The Frederick was a ship that was wrecked at Cape Flinders

Cape Flinders

Cape Flinders is a headland in the northern Canadian territory of Nunavut. It is located on the western point of the Kent Peninsula.The cape was named by Sir John Franklin in 1821 after the navigator Matthew Flinders.-References:...

 on Stanley Island, Queensland

Queensland

Queensland is a state of Australia, occupying the north-eastern section of the mainland continent. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Australia and New South Wales to the west, south-west and south respectively. To the east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Sea and Pacific Ocean...

, Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

 in 1818.

Frederick Reefs

Frederick Reefs

Frederick Reef is in the Coral Sea Islands, over northeast of Gladstone, Queensland. The reef gets its name from the Frederick, which first reported sighting of the reef....

 in the Coral Sea Islands

Coral Sea Islands

The Coral Sea Islands Territory includes a group of small and mostly uninhabited tropical islands and reefs in the Coral Sea, northeast of Queensland, Australia. The only inhabited island is Willis Island...

, over 220 nautical miles (407.4 km) northeast of Gladstone, Queensland

Gladstone, Queensland

- Education :Gladstone has several primary schools, three high schools, and one university campus, Central Queensland University. It is also home to CQIT Gladstone Campus.- Recreation :...

 gets its name from the Frederick, which first reported sighting of the reef.

The reefs were discovered in 1812 by the Frederick. The reefs were described in the ship's log:
The Frederick was a wooden ship of 210 tons. It was under the command of Captain John Williams when it left Hobart

Hobart

Hobart is the state capital and most populous city of the Australian island state of Tasmania. Founded in 1804 as a penal colony,Hobart is Australia's second oldest capital city after Sydney. In 2009, the city had a greater area population of approximately 212,019. A resident of Hobart is known as...

, Tasmania

Tasmania

Tasmania is an Australian island and state. It is south of the continent, separated by Bass Strait. The state includes the island of Tasmania—the 26th largest island in the world—and the surrounding islands. The state has a population of 507,626 , of whom almost half reside in the greater Hobart...

 on 27 June 1818 bound for Mauritius

Mauritius

Mauritius , officially the Republic of Mauritius is an island nation off the southeast coast of the African continent in the southwest Indian Ocean, about east of Madagascar...

. It was carrying sheep and cattle but these died from heat at the Percy Islands off the east coast of Queensland

Queensland

Queensland is a state of Australia, occupying the north-eastern section of the mainland continent. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Australia and New South Wales to the west, south-west and south respectively. To the east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Sea and Pacific Ocean...

. The captain ordered the crew to collect spars to take to Mauritius instead and it was at this time that the ship was wrecked at Cape Finders in May 1818. Two boats were launched and shortly after the ship broke in two. In one boat were the master, two men and two boys while the long boat carried the remaining twenty-two of the crew.

Williams and the four other crew were rescued by the ship Duke of Wellington which had been travelling with the Frederick for much of its journey. The long boat was not seen again and it can only be assumed that the twenty-three surviving crew drowned or were killed by aborigines. Williams had sailed with a sixteen year old girl whom he had bought from her father, much to the scandal of the colonial community. The girl may have been lost when the long-boat was swamped, or may have been captured by aborigines as there were rumours later of a white woman having been seen with aborigines in the area.

The wreck of the Frederick was found by Captain Phillip Parker King of HMS Mermaid, on 13 July 1819 while it was on a surveying expedition.