Ship: Alderney
Date: May - August 1750
Departing: London
Arriving: Halifax
Ship Master: Pendcock Neal
Ship Type:
Size: 504 tons

H.M.S. Alderney was built at Kingston upon Hull (Yorkshire) England in the year 1742. To the drawings or draught H.M.S. Alborough was built at Liverpool and H.M.S. Lowstoft at Deptford. All were ships of the line and carried 22 cannons. Another vessel of the same dimensions but with a slightly modified hull was a ship called Tryton.

By 1749, some of these ships had been decommissioned and converted to transporters and it is believed employed in the shipping of emigrants to the new world.

There is no record of the Alborough entering Halifax Harbour, in those days known as 'Chebucto', but the Alderney arrived here in the late summer of 1750 and disembarked her passengers at Gov. Cornwallis' instructions upon the east side of the harbour.

The settlers who totalled three hundred and fifty-three persons promptly commenced to lay out the townships and named their new home Dartmouth, because of the similiar landscape in Dartmouth, England. A small river ran out of the cove, which they called the river "Dart'. They had sailed for many weeks after embarking from the town of Gravesend in Southern England, the same port as did the Pilgrim Fathers in 1620.

According to Dr. John P. Martin, Dartmouth's late historian, in his book, "The Story of Dartmouth", the earliest accounts of the colonists destained to become our first citizens, was obtained from the secretary of Public Records in London. Their 1750 files disclosed that the Alderney was getting ready to sail on May 25, 1750 and that on July 6, she was reported at
Plymouth having put in there because of contrary winds.

She did not arrive at Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, before August 19, 1750 but must have been here shortly afterwards. No deaths were reported or recorded in the ship's log although she had been at sea many weeks.

She had been fitted up with a newly-invented system of ventilation which proved most successful. Models of both the Alderney and the Alborough are presently on display at the Dartmouth Historical Museum.

They look to be magnificent ships but looks can deceive, for when it is realized that from the keel to the top deck measured only eleven feet and a lower deck was constructed in between, then it becomes apparent that conditions must have been very cramped indeed for so many people on such a long voyage.

It is not known what became of the Alderney after her return to England; she was probably recommissioned and used as a man of war. The net weight of the ships built to this draught was 504 tons and the hulls were made out of stout English oak. They carried three masts and were rigged to carry maximum sail.

Today in honour of the emigrant ship we have in Dartmouth, "The Alderney School", "Alderney Manor", and "The Alderney Chapter of the I.O.D.E.", and as well as "Alderney Drive" one of the main streets named in 1969, before it
was known as Commercial Street, also a Cairn commemorating the Founding of Dartmouth can be seen in the Dartmouth Park.

Information on the construction of the Alderney was obtained from the National Maritime Museum , London, England.
History of the Alderney was obtained courtesy of the Dartmouth Heritage Museum.

It is quite possible that "The Museum of the Atlantic" in Halifax may have a copy of the passenger list. Curator is Lynn Richard. She has many records from the National Maritime Museum, London, England.

From "The Story of Dartmouth" by John Patrick Martin, B.A., LL.D. Privately printed for the author, Dartmouth Nova Scotia 1957, p77. (Dr. Martin was Town Historian of Dartmouth, Historian of the Charitable Irish Society, and a Vice President of the Nova Scotia Historical Society at the time of the publishing.)

Halifax, September 5, 1750.
"These certify that Pendock Neal, Master of the Alderney transport has fulfilled his charter-party and is now discharged.
Signed: by His Excellency Edward Cornwallis" Ibid, p 353


Passengers on this ship:
[if you have any ancestors that were on this ship, please help to reconstruct a passenger list]

Ueltschi, Jacob [per Rose McClanahan <[email protected]> 31 Jan 1998 to Randal Oulton]
Kinselagh, John. Acting as acting on board the Alderney for the Lords of Trade. A New Englander who had been a captain in Pepperell's regiment at Louisbourg in 1745. Bell, p 32.
John Christian Ernst from Halberstadt, Germany (Tom Lynch of Truro, NS, says *possibly*)

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