Charlotte (1784 ship)

The Charlotte was a First Fleet transport ship of 335 tons, built on the River Thames in 1787. She was a light sailer, and had to be towed down the English Channel for the first few days of the voyage. Her master was Thomas Gilbert, and her surgeon was John White, principal surgeon to the colony.

She left Portsmouth on 13 May 1787, carrying eighty-four male and twenty-four female convicts, among them were James Squire, James Bloodsworth, James Underwood, Samuel Lightfoot, William Bryant and Mary Bryant, and arrived at Port Jackson, Sydney, Australia, on 26 January 1788.

She left Port Jackson on 6 May 1788 bound for China to take on a cargo of tea, under charter to the East India Company. On her return to England on 28 November 1789 she was sold to Bond and Co., Walbrook merchants, for the London to Jamaica run, and was lost off Newfoundland in November 1818.

In popular culture
Mentioned in National Treasure (starring among others Nicolas Cage and Sean Bean) as the first clue to the whereabouts of a great treasure.