HMS Success

Success was the ship in which Stirling sailed to the Black Swan River in 1827, two years before settlement, to assess whether the land there was suitable for colonisation. While the ship was moored offshore, Stirling and a crew took a cutter and gig up the river as far as Guildford. The river had already been named by Vlamingh, but Stirling named everything else in sight.

Wikipedia:
HMS Success was an Atholl-class 28-gun sixth-rate wooden sailing ship notable for exploring Western Australia and the Swan River in 1827 as well as being one of the first ships to arrive at the fledgling Swan River Colony two years later, at which time she ran aground off Carnac Island.
She was sent by the Royal Navy on a mission to New South Wales and Melville Island. She made an expedition to the Swan River in 1827, arriving there in early March. Captain James Stirling was in command. Wikipedia.

Named after this ship were Success Bank, Success Harbour, and Success Hill, Spring, Reserve, and Park (these last four all at the same place).

The Success returned to the colony, arriving 28 November 1829 - not under the command of Stirling, who had already arrived on the Parmelia. She (the Success) was grounded on Carnac Reef, but was repaired and continued in service, until broken up in 1849.

[another ship] Success

Hitchcock:
In 1843 the ship Success was stranded at Fremantle during a gale and was saved only after great difficulty and expense. That ship was purchased in 1852 by the Victorian Government, her crew having deserted her for the goldfields, and was used as a floating prison. Fifty years afterwards she was acquired by Americans and exhibited in the United States and in British ports as a convict show ship. The vessel is now 88 years old and is about to make another voyage to Australia to be converted into a floating museum. That ship was not identical with H.M.S. Success, in which Captain Stirling made his first voyage to the colony. Hitchcock: 30.

The interior of the 'prison hulk' Success

References and Links

Hitchcock, JK 1929, The History of Fremantle, The Front Gate of Australia 1829-1929, FCC.

Wikipedia page for HMS Success.

Wikipedia page for 'convict hulk' museum ship Success.

Freotopia

This page incorporates material from Garry Gillard's Freotopia website, that he started in 2014 and the contents of which he donated to Wikimedia Australia in 2024. The content was originally created on 16 January, 2015 and hosted at freotopia.org/ships/success.html (it was last updated on 19 August, 2023), and has been edited since it was imported here (see page history). The donated data is also preserved in the Internet Archive's collection.