Badger (1775 ship)

Last updated

History
British-Red-Ensign-1707.svgGreat Britain
NameBadger
Namesake Badger
Launched1775, Liverpool [1]
Renamed
  • 1778: Molly
  • 1800: Lydia
Captured1782
General characteristics
Tons burthen250, [1] or 300 (bm)
Complement
  • 1778:25
  • 1779: 20
  • 1779: 20
Armament
  • 1778: 16 × 6-pounder guns
  • 1779: 16 × 6-pounder guns
  • 1779: 16 × 6-pounder guns + 10 swivel guns

Badger was launched in Liverpool in 1775. She made one voyage as a slave ship in the triangular trade in enslaved people. New owners renamed her Molly in 1778 and sailed her as a West Indian. In 1779 she repelled an American privateer in a sanguinary single ship action. Her owners renamed her Lydia. While trading with Tortola she captured one or two prizes. Lydia was herself captured in 1782.

Contents

Career

Badger first appeared in an online copy of Lloyd's Register (LR) in the volume for 1776. [1]

YearMasterOwnerTradeSource & notes
1776P.PotterW.DavenportLiverpool–AfricaLR

Captain Peter Potter sailed from Liverpool on 9 September 1776. Badger acquired captives at the Cameroon River. She arrived at Dominica on 8 June 1777 with 386 captives. She sailed for Liverpool on 1 August, and arrived there on 4 October 1777. [2]

YearMasterOwnerTradeSource & notes
1778P.Potter
T.Cragg		W.DavenportLiverpool–AfricaLR; "Now the Molly"

The British Admiralty had given notice in April 1777, that they were ready to issue letters of marque for privateers against the Americans. In March 1778, Great Britain broke off relations with France. [3]

Captain Thomas Cragg, of Molly, acquired a letter of marque on 13 February 1778.

YearMasterOwnerTradeSource
1779T.Cragg
M.Seddon		J.ChorleyLiverpool–TortolaLR

Captain Mark Seddon acquired a letter of marque on 10 February 1779. On 2 August Molly, Seddon, master, sailed from Tortola in company with Prosperity, Mandeville, master, of Leverpool, a vessel bound for London, and a Scotch vessel, and two days later parted from them in a gale of wind. [4]

On 7 September 1779, at 49°N36°W / 49°N 36°W / 49; -36 , Molly encountered an American privateer of 22 guns on her main deck, plus other guns on her Fo'csle and quarterdeck. After an hour-long engagement, the privateer sailed off. Molly had five men killed, including Captain Seddon, and seven wounded. Molly arrived at Liverpool on 18 September. [5] [4]

YearMasterOwnerTradeSource & notes
1780W.Pall
Fell		J.ChorleyLiverpool–TortolaLR; damages repaired 1779; "Now the Lydia Fall"

Her owners renamed Molly to Lydia. Captain William Fell acquired a letter of marque on 26 November 1779.

Lloyd's List reported in January 1781 that as Lydia, Fell, master, was on her way from Leverpool to the Leeward Islands she ran ashore on the Burbo Bank in the Liverpool Bay. She was gotten off but she had sustained considerable damage and had to go back to Leverpool to discharge and refit. [6]

In June Lloyd's List reported that Lydia, Fell, master, had taken a ship of 300 tons that had been sailing from Piscateague to Tenerife. The prize came into Londonderry. [7] The captured vessel, Prosperity, and her cargo of lumber, came into Leverpool in July. [8]

In October, Hannah, from Boston, arrived at Leverpool. She was a prize to Lydia.

Fate

On 15 My 1782, Planter, Corbett, master, arrived at Leverpool from Tortola and reported that Lydia, Fell, master, had been captured. [9]

Citations

  1. 1 2 3 LR (1776), Seq.No.M464.
  2. ↑ Trans Atlantic Slave Trade Database – Badger voyage #92356.
  3. ↑ Powell (1930), p. 246.
  4. 1 2 "The Marine List". Lloyd's List. No. 1095. 21 September 1779. hdl:2027/uc1.c3049060.
  5. ↑ Williams (1897), pp. 260–261.
  6. ↑ "The Marine List". Lloyd's List. No. 1235. 23 January 1781. hdl:2027/mdp.39015004281559.
  7. ↑ "The Marine List". Lloyd's List. No. 1277. 19 June 1781. hdl:2027/mdp.39015004281559.
  8. ↑ Williams (1897), p. 287.
  9. ↑ "The Marine List". Lloyd's List. No. 1363. 21 May 1782. hdl:2027/mdp.39015004281559.

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Trelandvean was a merchant vessel launched in 1767 at Swansea, possibly under another name. Between probably 1777 and 1783 she served the Royal Navy as a ship's tender. She then returned to mercantile service. She may have made on voyage as a whaler in the southern whale fishery, before she was wrecked in the Mediterranean in 1792.

True Briton was launched at Liverpool in 1775. She made two voyages as a slave ship in the triangular trade in enslaved people. During the second of these voyages there was an unsuccessful insurrection by the captives she was carrying. Then in 1777–1778 she made another enslaving voyage, this time under the name John. On her return to Liverpool, she became the privateer Bellona, and succeeded in taking several prizes. Bellona then made three enslaving voyages. In 1786 her ownership changed, and so did her name. She became Lord Stanley, and under that name proceeded to make 11 more enslaving voyages. In 1794, at Havana, a deadly fever spread through the vessel, apparently after she had landed her captives. On her last voyage the captain acted with such brutality towards a black crew member that the man, who providentially survived, sued the captain when the vessel arrived at Liverpool and won substantial damages.

Chaser first appeared under that name in British records in 1786. She had been launched in 1771 at Philadelphia under another name, probably Lord North. Lord North became Cotton Planter, and then Planter, before she became Chaser. Between 1786 and 1790 Chaser made four voyages as a whaler in the British southern whale fishery. She then became a merchantman. In 1794 a privateer captured her but the Spanish recaptured her. She became a Liverpool-based Slave ship in the triangular trade in enslaved people. In 1796 she was condemned in West Africa on her first voyage in the triangular trade before she could embark any enslaved people.

References

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