History | |
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Name | Britannia |
Owner | British East India Company [1] |
Builder | Perry & Wells, Blackwall [1] |
Launched | 29 September 1806 [1] |
Fate | Wrecked 25 January 1809 |
General characteristics | |
Tons burthen | 1200, [2] 1273, [3] or 127373⁄94, [1] or 1349, [4] (bm) |
Length | |
Beam | 42 ft 4 in (12.9 m) [3] |
Depth of hold | 17 ft 1 in (5.2 m) [3] |
Complement | 138 [4] |
Armament | 38 x 9&18-pounder guns [4] |
Britannia was launched in 1806 as an East Indiaman for the British East India Company. She made only one voyage for the company before a gale wrecked her in January 1809.
Captain Jonathan Birch received a letter of marque on 3 November 1806. He sailed Britannia from Portsmouth on 26 February 1807, bound for Bombay and China. He returned from that voyage on 1 July 1808. [3]
Birch and Britannia were in the Downs on 24 January 1809, prior to setting out on a second voyage to the east, this time to Madras and China. [3]
The next day, 25 January, a howling gale tore her from her moorings off Deal, Kent, and she wrecked on the Goodwin Sands off the South Foreland. [5] Seven of her crew drowned. [6] The EIC valued her cargo at £57,091; [7] the total loss, vessel plus cargo, was £117,820. [8]
The gale also wrecked the Indiaman Admiral Gardner and the brig Apollo. Only one man of Apollo's crew of 20 survived. [9] Boatmen from Deal were able to rescue almost the entire crew from Admiral Gardner. A few days later, Lloyd's List reported that all three wrecked vessels had gone to pieces. [10]