Trial was a ship that first appears in 1808 and that was seized by convicts and eventually wrecked on the Mid North Coast of New South Wales, Australia in 1816. Trial was a brig owned by the merchant Simeon Lord. While waiting near the Sow and Pigs Reef in Port Jackson for good winds to take her to Port Dalrymple, she was seized by a group of thirteen convicts. The ship was sailed northwards but was wrecked some 97 kilometres (60 mi) north of Port Stephens, in what is now called Trial Bay. The survivors of the wreck constructed a new boat out of the ship's remains but, according to the local aborigines, the boat capsized and all thirteen convicts drowned. The convicts abandoned at Trial Bay William Bennett (Trial's master), his crew, and some passengers, numbering eight or ten in total (in