| History | |
|---|---|
 Great Britain | |
| Name | Charming Kitty |
| Owner |
|
| Acquired | c.1799 as prize |
| Fate | Wrecked 1813 |
| General characteristics [1] | |
| Tons burthen | 303 (bm) |
| Propulsion | Sail |
Charming Kitty was a ship captured from the Spanish. She first appeared in Great 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.
Charming Kitty left Britain on her first whaling voyage 21 March 1799, under the command of John Mather, master, with destination Walvis Bay. [2] [3] Charming Kitty was reported at Walvis Bay in August 1801, with Burn, master. By 19 September 1801, she was at St Helena, and she arrived back at Britain on 6 December. [2]
Captain Thaddeus Luce (or Lewis) sailed Charming Kitty on 16 March 1802, from Britain and bound for Delagoa Bay. She was reported there with other whalers, including Britannia, DuBuc and Resolution, on 8 August. [4] [5] [lower-alpha 1]
She left Cape of Good Hope on 12 February 1804, for Britain, and arrived there on 3 April 1804. [2]
In August 1802, the Honourable the Court of Directors of the East India Company announced that they had licensed 19 vessels, Albion, Charming Kitty, and Flirt among them, to sail east of the Cape of Good Hope to engage in whaling in the "Southern Whale Fishery". [6] At the time Charming Kitty was valued at £9,000. [7]
Charming Kitty's third whaling voyage began on 1 July 1804, when she left Britain under the command of George Hedge (or Hodges), master. She was reported to have called at Rio de Janeiro in January 1805, with 40 tons of oil, but with her master and seven crew members dead. Her new master appears to have been "Mitchell". She returned to Rio in December, to refill her water casks. [2] She left St Helena on 7 September, in a convoy under the escort of the 50-gun HMS Antelope, [lower-alpha 2] and returned to Britain on 29 October 1806. [2]
Captain Henry King sailed Charming Kitty on her fourth and last whaling voyage. She left Britain on 9 February 1807, bound for Delagoa Bay. She was reported to have been at Delagoa Bay on 1 August, and on 1 September 1807. She sailed out of the Cape of Good Hope on 19 January 1808. [2] She was then reported "feared lost". [7] She arrived in Britain on 12 December 1808, [2] but put into Ramsgate on 15 December 1808, having lost her anchor, cables, and bowsprit. [7]
Charming Kitty's entry in Lloyd's Register for 1809 showed an amendment, changing master from H. King to Manning, and her trade from South Seas to Yucatán. [9]
Lloyd's Register for 1810, gave her trade as London-Antigua, her master as Manning, and her owner as Shuttleworth.
Charming Kitty was reported to have been at Havana on 11 June 1812, loading for London. [10]
Charming Kitty, Nevin, master, was lost near Bermuda on 20 October 1813. Her crew and part of the cargo were saved. She had been sailing from British Honduras to London. [11]
Cyrus was a whaler launched at Salem in 1800. She performed one whaling voyage for French owners before a British letter of marque captured her in 1803. From 1804 on, she performed 17 whaling voyages for British owners in the almost half a century between 1804 and 1853. The first five were for Samuel Enderby & Sons. Between 1 August 1834 and 2 June 1848 her captain was Richard Spratly, namesake of Spratly Island and the group of islands and reefs known as the Spratly Islands. She apparently made one last voyage in 1854, but then no longer traded. She was last listed in Lloyd's Register in 1856.
HMS Flirt was launched in 1782 but was completed too late to see any significant service in the American War of Independence. She then spent most of the years of peace in British waters. She sailed to Jamaica in 1791, but was laid up in Deptford in November 1792, and did not return to service before being sold in 1795. Daniel Bennett purchased her, had her almost rebuilt, and then employed her as a whaler in the Southern Whale Fishery. A French privateer captured her in 1803 as Flirt was returning to Britain from a whaling voyage.
Ganges was a ship launched in 1798 at Philadelphia, probably for French owners. During the Peace of Amiens her registration and homeport became Dunkirk. Her French owners sent her to engage in whaling at Delagoa Bay, where the British letter of marque whaler Scorpion captured her in 1803. She then made one whaling voyage to Isle of Desolation before a French squadron captured her in 1806 during a second whaling voyage. Accounts differ as to whether her captors sank her, or released her and she continued to operate as a merchant vessel until 1814.
Chardon was a whaler that Aget, Kenny, and Coffyn purchased in 1787 and commissioned at Dunkirk that same year. Benjamin Hussey purchased her in 1789 and renamed her Judith. Judith made four whaling voyages as a French ship. The British captured her but her crew recaptured her. She then sailed to New Bedford.
Lively was launched at Saint-Malo in 1765 as Duchesse d'Aiguillon. She spent her first years cod-fishing at Newfoundland. She was renamed Abeille after the French Revolution and became a transport in the service of the government. HMS Hebe captured her in 1795. A. Dixon purchased her, and Daniel Bennett purchased her from Dixon in 1798. He then employed her as whaler on some six complete voyages. She was lost c.1808 on her seventh voyage.
Butterworth was launched in 1778 in France as the highly successful 32-gun privateer Américaine, of Granville. The British Royal Navy captured her early in 1781. She first appeared in a commercial role in 1784 as America, and was renamed in 1785 as Butterworth. She served primarily as a whaler in the Greenland whale fisheries. New owners purchased her in 1789. She underwent a great repair in 1791 that increased her size by almost 20%. She is most famous for her role in the "Butterworth Squadron", which took her and two ship's tenders on an exploration, sealing, otter fur, and whaling voyage to Alaska and the Pacific Coast of North America. She and her consorts are widely credited with being the first European vessels to enter, in 1794, what is now Honolulu harbour. After her return to England in 1795, Butterworth went on three more whaling voyages to the South Pacific, then Africa, and then the South Pacific again. In 1802 she was outward bound on her fourth of these voyage, this to the South Pacific, when she was lost.
Mather & Co. were three brothers that began in commerce and contracting for the British Royal Navy. They became owners of whalers and between them at one or another time were owners or part-owners of up to 29 vessels that engaged in the British Southern Whale Fishery between 1775 and 1815.
Britannia was built in South Carolina in 1772. Prior to 1798, Britannia sailed between London and South Carolina, or simply served as a transport. In 1798 she changed ownership and began a sequence of whaling voyages. Between 1798 and 1807 she made a number of whaling voyages to the South Seas whale fishery, and the coast of South Africa. On one of those voyages a French privateer captured her, but Britannia was recaptured almost immediately. Between 1808 and 1816, the last year in which she is listed, she returned to operating as a London-based transport.
DuBuc was a vessel captured in 1797 and sold that year for mercantile use. She initially became a West Indiaman, but then the whaling company Mather & Co. purchased her. She made four voyages for them, being condemned at Hobart in October 1808.
Perseverance was launched on the Thames in 1801. She then spent her entire career of 16 voyages as a whaler. Early in her career a French privateer captured her, but the British Royal Navy quickly recaptured her. Perseverance would herself later capture a vessel too. She was broken up in 1841.
Eliza was a French prize that made nine voyages as a whaler between 1802 and 1822. She is 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.
Fonthill was a ship built in France in 1781 and was probably taken in prize in 1782. Fonthill sailed as a West Indiaman between 1783 and 1791, then became a whaler southern whale fishery and made four whaling voyages between 1791 and 1799. On her third voyage she took back from Cape Town a Dutch captain whose vessel had been captured bringing in arms and ammunition from Batavia to stir up unrest against the British at the Cape. After refitting, in 1800, Fonthill became a whaler in the northern whale fishery. Fonthill was last listed, with stale data, in 1810, but whose last reported whaling voyage took place in 1806.
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.
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.
Cicero was launched at Sunderland in 1796 and initially sailed as a West Indiaman. She was briefly captured in 1799 in a single-ship action with a French privateer. Later, she went whale hunting both in the northern whale fishery (1803-1808), and the southern whale fishery (1816-1823). She capsized at Limerick in September 1832 and was condemned there.
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.
Argo was launched in 1802 in France, possibly under another name, and captured c. 1804. She became a privateer and then a whaler. She made two complete whale hunting voyages in the British southern whale fishery. A US Navy frigate captured her on her third whaling voyage.
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.
