138 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



The " Princess Amelia." 



From this statement and information received otherwise, we are en- 

 abled in some measure to clear up the matter of the " Princess Amelia." It 

 is clear that she was not the vessel that carried the Duke's equipage and 

 that was lost on Sable Island. Mr. S. D. McDonald notices the " Princess 

 Amelia " as one of the fleet at the taking of Louisbourg, in 1758, but she 

 could have nothing to do with our present history. Mr. Murdoch in his 

 history gives an account of a brig " Princess Amelia," Captain Wyatt, lost 

 on Sable Island in November, 1797, and of the crew escaping to the 

 mainland.' Mr. Akins in his history of Ilaliflix repeats the story.^ It is 

 strange, however, that the statement of Mr. Howe, though written to 

 show the urgent necessity of a relief establishment on the island, and for 

 this purpose holding up the cases of recent wrecks makes no mention of 

 her. It mentions the case of a ship in 179G, whose crew were taken off 

 nearly in the same way as Mr. Murdoch describes in the case of the 

 "Princess Amelia," and a brig "Lord Duncan," with a captain also 

 named Wyatt, which was lost in the fall of 1798, and the " Francis " in 

 the fall of 1799, but saj-s nothing of any other. 



But passing this we have lately received information of another 

 " Princess Amelia," this time a real one, which helps to explain Mr. Ilali- 

 burton's blunder. On the 20th November, 1799, Prince Edward appointed 

 Lieut. John Mowat, then serving as lieutenant on board II.M.S. " Asia," 

 master and commander of the "army armed brig 'Princess Amelia,' 

 equipped for the service of the Government, to be employed under the 

 direction of the commander-in-chief of Her Majesty's forces in British 

 North America." In his commission, which is signed Edward, it is said 

 "you are to observe and follow such orders and directions as you shall 

 from time to time receive from me or the officer in the chief command 

 for the time being." Lieut. Mowat continued in this position till June, 

 1802 ; though the Prince had left for England some months before.^ This 

 vessel was usually known as the Prince's yacht and thus she may have 

 been confounded with the vessel, which was bringing out his equipage. 



With these supplementary notes our lucubrations on this fated and 

 fateful isle terminate. 



1 History of N.S., II., 526. 

 2N.S. Hist. Soc. Coll., VIII., 121. 



s We lately inspected the commission and other papers preserved in Lieutenant 

 Mowat's family in St. Andrews, N.B. 



