Career
Merchantman: Between 1787 and 1793 Popham was engaged in a series of commercial ventures in the Eastern Sea, sailing for the Imperial Ostend Company. During this time he took several surveys and rendered some services to the British East India Company, which were officially acknowledged.
In December 1791 he purchased at Calcutta and fitted out an American ship, President Washington, at a cost of about £20,000. He named his purchase Etrusco, transferring to President Washington the name and papers of his previous ship. She therefore sailed under the flag of the Duke of Tuscany. [4]
Popham sailed Etrusco to China and took on board a cargo valued at £50,000, the property of himself and two merchants, apparently French. He also took on the freight charge, which he valued at £40,000. Etrusco arrived at Ostend in July 1793, where the English frigate HMS Brilliant seized her and then brought her back to England. [Note 1]
Etrusco was claimed as a prize for having French property on board, and condemned as a droit of admiralty for infringing the British East India Company's (EIC) monopoly by bringing tea from China. [Note 2]
Etrusco first appeared in Lloyd's Register (LR) in 1794 with B. Georgi, master, Popham, owner, and trade Cork–Hamburg. [1]
Royal Navy: The Admiralty purchased Etrusco in 1794. Commander James Hanson commissioned her as HMS Etrusco in May 1795; she was registered on 29 June 1795. Commander George Reynolds replaced Hanson in September 1797.
Rear Admiral Sir Home Riggs Popham, KCB, KCH, was a Royal Navy commander who saw service against the French during the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. He is remembered for his scientific accomplishments, particularly the development of a signal code that was adopted by the Royal Navy in 1803.
Surprize was a three-deck merchant vessel launched in 1780 that made five voyages as a packet ship under charter to the British East India Company (EIC). The fourth of which was subsequent to her participating in the notorious Second Fleet transporting convicts to Port Jackson (EIC). Her fifth voyage for the EIC was subsequent to her second voyage transporting convicts to Australia. In 1799 a French frigate captured her in the Bay of Bengal.
HMS Lively was a 32-gun fifth-rate Alcmene-class frigate of the British Royal Navy launched on 23 October 1794 at Northam, Devon. She took part in three actions one a single-ship action, one a major battle, and one a cutting-out boat expedition – that would in 1847 qualify her crews for the issuance of the Naval General Service Medal. Lively was wrecked in 1798.
Nine ships and one shore establishment of the Royal Navy have been named HMS Wasp, with one other government vessel using the name:
HMS Rover was a 16-gun sloop-of-war that the Royal Navy purchased in 1796, commissioned in 1798, and that was wrecked in early 1798. In her brief career she captured one French privateer.
Sardine was a corvette of the French Navy, launched in 1771. The Royal Navy captured her at the Siege of Toulon but the French retook her when the Anglo-Spanish force retreated. The Royal Navy captured her again in 1796. She then served as HMS Sardine until the Royal Navy sold her in 1806.
HMS Calcutta was the East Indiaman Warley, converted to a Royal Navy 56-gun fourth rate. This ship of the line served for a time as an armed transport. She also transported convicts to Australia in a voyage that became a circumnavigation of the world. The French 74-gun Magnanime captured Calcutta in 1805. In 1809, after she ran aground during the Battle of the Basque Roads and her crew had abandoned her, a British boarding party burned her.
HMS Cormorant was a 16-gun ship sloop of the Cormorant class in the Royal Navy, launched in 1794 at Rotherhithe. She captured four French privateers before an accidental fire destroyed her in 1796.
Ceres was an East Indiaman launched in 1787. She made three trips to China for the British East India Company (EIC). After the outbreak of war with France in 1793, the Admiralty, desirous of quickly building up the Royal Navy, purchased a number of commercial vessels, including nine East Indiamen, to meet the need for small two-decker fourth rates to serve as convoy escorts. The Admiralty purchased Ceres in 1795 and renamed her HMS Grampus. In 1797 the Admiralty converted her to a storeship. That year her crew participated in the Spithead and Nore mutinies. Grampus grounded in January 1799 and was destroyed.
Royal Charlotte was launched in 1789 as an East Indiaman for the British East India Company (EIC). She made two trips to China for the EIC and on the second of these, after the outbreak of war with France in 1793, assisted at the British capture of Pondicherry. Then, the Admiralty, desirous of quickly building up the Royal Navy, purchased a number of commercial vessels, including nine East Indiamen, to meet the need for small two-decker fourth rates to serve as convoy escorts. The Admiralty purchased Royal Charlotte in 1795 and renamed her HMS Malabar. She made a trip to the West Indies where she was the lead ship of a small squadron that captured some Dutch colonies. She foundered in 1796 while escorting a convoy in the North Atlantic.
HMS Woolwich was an Adventure-class frigate launched in 1784. She essentially spent her career as a storeship before being wrecked in 1813.
HMS Selby was the mercantile Selby built in 1791 at Whitby. She was a North Sea and Baltic trader until the British Royal Navy purchased her in 1798. Selby's purchase was one of a number of purchases of armed ships or ship-sloops where the Navy's intent was to use them as convoy escorts. Selby was at the raid on Dunkirk, though she played no real role. The Navy sold her in 1801. She then returned to being a merchantman. She is last listed in 1810, trading between London and Jamaica.
Adèle was a French privateer brig commissioned in 1800 that the British Royal Navy captured later that year. The British East India Company's government in India purchased her in 1801 for service as an armed brig in the Bay of Bengal and along the Coromandel Coast. In 1804 she sailed to Britain where the Admiralty purchased her for use as a fire ship, and named her HMS Firebrand. She was wrecked in 1804.
Alligator was launched in 1793 at London. She made one voyage for the British East India Company (EIC). She then became a general trader crossing the Atlantic. She was wrecked in 1820.
HMS Weymouth was laid down as the East Indiaman Earl of Mansfield. The British Royal Navy purchased her on the stocks to use as a 56-gun fourth rate. She was launched in 1795 but never was commissioned in the Royal Navy. She was transferred in February 1796 to the Transportation Board as a transport. Lieutenant Robert Passmore took command in June 1796. Commander Charles Ryder succeeded Passmore in July 1798, and Commander Ambrose Crofton replaced Ryder in August 1799.
HMS Mastiff was launched at Hull in 1790, as Herald. From there she traded with the Baltic. The British Royal Navy purchased her in 1797, had her fitted at Leith, and named her GB №35, and then Mastiff. She served as a convoy escort in the North Sea until she wrecked in 1800.
Anacreon was launched in 1800 at Sunderland. She initially sailed between London and Minorca and then between 1804 and 1805 she served as an armed defense ship for the Royal Navy. She next became a London-based transport, and eventually traded from Liverpool to the Baltic and Canada. She was wrecked in 1823.
Ceres was launched at Kolkata in August 1793 as Lutchmy and renamed in 1794. She sailed to England in 1798 and became a West Indiaman. She was condemned at Barbados in 1806. New owners returned her to service, first as a West Indiaman and then as an East Indiaman. She was damaged at Mauritius in 1818 and although she was listed until 1824, it is not clear that she sailed again after the damage she sustained in Mauritius.
Isabella was launched in France in 1791 as the East Indiaman St Jean de Lone. Two British privateers captured her in 1793. She was sold in prize and renamed Isabella. She initially sailed as a West Indiaman and then between 1795 and 1798 made two voyages to India as an "extra" ship for the British East India Company (EIC). Afterwards, she returned to the West Indies and Baltic trades and was last listed in 1809, but with data stale since c.1802.
HMS Trompeuse was a former French 16-gun brig-sloop, launched in July 1793, that HMS Sphinx captured on 12 January 1794 near Cape Clear Island. The British Royal Navy took her into service. As HMS Trompeuse she captured a small privateer and then grounded off Kinsale in 1796.
