Colonial Despatches

According to this despatch, Briseis was a freight ship chartered by the British government in 1858 to carry supplies to Vancouver Island and the mainland for the Royal Engineers. An enclosure with the same notes the destruction by Fire of the Barque Briseis on 8 December 1858.

Both this private correspondence and Hawes, Benjamin to Fitzgerald, Sir William Robert Seymour Vesey 9 March 1859, CO 60:6, no. 2619, 262 confirm that Briseis never made its destination: it burned at sea off the coast of Brazil, with hundreds of tonnes of uninsured supplies on board. Finally, this private correspondence mentions that Shaw, Savill and Company acted as brokers for the ill-fated Briseis.