| History | |
|---|---|
 United Kingdom | |
| Name | Forbes |
| Owner | Forbes & Co. [a] |
| Builder | Michael Smith, Calcutta |
| Launched | 15 January 1805 [1] |
| Fate | Wrecked on 11 September 1806 |
| General characteristics | |
| Tons burthen | 340 [1] [2] (bm) |
Forbes was launched at Calcutta in 1805. She was wrecked in the Billeton Straits in the southern part of the Karimata Strait on 11 September 1806. [3] [b]
Forbes sailed under the command of Frazer Sinclair. She traded on the coast of India and between India and the Malay archipelago. In late 1806 Sinclair engaged in privateering.
On 6 September 1806, Lord Forbes was westward of the east coast of Madura Island when she encountered the Dutch frigate Phoenix, which was sailing from Batavia to Sourabaya. Sinclair hoisted American colours and sailed within point blank range of Phoenix, which fired a few shots, but without effect. [4] [c]
On 7 September, Forbes captured a Dutch brig sailing from Batavia to Sourabaya. The next day Forbes captured two more Dutch vessels. Sinclair put a prize crew of 16 men on one of these two vessels, under the command of his second mate, Mr. Hitchins, with orders to cruise in search of more prizes. [4]
On 11 September, after Forbes had run aground and become stranded on a reef, the crew took to her boats to free her before she was scuttled. They were unsuccessful and she eventually slipped off the reef and sank. At dawn the 78 European officers and men, and lascars took to her boats. The pinnace held Sinclair, the 4th mate and 11 crew. One longboat held the 1st and 3rd officers and 27 crew. The second longboat held 40 crew. There is some uncertainty about five Javanese who had been in the brig taken in prize. They may have refused to leave the wreck, or may have been divided among the boats. [5]
On 19 September, the pinnace encountered General Baird, Harford, master, which furnished the men in the pinnace with supplies. The pinnace arrived at Malacca on 22 September. The longboat with the other Europeans arrived on 25 September. It is not clear what happened to the second longboat with the lascars. [5]
On 22 October, a Dutch snow arrived at Penang under the command of Mr. Hitchins. He had captured her and then transferred her crew and his other prisoners to the brig of the ship in which he had been sailing, taking over the snow. She was larger and had a cargo worth 14–15,000 dollars. [5]
Later, Sinclair would become master of several vessels, including Emma and Lady Rollo.
Morning Star was launched at Calcutta, India, in 1813. She was wrecked on a coral reef south of Forbes Island, north Queensland in July 1814.
The action of 18 October 1806 was a minor naval engagement during the Napoleonic Wars, fought between the British Royal Navy frigate HMS Caroline and a Dutch squadron at the entrance to Batavia harbour on Java in the Dutch East Indies. During the battle the Dutch frigate Maria Riggersbergen was left unsupported by the remainder of the squadron and, isolated, was forced to surrender. Captain Peter Rainier, the British commander, was subsequently free to remove his prize from within sight of the Dutch port when the remainder of the Dutch squadron refused to engage Caroline and their crews deliberately grounded the ships to avoid capture. He also returned many prisoners taken previously in a captured brig.
The Java campaign of 1806–1807 was a minor campaign during the Napoleonic Wars by British Royal Navy forces against a naval squadron of the Kingdom of Holland, a client state of the French Empire, based on the island of Java in the Dutch East Indies. Seeking to eliminate any threat to valuable British merchant convoys passing through the Malacca Straits, Rear-Admiral Sir Edward Pellew determined in early 1806 that the Dutch naval forces based at Java, which included several ships of the line and three frigates, had to be defeated to ensure British dominance in the region. Lacking the forces to effect an invasion of the Dutch colony, Pellew instead sought to isolate and blockade the Dutch squadron based at Batavia in preparation for raids specifically targeting the Dutch ships with his main force.
The Raid on Batavia of 27 November 1806 was a successful attempt by a large British naval force to destroy the Dutch squadron based on Java in the Dutch East Indies that posed a threat to British shipping in the Straits of Malacca. The British admiral in command of the eastern Indian Ocean, Rear-Admiral Sir Edward Pellew, led a force of four ships of the line, two frigates and brig to the capital of Java at Batavia, in search of the squadron, which was reported to consist of a number of Dutch ships of the line and several smaller vessels. However the largest Dutch ships had already sailed eastwards towards Griessie over a month earlier, and Pellew only discovered the frigate Phoenix and a number of smaller warships in the bay, all of which were driven ashore by their crews rather than engage Pellew's force. The wrecks were subsequently burnt and Pellew, unaware of the whereabouts of the main Dutch squadron, returned to his base at Madras for the winter.
The Raid on Griessie was a British attack on the Dutch port of Griessie on Java in the Dutch East Indies in December 1807 during the Napoleonic Wars. The raid was the final action in a series of engagements fought by the British squadron based in the Indian Ocean against the Dutch naval forces in Java. It completed the destruction of the Dutch squadron with the scuttling of three ships of the line, the last Dutch warships in the region. The British squadron—under the command of Rear-Admiral Sir Edward Pellew—sought to eliminate the Dutch to safeguard the trade route with China, which ran through the Straits of Malacca and were in the range of Dutch raiders operating from the principal Javan port of Batavia. In the summer of 1806, British frigates reconnoitred Javan waters and captured two Dutch frigates, encouraging Pellew to lead a major attack on Batavia that destroyed the last Dutch frigate and several smaller warships. Before the Batavia raid, however, Dutch Rear-Admiral Hartsinck had ordered his ships of the line to sail eastwards, where they took shelter at Griessie, near Sourabaya.
HMS Admiral Rainier was a Dutch 16-gun brig that the British captured on 23 August 1800 at Kuyper's Island, Java. They took her into service and named her after Admiral Peter Rainier, the leader of the British expedition. After the British sold her in 1803 apparently the French captured her in 1804 and sold her to the Dutch colonial government in Batavia for anti-piracy patrol. Her Javanese crew mutinied in 1806 and eventually sailed to Penang where vessels of the British East India Company (EIC) seized the vessel. She returned to British service, only to be captured and recaptured by vessels of the EIC. Her ultimate fate is unknown.
Mornington was a British merchant vessel built of teak and launched in 1799 at Calcutta. She made three voyages under charter to the British East India Company (EIC). On the first of these her non-European crew suffered a high mortality rate on the voyage back to India. On the third French privateers twice captured her and Royal Navy vessels twice recaptured her. She was a transport for the British invasion of Java in 1811. A fire destroyed her in 1815.
Ruby was launched at Calcutta, probably in 1800 but possibly in 1797. She participated in the expedition to the Red Sea and made one voyage for the British East India Company. Although she took on British Registry, she probably sailed only in Indian waters and to Australia. She made one voyage in 1811 transporting three convicts to Port Jackson, and then transferring 80 convicts from there to Van Diemen's Land. She was probably lost in 1813, but possibly in 1818 or 1820.
Bangalore was built in Calcutta in 1792 and took on British registry in 1797 after having made a voyage from Bengal to London under charter to the British East India Company (EIC). She then traded between London and India. She was wrecked in 1802 in the Flores Sea.
Exeter was launched at Calcutta in 1793. She made three voyages from Calcutta to England for the British East India Company (EIC). On the way home from england on the second of these voyages she suffered a high mortality rate from disease among her non-European crew. She was lost in August 1806 in a hurricane while returning to London from Jamaica.
Arran was launched at Calcutta in 1799. In 1800, she sailed to Britain for the British East India Company (EIC). On her return voyage, she suffered a major outbreak of illness while between England and the Cape. She then traded between England and India and around India until she was lost in June 1809 while sailing to Basra from Bengal.
Lucy Maria or Lucy and Maria was launched at Calcutta in 1801. She made one voyage to England carrying rice from Bengal on behalf of the British East India Company (EIC). She was seized at Amboyna in 1804 and then sailed as the Dutch ship Victoria. The British recaptured her in 1806 and new owners renamed her Troubridge and later renamed her Lucy Maria. As Troubridge she served as a transport for two invasions, that of Mauritius in 1810 and Java in 1811. She was broken up in 1821.
Emma was a merchant vessel launched at Calcutta in 1809 that in 1810 served as a government armed ship in the British invasion of Île de France. In 1811 she sailed to England where she was sold. She then became a transport and later a whaler. Between 1815 and 1853 she made 11 whaling voyages. She was then sold and became a merchantman on the England-Australia run. Between 1851 and 1853 she made one more whaling voyage to the South Seas fisheries. She then returned to the England-Australia trade. In 1857 her home port became Hull, and she became a Greenland whaler, though that role may have begun as early as 1855. She was converted in 1864 to a screw steamer but was lost in April while seal hunting.
Union was launched at Calcutta in 1801. She sailed to England and then made five voyages as an East Indiaman for the British East India Company (EIC), between 1805 and 1814. She was wrecked in late 1815 or early 1816.
Liverpool was launched at Calcutta in 1815. She traded between Britain and India under a license from the EIC, and was lost in May 1823.
Venus was launched at Chittagong in 1809 as a country ship. She participated as a transport in two British invasions. Then in 1815 USS Peacock captured her. By 1818 or so she was back under British ownership. She may have traded with New South Wales and the Cape of Good Hope. She was last listed in 1833.
Jane was launched in 1813 at Fort Gloucester, Calcutta. She transferred her registry to Britain and sailed between Britain and India or Batavia. She was last mentioned in 1820, though the registers continued to carry her until 1826.
Several sailing vessels have been named Indus, after the Indus River, or the constellation Indus:
Lady Rollo was launched at Calcutta in 1810. She was a country ship, trading east of the Cape of Good Hope, primarily between Calcutta and the islands of the Malay Archipelago, such as Java.
Marchioness of Exeter was launched in 1801 as an East Indiaman of the British East India Company (EIC). She made seven complete voyages for the EIC. She then made one more voyage to Java, sailing under a license from the EIC. Her last voyage ended in 1819.