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Ship’s log of mutiny sells for £117,000
A LONG-LOST ship’s log which provides a grim reminder of mutiny on the high seas and the hardships suffered by Irish convicts transported to Botany Bay has fetched £117,250 at auction.
The battered and water-stained document reveals the aftermath of a mutiny on the 654-ton Marquis Cornwallis —which set sail from Cork with 244 Irish men and women prisoners on August 9, 1795 and eventually arrived in New South Wales on February 11, 1796.
The revolt a month out of Cork was inspired by the mutiny on Lieutenant William Bligh’s Bounty six years earlier.
The previously unknown log went under the hammer at Christie’s in London last week together with two charts tracking the voyage and a contemporary painting of the Marquis Cornwallis.
The mutiny was quelled by the ship’s Irish captain Michael Hogan after an informer gave him early warning.
Hogan and his officers killed seven of the rebels and a further 42 male convicts were flogged and six female prisoners punished in ways unspecified. Two guards in on the plot were so severely flogged that one of them died.
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