Career
Grace first appeared in Lloyd's Register in 1814 with G.Vivian, master, Bullock & Co., owners, and trade Falmouth packet. [1]
| Year | Master | Owner | Trade | Source |
|---|
| 1815 | G.Vivian | Bullock & Co. | Falmouth packet [3] | LR [4] |
|
Falmouth packet
The list of voyages below is not complete.
Grace arrived at Falmouth on 1 October 1814 to take mail to the West Indies. On 25 October she repulsed an attack by an American privateer in which Grace had three men killed. She arrived at Barbados on 27 October. [5] Grace, Thompson, master, arrived back at Falmouth on 2 January 1815. She had engaged an American privateer brig of 16 guns on 10 October, but suffered little damage and no casualties. (Whether this is the same or a separate incident from that on 25 October is not clear.) On 10 November she was at Guadaloupe. On the 19th she left St Kitts and on the 28th she left Tortola. On the 30th she left St Thomas. On 4 December an American privateer schooner chased her, but could not catch her. On the 22nd a gale and heavy seas took away her bowsprit and mizzenmast, stove in her boat, and did other damage. [6]
Grace left Falmouth 27 October 1815, bound for Surinam. She arrived there in December and then sailed for Demerara. On 12 December she sailed from Demerara for Dominica. She left Dominica on 26 December and arrived at Cork on 29 January 1816. She arrived back at Falmouth on 8 February. [7]
Grace left Falmouth on 14 June 1816. She was at Halifax, Nova Scotia between 26 and 28 July, and arrived at New York city on 7 August. she sailed from New York on 8 September and arrived at Halifax again on September. She left Halifax o on the 19th and arrived back at Falmouth on 15 October. [3]
Grace left Falmouth on 14 November and arrived at Bermuda on 16 November. She sailed from Bermuda on 30 November and arrived at New York on 27 December. She sailed from New York on 22 February 1817 and arrived at Falmouth on 13 March. She did not stop at Halifax on her homeward-bound leg as while she was in New York a Royal Navy sloop had brought the mails from Halifax for Falmouth. [3]
On 31 March 1817 Grace sailed with mails for Gibraltar and Malta. She arrived at Gibraltar on 10 March and sailed for Malta on the 13th. She arrived at Malta on 7 May. She sailed from Malta on 26 May and Gibraltar on 9 June, arriving back at Falmouth on 25 June.
Grace left Falmouth on 10 July 1817 and arrived at Halifax on 19 August. She sailed from Halifax on 29 August and arrived at New York on 29 August. She left New York on 10 October and arrived at Halifax on the 15th. She left Halifax on the 23rd and arrived back at Falmouth on 5 December. [3]
Grace left Falmouth on 20 December 1817 and arrived at Bermuda on 23 January 1818. She left Bermuda on 27 January and arrived at New York on 8 February. She left New York on 9 March and arrived at Halifax on 15 March. She left Halifax on 24 March and arrived back at Falmouth on 15 April. [3] On her way home after leaving New York she encountered in latitude 42° an island of ice some seven leagues (approx. 38 kilometers) long and 3,000 ft (914 m) high. [8]
On 14 June 1818 Grace arrived at Barbados from Falmouth. She sailed from Jamaica on 13 July and arrived back at Falmouth on 1 August.
Grace left Falmouth on 21 October 1818 and arrived at Madeira on 3 November. She left the next day, and stopped at Pernambuco (on 2 December) and Salvador, Bahia, before arriving at Rio de Janeiro on 14 December. She left Rio on 7 January 1819 and arrived back at Falmouth on 15 March. [9]
Grace left Falmouth on 15 June 1819 and arrived at Halifax on 15 July. She left Halifax on 20 July and arrived at New York on the 28th. She left New York on 4 September and arrived at Halifax on the 10th. She left Halifax on 16 September and arrived back at Falmouth on 13 October. [3]
Seal hunting and whaling
Seal hunting had begun in the South Shetland Islands in late 1819 and Grace's owners decided to pursue the opportunity.
| Year | Master | Owner | Trade | Source |
|---|
| 1822 | H.Rowe | Bullock & Co. | Plymouth–South Seas | LR; raised 1816 old materials, & large repair 1821 |
|
On 16 June 1821 Captain Henry Rowe sailed from Plymouth, bound for the South Shetlands. She was reported to have been there on 3 February 1822 and to have gathered 1100 seal skins and 20 tons of seal oil. Rowe then sailed for the Galápagos Islands. She was reported to have been there on 5 May. On 5 May she spoke L'Aigle at Charles Island. Grace was reported to have been at Santa María Island, Chile (St Mary's) on 2 March 1823 with 20 barrels of sperm oil, 145 barrels whale oil, and 2700 skins. [2]
HMS Fantome was an 18-gun brig-sloop of the Royal Navy. She was originally a French privateer brig named Fantôme, which the British captured in 1810 and commissioned into British service. Fantome saw extensive action in the War of 1812 until she was lost in a shipwreck at Prospect, Nova Scotia, near Halifax in 1814.
HMS Belvidera was a Royal Navy 36-gun Apollo-class frigate built in Deptford in 1809. She saw action in the Napoleonic Wars and the War of 1812 and continued a busy career at sea into the middle of the 19th century. In 1846 she was reduced to harbour service, in 1860 she became a receiving ship, and she was finally disposed of in 1906.
Duke of York was a three-masted brig launched in 1817 at Bideford as a Falmouth packet, sailing between Falmouth, Cornwall, and Jamaica. In 1836 she brought settlers to South Australia for the South Australia Company. She was wrecked in 1837.
HMS Surinam was a Cruizer-class brig-sloop built by Obadiah Ayles at Topsham, Exeter and launched in 1805. She captured one privateer during her twenty-year career and took part in two campaigns before she was broken up in 1825.
HMS Zephyr was a 10-gun Cherokee-class brig-sloop built for the Royal Navy and launched in 1823. She then became a Falmouth Post Office Packet Service packet. She was sold in 1836.
HMS Indian was a Bermuda-built sloop launched in 1805. She captured several small privateers while on the West Indies and Halifax stations before the Royal Navy sold her in 1817. Her main claim to fame, however, is that she was the first command of future Rear-Admiral Charles Austen, who was also the brother of the famed novelist Jane Austen. After the Navy sold her she became a whaler for Samuel Enderby & Sons. She apparently sailed for them until the mid-1830s; she then sailed for other owners until mid-1847, for a total of nine whaling voyages since leaving naval service.
Rifleman was a Cruizer-class brig-sloop launched in 1809 for the Royal Navy. She served in the North Sea, on the Halifax and Jamaica stations, and in the Mediterranean Sea. During her service she recaptured a Royal Navy vessel in Danish service, and two privateers. The Navy sold her in 1836 and she proceed to sail as a merchantman and whaler between 1837 and 1856.
HMS Nimrod was a brig-sloop of the British Royal Navy, launched in 1812. She spent her war years in North American waters, where she captured one small privateer, assisted in the capture of another, and captured or destroyed some 50 American vessels. After the war she captured smugglers and assisted the civil authorities in maintaining order in Tyne. She was wrecked in 1827 and so damaged that the Navy decided she was not worth repairing. A private ship-owner purchased Nimrod and repaired her. She then went on to spend some 20 years trading between Britain and Charleston, the Mediterranean, Australia, and India. She was last listed in 1851.
Several ships have been named Grace:
Snake was probably launched in Spain in 1802 and was a prize that came into British hands in 1808. Her first owner employed her a privateer, but in 1810 sold her. Thereafter she sailed between London or Plymouth and the Cape of Good Hope (CGH), or between 1809 and 1816 in the Post Office Packet Service from Falmouth. Afterwards she sailed between London and South America. She was last listed in 1824.
Little Catherine was launched in 1801 at Bermuda, probably under another name. She was condemned in prize in May 1809 at Barbados and entered British registry that year. At that time she traded between Liverpool and Africa. In 1813 she became a temporary packet sailing for the Post Office Packet Service from Falmouth, Cornwall. In 1813 the French Navy captured her and abandoned her after taking off her crew. The Royal Navy recovered her three days later. In 1814 an American privateer captured her but the Royal Navy recaptured her within two weeks. Her owner refused to pay salvage and turned her over to the Post Office which returned her to use as a Falmouth packet but renamed her Blucher, in honour of Prince Blucher who had helped defeat Napoleon at the Battle of Leipzig in 1813. The government sold Blucher in 1823. New owners returned her to the name Little Catherine and she continued to sail widely until she was last listed in 1845, having been sold to a Chinese owner. She was wrecked in October 1847.
Norfolk was built in France in 1784 under a different name. The British captured her c. 1800 and she made some voyages as a West Indiaman. She also made a cruise as a privateer. Between 1803 and 1808 she served the Royal Navy as an armed defense and hired armed ship on the Leith Station. She spent her time escorting convoys in the North Sea and captured one French privateer. After her naval service, between 1808 and 1814 Norfolk was a London-based transport. From 1814 to 1820 she made four voyages as a whaler in the British southern whale fishery. She was last listed in 1823.
Manchester was originally built at Falmouth in 1805, and served the Post Office Packet Service. Hence, she was generally referred to as a packet ship, and often as a Falmouth packet. In 1813 an American privateer captured her after a single-ship action, but the British Royal Navy recaptured her quickly. She returned to the packet trade until 1831 when she became a whaler, making one whaling voyage to the Seychelles. From 1835 she was a merchantman, trading between London and Mauritius. She was last listed in 1841.
Windsor Castle was launched at Yarmouth in 1804. She spent her entire 11-year career as a Falmouth packet, primarily on the Falmouth–Halifax–New York–Halifax–Falmouth route and the Falmouth–Leeward Islands–Falmouth route. She also sailed on some other voyages. She was involved in two notable single-ship actions. In the first, in 1807, she captured her attacker, a French privateer schooner, in a sanguinary encounter. In the second, in 1815, an American privateer captured her. A prize crew took her into Norfolk, Virginia, where she was sold at auction.
Duke of Montrose was a Falmouth packet launched in 1804. She participated in six single-ship actions. During the Napoleonic Wars she captured a French naval schooner but a year or so later a French privateer captured her. She returned to British hands some nine months later. During the War of 1812 she was able to drive off American privateers twice. An American frigate captured her in 1813 but gave her up to her crew, also putting onboard the crews of other vessels the frigate had captured. Then a French frigate also captured her and gave her up after disarming her. She was wrecked at Barbados in 1815.
Hinchinbrook was built in America in 1812. By 1814 she was carrying mails for the Post Office Packet Service from Falmouth, Cornwall. In May 1814 she repelled an attack by an American privateer in a single-ship action. She was wrecked in May 1816.
Comet was launched in 1791 at Rotherhithe. At the outbreak of war with France, she briefly became a privateer before the British East India Company (EIC) chartered her for one voyage to bring back sugar, saltpeter, and other goods from Bengal. Between 1812 and 1821 she made three voyages as a whaler in the British southern whale fishery. Then between 1823 and 1840 she became a whaler based in Hull, whaling in the northern whale fishery. She returned to trade in 1841 and was lost on 1 December 1843 homeward bound from Quebec.
Queen Charlotte was built in Emsworth in 1801. She was a regular packet ship for the Post Office Packet Service, sailing out of Falmouth. She made several voyages across the Atlantic between late 1802 and 16 May 1805 when she was captured. She came back into British hands around 1806. The Post Office took her into temporary service between 1812 and 1817. In 1815, she was involved in a friendly fire incident. She then became a whaler off Peru in 1818. She remained in the Pacific Coast of South America until she was condemned there in 1820 as unseaworthy; she was last listed that same year. She may have been repaired and have continued to trade on the coast until 1822.
Lady Mary Pelham was launched in 1811 as a packet based in Falmouth, Cornwall for the Post Office Packet Service. She repelled attack by privateers in 1812 and 1813, the latter being a notable and controversial engagement with an American privateer. Another American privateer captured her in February 1815 in the West Indies. New owners retained her name and between 1815 and at least 1824 she continued to sail to the Continent and South America.
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