in Japanese)</ref> The wreck is described by the ship's [[astronomer]] [[John Crosley (astronomer)|John Crosley]] in a passage copied from the ship's [[Logbook (nautical)|log book]].<ref name = Crosley/>  Broughton and his crew continued the mission in the schooner, exploring northeast Asia, and returned home in February 1799.<ref>{{cite book |url=http://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/MS-RGO-00014-00068/293 |title=Correspondence and related papers regarding observations made on voyages of discovery (RGO 14/68) |first=Emma |last=Saunders |first2=Robert |last2=Steiner |first3=Eóin |last3=Phillips |last4=Crosley |first4=John |last5=Broughton |first5=William |author5-link=William Broughton (explorer) |last6=Chapman |first6=William |author6-link=William Chapman (engineer) |last7=Hayward |first7=John |last8=Arnold |first8=John |author8-link=John Arnold (watchmaker) |last9=Earnshaw |first9=Thomas |author9-link=Thomas Earnshaw |page=293 |via=[[Cambridge Digital Library]] |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |volume=1 |year=1787}}</ref>

After the wreck, [[Western world|Western]] [[nautical chart]]s began to refer to Yabiji as "Providence Reef."<ref name=miyakojimakidsnet/><ref name=providencekidsnet/><ref name=underwater24/>

==Wreck==

In 2008, a diving survey conducted by the Okinawa Prefectural Buried Cultural Properties Center found the remains of a foreign ship, believed to those of ''Providence'', in Yabiji. [[Iron]] [[ingot]]s believed to be cargo or belongings of ''Providence''′s crew, [[ceramics]] from [[China]] and [[Europe]], glass bottles, and glass beads have been discovered at the [[shipwreck]] site.<ref name=miyakojimakidsnet/><ref name=providencekidsnet/><ref name=underwater24/>

==See also==
* [[European and American voyages of scientific exploration]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Bibliography==
* {{Cite Colledge2006}}
* [[Rif Winfield|Winfield, Rif]], ''British Warships of the Age of Sail 1714&ndash;1792: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates'', pub Seaforth, 2007, {{ISBN|1-86176-295-X}}

==External links==
* {{Commons category-inline|HMS Providence (ship, 1791)}}

{{coord missing|Pacific Ocean}}

{{1797 shipwrecks}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Providence}}
[[Category:1791 ships]]
[[Category:Sloops of the Royal Navy]]
[[Category:Ships built by the Blackwall Yard]]
[[Category:Shipwrecks of Japan]]
[[Category:Shipwrecks in the East China Sea]]
[[Category:Maritime incidents in 1797]]