Chance (ship)

Last updated October 30, 2023

Several vessels have been named Chance:

Mercantile vessels of the Age of Sail

Chance (1786 ship)

Chance, a schooner of 39 tons (bm), was launched in 1786 at St John's Newfoundland. She became a Liverpool-based slave ship in the triangular trade in enslaved people. Captain Jame Millbanke sailed from Liverpool on 31 March 1787. She was condemned on the coast of Africa as unfit for service.^[1] In 1787 nine British enslaving vessels were lost, four of them on the coast.^[2]

Chance was a schooner launched in Virginia in 1779, probably under another name. From 1786 she traded between London and Africa, though she may have traded in enslaved people within African waters. A tornado on 28 March 1789 upset her. Her crew saved themselves, but abandoned her and the 33 captives onboard. By chance, another vessel later was able to rescue the 11 captives by then still alive.

Chance (1799 ship)

Chance (1799 ship) was built in India c.1799. She was captured and recaptured before being lost near Saint Mary's Bay, Madagascar in May 1799.

Chance (1846 barque)

Chance was built in Salem, Massachusetts (possibly in 1846), as North West. She was renamed Chance in 1863 when owned in Australia. From 1874 to 1876 she was an Invercargill-based whaling ship before being reduced to a coaling hulk at Bluff. She was ashore at Bluff in 1902.^[3]^[4]^[5]

Royal Navy

HMS Galgo (1799) was a Jamaican privateer that the Spanish Navy captured in 1797 and named Galgo Inglés (English greyhound), and that the British captured in November 1799. In her brief career she detained, took, or destroyed a number of small prizes before October 1800, when she foundered, with the loss of most of her crew and passengers. The Admiralty had intended to rename her HMS Chance, but she was lost before the change could take effect.
HMS Chance (J12) was an Auk-class minesweeper launched by Associated SB, Seattle, on 27 November 1942. She was transferred to the UK on Lend Lease on 13 November 1943, where she was classified as a Catherine-class minesweeper. The UK returned her to the United States Navy in 1946, who sold her in March to the Turkish Navy, which named her Edremit. The Turkish Navy withdrew her from service in 1973.

Citations

↑ Trans Atlantic Slave Trade Database – Chance voyage #80800.
↑ Inikori (1996), p. 61.
↑ American Lloyd's Registry of American and Foreign Shipping. New York: E & W Blunt. 1861. p. 191. Retrieved 2 November 2022– via Mystic Seaport Museum.
↑ Mercantile Navy List. London: Spottiswoode. 1874. p. 163. Retrieved 2 November 2022– via Crew List Index Project.
↑ Richards, Rhys. "Sperm whaling on the Solanders Grounds and in Fiordland" (PDF). NIWA Library. Auckland, New Zealand: National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research. Retrieved 2 November 2022.

Related Research Articles

Britannia, was a vessel launched in 1783 at Saltcoats, possibly under another name. She made four voyages from Liverpool as a slave ship in the triangular trade in enslaved people. She grounded at Liverpool in 1793 after the first. A French privateer captured her in 1795 during the second, and took her to Guadeloupe where the Republican Government almost certainly freed the captives. She returned to British ownership and made two more voyages as a slave ship. A French privateer captured her during her fourth voyage.

HMS Duguay-Trouin was an 18-gun French privateer sloop launched in 1779 at Le Havre. Surprise captured her in 1780 and the British Royal Navy took her into service under her existing name. It sold Duguay-Trouin on 30 October 1783. She then became the West Indiaman Christopher. She captured several French merchant vessels. Later she became a Liverpool-based slave ship, making five voyages in the triangular trade in enslaved people. She was lost at Charleston in September 1804 in a hurricane.

Lord Nelson was launched in 1798 at Liverpool and subsequently made five voyages carrying slaves from West Africa to the West Indies in the triangular trade in enslaved people. On her first voyage she helped suppress a revolt on another slave ship by that vessel's captives. This gave rise to an interesting case in salvage money. A French naval squadron captured her off Sierra Leone on her sixth voyage, before she had embarked any captives.

HMS Otter was the French merchantman Glanure, which the Royal Navy (RN) captured early in 1778. The Royal Navy took her into service as the sloop HMS Otter and she served in the American theatre. The Navy sold her in 1783. She became a merchantman and then a slave ship in the triangular trade in enslaved people. She made two complete voyages bringing captives to Jamaica. The French captured her in December 1795 as she was on her way to deliver her third cargo of captives.

Prince was launched at Bristol in 1785 as Alexander and then made two complete voyages as a slave ship in the triangular trade in enslaved people. Her owners changed her name to Prince in 1787. As Prince, she made six more complete voyages as an enslaving ship. She sailed on enslaving voyages for owners in Bristol, Liverpool, and London. She foundered in 1800 as she was returning to England from her ninth, having delivered captives to Jamaica.

Several ships have been named John:

Tartar was built in Spain in 1784, almost certainly under another name. She was taken in prize and appears under British ownership in 1799. She became a slave ship sailing from Liverpool in the triangular trade in enslaved people. She was captured in late 1799 on her first enslaving voyage before she was able to embark any captives.

Resource was launched at Bermuda in 1792, possibly under another name, and sailed from Liverpool from 1798 on. She made four voyages as a slave ship in the triangular trade in enslaved people. The French Navy captured her in 1805 at the very beginning of her fifth voyage. However, the British recaptured her when her captors sent her into the Cape of Good Hope, not realising that the Royal Navy was capturing the Cape.

Nimble was built in Folkestone in 1781, possibly under another name. In 1786 Nimble was almost rebuilt and lengthened. Between 1786 and 1798 she made nine voyages as a whaler in the British Southern Whale Fishery. Between 1799 and 1804 she made four voyages from Liverpool as a slave ship in the triangular trade in enslaved people. On her first voyage as to gather captives she detained a neutral vessel, an action that resulted in a court case. On her second voyage to gather captives, a French privateer captured her, but the Royal Navy recaptured her. She was wrecked in 1804 or so after she had delivered her captives to St Thomas.

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 Liverpool-based 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.

Ellis was a French prize, captured in 1797, possibly built that year also. Liverpool merchants purchased her. She made five complete voyages as a slave ship in the triangular trade carrying enslaved people from West Africa to the British West Indies. She was lost at sea on 23 April 1806 on her sixth voyage before she could take on any captives.

Ranger was launched in 1791 in New Providence and immediately came to Britain. She generally traded between Liverpool and New Providence. She underwent grounding in 1795 and in 1796 her owners had her repaired, lengthened, and converted from a brig to a ship. A French privateer captured her in August 1797 after a single-ship action. In a process that is currently obscure, Ranger returned to British ownership circa 1799. She then became a West Indiaman. From 1803 on she became a Liverpool-based slave ship in the triangular trade in enslaved people. She made one complete voyage transporting enslaved people. Then French privateers captured her after she had embarked captives in West Africa but before she could deliver them to the West Indies. A United States citizen purchased her at Guadeloupe and renamed her Delaware. In 1805 the Royal Navy recaptured her. She was returned to her British owners who sailed her between Ireland and Newfoundland. She was last listed in 1814.

Saint Ann was launched at Liverpool in 1797. She made one voyage as a slave ship in the triangular trade in enslaved people. She foundered or was shipwrecked or destroyed in 1798 after she had delivered her captives but before she could return to Liverpool.

Several vessels have been named Catherine:

Bloom was launched in the Thirteen Colonies in 1781. She was taken in prize in 1782. She became a Liverpool-based slave ship and from 1783 on made four complete voyages in the triangular trade in enslaved people. She was broken up in 1789.

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.

Several vessels have been named Brothers:

Doe was built in 1780, in the Thirteen Colonies, possibly under another name. She was taken in prize. Between 1783 and 1786 Doe made three complete voyages as a slave ship in the triangular trade in enslaved people. New owners in 1787 renamed Doe to Ellen. Ellen was registered in Liverpool in 1787. Between 1789 and 1792, she made two complete enslaving voyages. A French privateer captured her in 1793 as she was on her way to the West Indies having embarked captives in Africa on her sixth slaving voyage.

Bud was launched at Liverpool in 1783. Between 1783 and 1800 she made 12 complete voyages as a slave ship in the triangular trade in enslaved people. In 1796 she repelled an attack by a faster, better armed, and more heavily crewed French privateer in a single ship action. Then in 1798, a French privateer captured her in another single ship action after Bud's short but sanguinary resistance. The Royal Navy quickly captured her, and her captor. On her 13th enslaving voyage she was condemned at Kingston, Jamaica after she had arrived with her captives.

References

Inikori, Joseph (1996). "Measuring the unmeasured hazards of the Atlantic slave trade: Documents relating to the British trade". Revue française d'histoire d'outre-mer. 83 (312): 53–92.

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[1] Trans Atlantic Slave Trade Database – Chance voyage #80800.

[FOOTNOTEInikori199661-2] Inikori (1996), p. 61.

[3] American Lloyd's Registry of American and Foreign Shipping. New York: E & W Blunt. 1861. p. 191. Retrieved 2 November 2022– via Mystic Seaport Museum.

[4] Mercantile Navy List. London: Spottiswoode. 1874. p. 163. Retrieved 2 November 2022– via Crew List Index Project.

[5] Richards, Rhys. "Sperm whaling on the Solanders Grounds and in Fiordland" (PDF). NIWA Library. Auckland, New Zealand: National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research. Retrieved 2 November 2022.

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