Duke of Portland was a sailing ship built in 1790 at Bordeaux, France. The British Royal Navy captured her in 1794 after the outbreak of the French Revolutionary Wars. British owners named her Duke of Portland and employed her as a whaler. As such she made some eleven whaling voyages. On the outbound leg of her eighth voyage she transportedconvicts to Port Jackson, New South Wales. She was last listed in 1811.
In 1794 the British captured the ship that would become Duke of Portland.[4]
Duke of Portland first appears in Lloyd's Register in 1797 in the supplemental pages.[1]
Duke of Portland, Thomas Pittman, master, Daniel Bennett, owner, left Britain on 20 March 1797 on her first whaling voyage. She returned on 3 April 1798.[5]
Pittman was still captain of Duke of Portland for her second whaling voyage. She left Britain on 25 June 1798 and returned on 27 August 1799.[5]
Captain Ransom Jones was master on Duke of Portland's third whaling voyage. She left Britain on 20 November 1799 and returned on 27 March 1801.[5]
Jones received a letter of marque for Duke of Portland on 17 July 1801.[2] At the time of receiving the letter, Jones and Duke of Portland was already on her way on her fourth whaling voyage. She had left on 3 June 1801, and she returned on 7 September 1802, having stopped at St Helena on 21 May 1802.[5]
Captain Stephen Matley sailed Duke of Portland on her fifth whaling voyage. She left Britain on 26 November 1802 and returned on 5 March 1804.[5] On her return Matley received a letter of marque on 14 June.[2]
However, it was Captain John Clarke Spence (or Spencer) who sailed Duke of Portland on her sixth whaling voyage. She left Britain on 29 May 1804 with the destination Isle of Desolation. She was reported to have been "all well" there in March 1805. She returned to Britain on 21 June 1805.[5]
On his return Captain John Clarke Spence received a letter of marque on 22 July 1805.[2] He sailed Duke of Portland again on her seventh whaling voyage, again to the Isle of Desolation. He left on 10 November 1805. and returned on 20 September 1806.[5]
Duke of Portland sailed on 13 December 1806,[5] or 19 February 1807 under the command of Captain John Spence, and in company with Lively and Ranger. The ships sailed with the India Fleet under the escort of HMSAntelope. The convoy parted when Duke of Portland made for Rio de Janeiro. She arrived at Sydney on 27 July 1807.[6]Duke of Portland embarked 189 convicts, and disembarked 189, having lost none;[7] other reports state that three convicts died on the voyage and that two died later.
Duke of Portland left Port Jackson on 7 or 10 November bound for England.[8] She was carrying a cargo of oil, sealskins, and lumber.[9] She returned to Britain on 19 April 1808.[5]
On 14 July 1808,[5] or 3 August 1808, Duke of Portland, Spence, master, sailed again from England, and arrived at Port Jackson again on 24 January 1809. This time she was carrying stores, not prisoners.[lower-alpha 1] She left for England in May.[8] Apparently, she first visited Guadalupe Island, off the California coast and took on a cargo of seal oil and skins. She next put into at Honolulu in February 1810. Duke of Portland left on 4 March, having spent several weeks there. Before her departure, King Kamehameha I entrusted Spence with a letter to King George III and several gifts, which Spence delivered on his return to England. Duke of Portland sought cargoes and whales, but without success and she returned to England.[9] She arrived there on 17 August 1810.[5]
Duke of Portland is last listed in Lloyd's Register in 1808, still with Daniel Bennett as owner. There exist records that indicate that she made two more whaling voyages, both to the Island of Desolation. She left in September 1810 with John Matley as master.[5] He died of natural causes on 12 December and his grave is on Matley Island, a small tidal island in Baie Norvégienne, in the Kerguelen Islands.[10]
She then sailed again in 1811 with Spence as master.[5] Spence brought with him a gravestone, which Matley's widow had had made, and placed it on Matley's grave.[10]
Duke of Portland is last listed in the Register of Shipping in 1811 with J. Spence, master, D. Bennet, owner, and London-South Seas as trade.[11]
Notes
↑ Bateson lists Duke of Portland's second voyage among his list of convict voyages,[6] but then does not show her as carrying any convicts.[7]
Britannia was a 301 burthen ton full-rigged whaler built in 1783 in Bridport, England, and owned by the whaling firm Samuel Enderby & Sons. She also performed two voyages transporting convicts to Port Jackson. She was wrecked in 1806 off the coast of New South Wales.
Active was the French ship Alsace that the Royal Navy captured in 1803. William Bennett purchased her and named her Active, in place of a previous Active that had been lost in January 1803. She then made one whaling voyage for him. Bennett sold her to Robins & Co., and she sailed between London and Buenos Aires. She then sailed on a second sealing voyage. She was lost in 1810.
Atlantic was launched in 1783. She made one voyage from England to Australia in 1791 carrying convicts. Later, she made one voyage for the East India Company (EIC). Subsequently she sailed to Smyrna, Surinam, and Gibraltar, before she disappeared from records in 1810.
Archduke Charles was built in Newcastle, England in 1809. She was sheathed in copper in 1810 and partially resheathed with copper in 1812. She made one voyage transporting convicts from Ireland to New South Wales, and on her return voyage to Britain she carried a cargo from China for the British East India Company (EIC). She was wrecked in 1816 while carrying troops from Quebec to Nova Scotia.
Albion was a full-rigged whaler built at Deptford, England, and launched in 1798. She made five whaling voyages to the seas around New South Wales and New Zealand. The government chartered her in 1803 to transport stores and cattle, to Risdon Cove on the River Derwent, Tasmania.
Hillsborough was a three-decker merchant ship launched in 1782. She made six voyages to India and China as an East Indiaman for the British East India Company. In 1798 she transported convicts from England to New South Wales. After delivering her convicts in 1799, she became a whaler in the South Seas fisheries for several years. She was broken up in 1804.
Indispensable was a sailing ship built in France and launched in 1791. She was captured in 1793 at the outbreak of the French Revolutionary Wars and thus came into British hands, keeping her name. She performed two voyages for the British East India Company (EIC) between 1793 and 1797. During this period and later she made two voyages transporting convicts to New South Wales. Amongst her notable events were the discovery of Indispensable Strait (1794), the capture of a Spanish vessel (1798), and the rescue of some castaways (1814). She later went on serve as a whaler in the South Seas until autumn 1827. She ceased trading after this last voyage and was broken up by April 1830.
Earl Spencer was an East Indiaman, launched in 1795 for the British East India Company (EIC). She made seven voyages for the EIC until in 1811-12 the government took her up to transport convicts to Australia in 1813. On her return voyage from Australia she sailed via China, where she carried a cargo back to England for the EIC.
Catherine, was a whaler, launched in 1811 at New Bedford, that also made one voyage transporting convicts from England to New South Wales in 1813. She made seven whaling voyages between 1813 and 1831.
Northampton, was a three-decker merchant ship launched in 1801 upon the River Thames, England. She made eight voyages to India as an extra (chartered) ship for the British East India Company (EIC) between 1801 and 1819. During the same period she made one separate trip transporting convicts from Britain to New South Wales, followed by a voyage for the EIC from China back to England. In 1820 she carried settlers to South Africa. She is last listed in Lloyd's Register in 1822.
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.
The vessel that would become Young William was built in 1791 at Nantes. The British captured her in 1794 and Daniel Bennett purchased her that year. She then went on to make 10 voyages for him. French privateers captured her twice, but on the first occasion the British Royal Navy recaptured her, and on the second her captor did not keep her. Still, the French Navy captured and burnt her in 1810 on her eleventh voyage.
Frederick was an American-built ship that the British captured from the French c.1805. Lumley & Co. purchased her in prize and employed her as a slave-ship for two voyages. After the abolition of the British slave trade in 1807 she briefly became a merchantman, and then in 1810 a whaler. She made several voyages to the Southern Whale Fishery. On one of these voyages, in 1812, a French privateer captured Frederick but the British Royal Navy captured the privateer, and recaptured Frederick. She is last listed in 1822.
Tottenham was launched in 1802 and made six voyages for the British East India Company (EIC). Her owners then sold her and she became a transport. She made one voyage transporting convicts to Botany Bay. She was sold in 1820 for breaking up.
Minerva was launched at Lancaster, Lancashire, in 1805. Following trading with Central and South America, she made two voyages under charter to the British East India Company (EIC) between 1811 and 1814. She also made four voyages transporting convicts to Australia between 1818 and 1824, one to Van Diemen's Land and three voyages to New South Wales. She was broken up in 1826.
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.
Lady Castlereagh was launched in 1803. She made six apparently uneventful voyages to India and one to China for the British East India Company (EIC). She left the EIC's service and made one voyage transporting convicts to Australia. She was returning from having delivered her convicts to Port Jackson and Van Diemen's Land when she was damaged in October 1818 a gale at Madras. She was surveyed there, condemned, and sold for breaking up.
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.
Thames was a Spanish vessel launched in 1804, almost certainly under a different name, and captured circa 1805. She became a whaler, making eight whaling voyages between 1805 and 1826. Although the registers carried Thames for some years after her return from her eighth voyage, there is no evidence that she ever sailed again.
Grand Sachem was launched at Newburyport, Massachusetts in 1801. She was registered at Bideford in 1803, but until 1815 sailed from Milford Haven. Between approximately 1803 and 1822, she made eight voyages as a whaler in the British southern whale fishery. She was last listed in 1822 and was broken up in 1826.
Headland, Robert (1989). Chronological list of Antarctic expeditions and related historical events. Cambridge England New York: Cambridge University Press. ISBN978-0-521-30903-5. OCLC18778733.
Stanbury, Myra, Kandy-Jane Henderson, Bernard Derrien, Nicolas Bigourdan, & Evelyne Le Touze (2015) "Chapter 18: Epilogue" [online]. In: Stanbury, Myra. The Mermaid Atoll Shipwreck: A Mysterious Early 19th-century Loss. (Fremantle, WA: Australian National Centre of Excellence for Maritime Archaeology and the Australasian Institute for Maritime Archaeology): 235-290. ISBN9781876465094 [cited 20 Aug 18].
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