History | |
---|---|
Batavian Republic | |
Launched | 1796 |
Captured | c.1802 |
United Kingdom | |
Name | Brook Watson |
Namesake | Brook Watson [lower-alpha 1] |
Owner |
|
Acquired | 1802 by purchase of a prize |
Fate | Last listed 1809/1810 |
General characteristics | |
Tons burthen | 501, [2] or 550 [3] (bm) |
Propulsion | Sails |
Complement | |
Armament |
Brook Watson was launched in 1796, probably in Holland but possibly in Denmark. She became a prize in 1801 and by 1802 was a whaler in the British Southern Whale Fishery. She made two whaling voyages between 1802 and 1806. She then became a West Indiaman and was last listed in 1809 or 1810.
Both Lloyd's Register (LR) and the Register of Shipping described Brook Watson as a Dutch prize. LR further gave her build year as 1796. However, another report states that around 1801 a Mr. Bennett commissioned two Nantucket whale captains, Ransom Jones and Benjamin Swift, to purchase two Danish sloops of war that the British Government was selling. [lower-alpha 2] Jones named his ship Africa, and Swift named his ship Brook Watson, after a son-in-law of Mr. Bennett. [4] The ownership data for her whaling years gives her owners as Brook Watson, [5] or Brook Watson, William Goodall, and John Turner. [6]
Brook Watson first appeared in LR in 1802 with B.Swift, master, B.Watson, owner, and trade London–Southern Fishery. [7]
1st whaling voyage (1802–1804): Captain Benjamin Swift sailed from England on 9 November 1802, bound for the South Atlantic. Brook Watson reached the Cape of Good Hope on 25 April 1803. [8] War with France resumed in early 1803 and received a letter of marque on 17 November 1803. [2] She sailed to Delago Bay, where Swift died. At the time there were several other whalers there, including Cyrus and Dolphin, who helped with the funeral arrangements. Brook Watson's mate took command and sailed her east of the Cape. [4] By 5 February 1804 she was at the Isle of Desolation. [8] Brook Watson gathered 1300 barrels of black oil that she took back to England. [4] She was at St Helena on 8 May and arrived back at Gravesend on 12 August 1804. [9] At St Helena Brook Watson was one of several whalers that joined a convoy consisting of the East Indiamen that had been under the command of Captain Nathaniel Dance at the Battle of Pulo Aura, and that HMS Plantagenet escorted back to England.
2nd whaling voyage (1804–1804): Captain Obediah Worth, like Swift also from Nantucket, acquired a letter of marque on 14 September 1804. He sailed from England on 24 December 1804, bound for the Isle of Desolation. Brook Watson returned on 15 June 1806 with 4000 barrels of black oil. [8]
West Indiaman: On her return from her second whaling voyage Brook Watson underwent small repairs and became a West Indiaman. Only with the 1809 issue did the Register of Shipping catch up. It showed her with Homes, master, Turner, owner, and trade London–Barbados. [3] She had already sailed for Barbados on 10 November 1806. [10] She sailed from Portsmouth on 4 January 1807 and arrived at Barbados on 25 February and Jamaica on 11 April. She sailed back in convoy and arrived at Deal on 25 August. On 7 December, Brook Watson, Holmes, master, sailed from Deal for Jamaica. [11] On 14 March she sailed from Antigua for Jamaica, where she arrived four days later.
Brook Watson rescued the crew of Maryann, of Guernsey, on 28 September 1808. Maryann had foundered while sailing from Jamaica to London. [12]
Brook Watson is last listed in the Register of Shipping in 1809 and in Lloyd's Register in 1810. There is no SAD data for her in 1808.
The British Royal Navy purchased HMS Shark on the stocks in 1775. She was launched in 1776, and in 1778 converted to a fireship and renamed HMS Salamander. The Navy sold her in 1783. She then became the mercantile Salamander. In the 1780s she was in the northern whale fishery. In 1791 she transported convicts to Australia. She then became a whaling ship in the southern whale fishery for a number of years, before becoming a general transport and then a slave ship. In 1804 the French captured her, but the Royal Navy recaptured her. Although she is last listed in 1811, she does not appear in Lloyd's List (LL) ship arrival and departure (SAD) data after 1804.
Charming Kitty was a ship captured from the Spanish. She first appeared in Gret Britain's Protection Lists for whalers in 1799. She conducted four whaling voyages between 1799 and 1808 before becoming a West Indiaman, trading with the Caribbean. She was wrecked in October 1813.
Active was a French ship that came into British hands in 1800 as a prize. William Bennet purchased her and named her Active. He employed her as a whaler and she was lost in January 1803 at the start of her second whaling voyage.
Eliza was built in Spain in 1794 under another name and taken as a prize circa 1800. She then made one voyage for the British East India Company (EIC). On her return she made one voyage to Timor as a whaler. She next became a West Indiaman. In 1810 she apparently was sold to Portuguese interests and who continued to sail her under the name Courier de Londres. She is last listed in 1814.
Honduras Packet was launched in Spain in 1798 under another name and was renamed when the British captured her in 1800. She was a merchantman that between 1804 and 1809 made one, two, or three voyages seal hunting or whaling in the Southern Fishery. She was also the first vessel to transport Scottish emigrants to Honduras in 1822-23 under Gregor MacGregor's ill-conceived and ill-fated "Poyais scheme". She was last listed in 1828-30.
Cornwall was launched in 1794 as a West Indiaman. In a little more than three years later she had left on the first of three whaling voyages to the Southern Whale Fishery. On her first whaling voyage she captured a Spanish ship and fought off a French privateer. After her third whaling voyage Cornwall returned to the West Indies trade. Around 1817 new owners sent her to India where a Parsi merchant purchased her. She traded in the Persian Gulf and the Indian Ocean, and also participated as a transport in a naval expedition to the Persian Gulf. She was last listed in 1824.
Kingston was launched at Bristol in 1780 as a West Indiaman. From 1798 she made ten voyages as a whaler. Somewhat unusually, on her first voyage she participated in the capture of a Spanish merchant ship. She then briefly sailed between England and Quebec, and was last listed in 1819.
Sarah was launched at Hartlepool in 1800. Between 1807 and 1813 Sarah made two voyages as a whaler in the British southern whale fishery. On her first whaling voyage her captain claimed the Auckland Islands for Britain. As she was coming home a French privateer captured her, but a British privateer recaptured her. After her whaling voyages Sarah became a transport, a West Indiaman, and traded with North America. She was last listed in 1826.
Caerwent was built at Rotherhithe and launched in 1799. She was a West Indiaman that the French captured in 1803 and the British Royal Navy recaptured shortly thereafter. She made one voyage as a whaler, but then returned to the West Indies trade. She was lost at Jackmel, Hayti, in May 1810.
African Queen's origins are uncertain. She was a foreign vessel, launched in 1789 or 1790, presumably under another name. She was taken in prize in 1796 and by 1797 she was sailing out of Bristol. She made one voyage to Africa during which she was captured and recaptured and then became a slave ship. She made one voyage to the West Indies as a merchant ship, and one voyage as a whaler, but was damaged in 1801 as she returned home from that whaling voyage and apparently never sailed again.
Aurora was launched at Whitby in 1789. Between 1799 and 1806 she made four voyages as a whaler to the British southern whale fishery. She was last listed in 1809 with stale data since her whaling voyages.
Bellona was launched at Lancaster in 1799. She was a West Indiaman that made one voyage as a whaler. She disappeared in 1809 as she was returning to England from Jamaica.
Duchess of Portland was launched at Bristol in 1783. She was primarily a West Indiaman. However, she made one voyage as a slave ship in the triangular trade in enslaved people, and two as a whaler in the British Southern Whale Fishery. She then became a transport. The US Navy captured her in 1812. She was in ballast and her captors burnt her.
Venus was launched at Deptford in 1788 and made 15 voyages as a whaler in the British southern whale fishery. Of 812 whalers in the British southern whale fishery database for which there was data, she had the fifth highest number of whaling voyages. She was last listed in 1823.
Barbara was built in France in 1792. The Royal Navy captured her circa 1798, gave her a thorough repair in one of their yards, but then sold her. She sailed on one voyage as a West Indiaman. She then became a whaler in the British Southern Whale Fisheries. On her first whaling voyage she sailed to Walvis Bay. She was captured, either near there or on her way home, and taken into the Río de la Plata.
Resolution was launched at Liverpool in 1776 as the West Indiaman Thomas Hall; she was renamed in 1779. She sailed briefly as a privateer. Then between 1791 and 1804 Revolution made some six voyages as a whaler. On one voyage, in 1793, a French frigate captured her, but Resolution was re-captured. In 1804 a new owner returned her to the West Indies trade. She does not appear to have sailed after early 1805.
Fame was launched in India in 1786. She was sold to Portuguese owners. A French privateer captured but the Royal Navy recaptured her in 1794. She then became a West Indiaman, sailing from Liverpool. Between 1796 and 1804 she made three voyages as a slave ship. She then returned to the West Indies trade. From 1818 on she was a whaler in the Greenland whale fishery, sailing from Whitby and then Hull. She burnt in 1823 while outward bound on a whaling voyage.
Intrepid was launched in 1776, almost surely under another name. She appeared as Intrepid in British records from 1787; missing volumes of Lloyd's Register (LR) and missing pages in extant records obscure her earlier name(s) and history. She made one voyage as a whaler in the British southern whale fishery and two as a slave ship in the triangular trade in enslaved people. She also captured a Spanish merchant ship in a notable action. Otherwise she traded widely as a West Indiaman, transport, and to North and South America. She was wrecked in November 1816.
Caledonia was launched in 1780 in Spain. She apparently was taken in prize circa 1797. She made one voyage to the Caribbean and then under a subsequent owner made five voyages as a whaler in the Southern Whale Fishery. She may then have become a transport, but though listed in the registries until 1813, does not clearly appear in ship arrival and departure data after 1805.
Atalanta was launched in Holland in 1795, perhaps under another name. She was captured in 1798, and thereafter traded generally as a British merchantman. She was brig-rigged. Between 1801 and 1804 she made two voyages as a slave ship in the triangular trade in enslaved people, and may have been temporarily captured during the second. She then became a West Indiaman. Next, between 1808 and 1814, she made two voyages as a whaler in Australian and New Zealand waters. After the whaling voyages she traded more widely, especially to the Baltic. She was last listed in 1833.