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Cheviot (1827 ship)

whaling ship (1827–1854)

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionFeb 15, 2026
Entity authorityQ85751840 ↗
Source-derived summary

Cheviot was a ship launched in Sunderland in 1827. Initially she sailed between London and Quebec. Then in 1831 she became a whaler and sailed to the British Southern Whale Fishery. She never returned to England from that voyage, instead becoming based in Hobart and remaining there as whaler and merchantman. She was lost in March 1854.

Statement of significance

The Cheviot is historically significant for being associated with Hobart whalers James Kelly, William Mansfield and Charles Seal, who all owned the Cheviot at some stage in their careers. When Charles Seal died, ownership of the Cheviot and the rest of his whaling and cargo/ passenger ships passed into the hands of his wife Phillis Seal, making her the first woman shipowner, and fleet owner in Australia. The Cheviot is archaeologically significant for representing the remains of an early 19th century Atlantic, South Seas, and colonial Australian whaling vessel, and is one of only a handful of shipwreck sites relating to the whaling industry in Victoria.

Career

Cheviot first appeared in the Register of Shipping (RS) with Mawson, master, Laing, owner, and trade Sunderland–London.

In 1831 the ownership of Cheviot changed.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Cheviot (1827 ship)” is whaling ship (1827–1854). The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Cheviot, ship and whaling, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA practical starting point whose main value is the path it opens into stronger specialist and primary sources. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1827, 1831, 1854—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. For this dossier, Cheviot, ship and whaling is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “whaling ship (1827–1854)” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Feb 15, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q85751840. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1827, 1831 and 1854.

Critical limits

Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Cheviot (1827 ship)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.