Norfolk (1798 sloop)

The Colonial sloop Norfolk was built on Norfolk Island in 1798. It was wrecked in 1800.

David Collins recorded in his Account of the English Colony in New South Wales: "The necessity of a vessel to keep up a more frequent intercourse with Norfolk Island, ...having been much felt by the want of various stores ...occasioned Captain Townson, the Commanding officer, to construct a small decked boat, sloop rigged, in which he sent His letters to this port..." Cumpston describes Norfolk as, “A decked longboat built at Norfolk I[sland].”

Governor Hunter put the Norfolk under the command of Matthew Flinders, the Sailing Master Peter Hibbs (seaman formerly on the "Sirius"). The vessel was to be used as a survey vessel and in that capacity was used by Flinders and Bass in 1798-99 to circumnavigate Van Diemens Land (Tasmania) – proving the existence of Bass Strait. Flinders also took Norfolk north to chart Cook's Morton's Bay (now Moreton Bay) and Hervey's Bay (Hervey Bay).

It has been speculated that it was unlikely that they used Norfolk Pine Norfolk Island Pine as the timber was said to be useless in water, and that it was most likely constructed of timbers from existing boats on the island, perhaps also using surviving timbers from HMS Sirius, but Collins said: “The vessel that has the credit of having first circumnavigated Van Diemen’s land was built at Norfolk Island, on the fir of that country, which was found to answer extremely well”.

Norfolk was then used to supply produce from the Windsor Area to Port Jackson, until 1800 when convicts seized her at the mouth of the Hawkesbury River. Intending to sail her to Maluku, the convicts ran her aground at what was later called "Pirate Point" on the northern side of the mouth to the Hunter River. Today, the point is in the suburb of Stockton.