Other-waters

HMS Guardian was built in 1784 as a 44-gun frigate but, with her lower tier of guns removed, she was converted to a storeship. On 12 September 1789 she sailed from Spithead, under the command of Lieutenant Edward Riou, R.N., with 1003 tons of provisions for the convict settlement at Port Jackson in New South Wales. She also carried 25 specially selected convicts and several officials for the settlement. At Santa Cruz she took on 2000 gallons of wine. On 24 November she reached the Cape of Good Hope, where she loaded some cattle and horses, and departed on 11 December.

The whaling ship Essex left Nantucket, Massachusetts in 1819 on a two-and-a-half-year voyage in the whaling grounds of the South Pacific to hunt sperm whales. On November 20, 1819, the Essex was struck by a sperm whale and sunk, 2,000 miles (3,700 km) off South America. The twenty sailors set out in three small whaleboats, with wholly inadequate supplies of food and water.

The USS Chesapeake was a 36-gun sailing frigate of the United States Navy during the Quasi-War with France and the War of 1812. It was one of the six original United States frigates. She was launched 2 December 1799 by Gosport Navy Yard and commissioned early in the following year, Captain James Barron in command.

'HMS Beagle' was a Royal Navy ship, made famous for the second voyage she made (with Charles Darwin aboard).

'Beagle' was launched 11 May 1820 as a 90ft (27m), 10-gun brig from the Woolwich Dockyard on the River Thames. There was no immediate need for 'Beagle' so she was kept in reserve for five years.