Qualla: Asia (1818 ship)

Asia (1818 ship): Introduction

Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

On her third convict voyage in 1825, as Asia navigated the Outer Route through the Torres Strait toward Calcutta, her companion vessel Henry struck Portlock Reef on the northern tip of the Great Barrier Reef and broke apart. Asia rescued everyone aboard and continued on to Calcutta alone. It was the kind of event that barely registered in the official record -- a footnote in a ship's log, a few extra mouths to feed -- but it captures the reality of these voyages: long, dangerous, and routine enough that saving an entire shipwrecked crew was simply part of the journey. Asia made eight convict voyages between 1820 and 1836, carrying nearly 1,600 men and women sentenced to transportation to the other side of the world.

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Asia (1818 ship): Aberdeen Iron and Indian Trade

Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

A. Hall & Company built Asia at Aberdeen in 1818, and she first appeared in Lloyd's Register in 1820 with the trade route listed as London to Bombay. The timing was significant: in 1813, the British East India Company had lost its monopoly on trade between India and Britain, open...

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Asia (1818 ship): The Convict Runs

Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Asia's eight convict voyages followed a pattern familiar to the transportation fleet: load human cargo at an English or Irish port, endure three to five months at sea, deliver the convicts to Sydney or Hobart, then pick up whatever return cargo -- whale oil, wool, or nothing -- t...

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Asia (1818 ship): Between Empires and Oceans

Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Asia was not merely a convict ship. Between her fourth and fifth convict voyages, she made a single run for the East India Company in 1826-27, sailing from the Downs to Whampoa anchorage in China, then on to St. Helena and Quebec before returning to the Thames. The voyage illustr...

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Asia (1818 ship): Last Entries in the Register

Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Asia's final convict voyage delivered 290 men to Hobart in February 1836. Three years later, she made one more run to Australia, this time carrying 267 government-assisted emigrants from Plymouth to Sydney -- free people, traveling willingly, though likely in conditions not drama...

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