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Shah Ardeseer (or Shah Ardesir) - Bombay Country Ship
Built 1788: 868 tons.
Referred to by Macquarie in 1801 as the Ardaseer as one of the transports carrying troops to Egypt.
[Source: Bulley, A. Bombay Country Ships 1790-1833. p.193].

Sha(w) Kai Kusseroo - Bombay Country Ship (later Royal Navy Storeship: HMS Dromedary)
Built in Bombay Dockyard, in 1799, as the 'country ship' Sha(w) Kai Kusseroo (also referred to as Shah Kai Kusroo or Kaikusroo). Length: approx.150 ft.; breadth: 40 ft.; 1100 tons.
Employed in its early trading voyages on the Malabar Coast and to the Malacca Straits; subsequently used as a transport ship in the British military expedition from India to Egypt and the Red Sea in 1801-1802. At this stage the vessel was owned by the Parsi shipbuilder Sorabjee Muncherjee, guaranteed by the influential Bombay merchant, Charles Forbes (as its agent), and under the command of Captain Colin Mackenzie.
Purchased in 1805 by the Royal Navy for use as a frigate and re-named HMS Howe; in 1808 re-named HMS Dromedary and used as a naval storeship.
Lachlan and Elizabeth Macquarie travelled on board the Dromedary to New South Wales in 1809.
[Source: Bulley, A. Bombay Country Ships 1790-1833.].

Sir Edward Hughes (1784-1863) - East Indiaman (later HMS Tortoise)
Built at Bombay, launched on 22 March 1784 (teak vessel). Three decks; length 147 ft (approx.); breadth 39 ft. (approx); 957 tons.
Eight (8) voyages to India and China between 1788 and 1803: (1) from Bombay: August 1788 - May 1789 (China); (2) March 1790 - June 1791 (Madras & China); (3) February 1792 - June 1793 (Madras & China); (4) June 1794 - July 1795 (Bombay); also a voyage to the West Indies in 1795/1796; (5) February 1797 - May 1798 (Bombay); (6) April 1799 - May 1800 (Bombay & Madras); (7) September 1800 - October 1801 (Madras); (8) April 1802 - May 1803 (Bombay).
After October 1803 fitted as a frigate, and purchased for the Royal Navy in India in May 1804 for £35,000 [registered on 13 August 1806].
Commissioned in 1805 in the East Indies under the command of Commander Hood Christian. Captained in 1806, firstly, by Captain Gilbert Heathcote, then Captain Edward Ratsey. Fitted as a RN Storeship at Woolwich between March - July 1808 [Fifth Rate vessel], with 20 x 9 Pounders. Renamed HMS Tortoise on 28 November 1807 and recommissioned in May 1808 under Commander Thomas Cook. In the Mediterranean in 1812, at Gibraltar 1813. Fitted as a coal depot at Portsmouth between September - November 1824 and hulked at Pembroke until 1838. Between December 1843 - March 1844 fitted at Chatham as a receiving ship for service at Ascension Island. Broken up at Ascension in 1863.
The first mention of the Sir Edward Hughes in Macquarie's writings appears on 13 and 20 August 1788 when he led two unsuccessful search parties on board the ship in Bombay Harbour seeking Dennis Fennon a deserter from his company in the 77th Regiment. Ten years later, in January 1798, Macquarie travelled on the Sir Edward Hughes whilst accompanying Governor Duncan and General Stuart from Calicut to Bombay; he again embarked on board the Sir Edward Hughes at Bombay on 6 January 1803 for his return voyage to Britain. In the latter two instances the ship was commanded by Captain James Urmston (1746-).
[Sources: Farrington, A. Catalogue of East India Company Ships' Journals and Logs 1600-1834. pp. 605-606; Lyon, D. The Sailing Navy List...1688-1860. p. 274; Winfield R. British Warships in the Age of Sail 1793-1817. p.175].

Snapper - Colonial Government Cutter
Dimensions: length 43 ft. 6"; breadth 15 ft. 6". Built in NSW and launched on 18 May 1821. Originally designed as a revenue cutter and/or dispatch vessel, but was used mainly for transporting convicts to Newcastle, and as a survey vessel to the South Coast of NSW as well as Moreton Bay and New Zealand. The Snapper was transferred from colonial service to private ownership in June 1823 when she was purchased by Solomon Levey.

HMS Spitfire - Brig Sloop [1790-1825] - Royal Navy
Built at Sheerness: 1780-1790. Commissioned as a fireship; rated at 14 guns when used as sloops. Dimensions: length, 90 ft. 8".; breadth, 29 ft. 7".; 422 tons. Guns: 14.
Served in Irish Sea and the Channel 1791-1806; recommissioned as a fireship under Cmdr. Henry Butt in February 1807 and involved later in the year in the capture of Copehagen; under Cmdr. John Ellis between 1808-1814: sailed with a convoy to Quebec in 1810; at Portsmouth 1811-1812; on Greenland station in 1813. In 1814 under Cmdr. James Dalton off West Africa. Laid up at Portsmouth in May 1815; sold in July 1825 and broken up.
Mentioned by Macquarie on 27 September 1807.
[Source: Winfield, Rif. British Warships in the Age of Sail 1793-1817: design, construction, careers and fates. London: Chatham Publishing, 2005 p.378].

Stanislaff Scout - Russian ship
Two-masted vessel. [Caspian Sea fleet]
No further details currently available.
Macquarie sailed on board the Stanislaff Scout from Apsheron (near Baku) to the entrance of the Volga River near Astrakhan during the period 5-19 July 1807. On arrival he and his travelling companions were forced to remain in quarantine in a lazaretto on the island of Sedlistoff until 12 August - a cholera plague was sweeping southern Russia at this time.
[Source: Macquarie, L. Journal July-August 1807].

Surry (later referred to as the Surrey) - Transport
Square rigged ship. Dimensions: length, 117 ft. 6"; breadth, 29 ft. 6"; Tons: 443; Guns: 14; Crew: 30.
The vessel was copper-sheathed and had quarter galleries, with a Minerva bust for a figurehead.
When the Surry was originally built at Harwich in 1811 she had two decks with a height between decks of 5ft. 8"; however, about 1818, she must have received a major refit - the Shipping Registers after 1819 record the vessel as having three decks.
The Surry had one of the longest careers as a convict transport and she was the only transport to make 11 passages to Australia. She completed her last voyage on reaching Hobart on 11 August 1842.
The Surry landed 2,177 male and female convicts in Australia and lost 51 men and one woman during her various passages, 36 of the men dying during her first and most notorious voyage in 1814 under the command of James Patterson. Thomas Raine commanded her for the next three voyages (1816, 1819, 1823); he was succeeded by Charles Kemp for four voyages (1829, 1831, 1833, 1834); he was succeeded by George Sinclair as her Master on the ninth and tenth voyages (1836, 1840) and on the last voyage (1842) she was commanded by Henry Innott.
The Macquaries sailed to Britain on board the Surry in February 1822.

Suvorov: Russian-American Company Ship.
335 tons.
Visited Sydney, NSW: 25 August [13 August] - 15 September [3 September] 1814.
Commanded by Captain-Lieutenant Mikhail Petrovich Lazarev (1788-1851). In 1816, after the return of Lazarev's expedition to Kronstadt, Russia, the Suvorov made a second visit to the North Pacific under the command of L. A. Hagemeister. The Suvorov, accompanied by the Kutusov, reached Alaska, via Cape Horn, in July 1817, and returned to Kronstadt in 1818 (again via Cape Horn).
[Sources: Barratt, Glynn. The Russians at Port Jackson 1814-1822. Canberra: Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies, 1981 p.19; Howgego, Raymond John. Encyclopedia of Exploration 1800 to 1850. Potts Point, NSW: Hordern House Rare Books, 2004 p. 349; personal communication: A. Massov (2006); argo.net.au/andre/SuvorovENFIN.htm]

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