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HMS Hecla was a Royal Navy Hecla-class bomb vessel launched in 1815. Like many other bomb vessels, she was named for a volcano, in this case Hekla in southern Iceland. She served at the Bombardment of Algiers in 1816. Subsequently, she took part in three expeditions to the Arctic. She then served as a survey vessel on the coast of West Africa until she was sold in 1831. She became a merchantman and in 1834 a Greenland whaler. She was wrecked in 1840.
Commander William Popham commissioned Hecla for service in the Mediterranean. [2] Hecla saw wartime service as part of the Anglo-Dutch fleet at the bombardment of Algiers on 27 August 1816. [4] In 1847 the Admiralty authorised the award of the Naval General Service Medal with clasp "Algiers" to all surviving claimants from the battle.
In early 1819 she was converted to an Arctic exploration ship and made three journeys to the Arctic in search of the Northwest Passage, and made one attempt on the North Pole, all under Lieutenant William Edward Parry or Commander George Francis Lyon, and spent many winters iced in without serious damage. [5]
On the first journey, from May 1819 until December 1820 [6] Hecla was commanded by Parry. She and her companion ship, the gun brig Griper, reached a longitude 112°51' W before backtracking to winter off Melville Island. No ship was able to travel so far west again in a single season until 1910, when Joseph-Elzéar Bernier reached Cape Dundas on Melville Island. [7] The second year, the two ships reached longitude 113°46' W before returning to England. [5]
On her second expedition, from May 1821 until November 1823, [6] Hecla was under Lyon's command while Parry led the overall expedition from her sister ship Fury. The furthest point on this trip, the perpetually frozen strait between Foxe Basin and the Gulf of Boothia, was named after the two ships: Fury and Hecla Strait.
Ice conditions frustrated Hecla's third expedition to the Canadian Arctic, which took place from May 1824 to October 1825, [6] again in the company of Fury. Hecla was again under the command of Parry, who now was a captain. Fury was badly damaged at Prince Regent Inlet and had to be abandoned. [8]
In 1827, Parry used Hecla for an unsuccessful attempt to reach the North Pole from Spitsbergen by boat, reaching 82°45' N. [6] Following this voyage, Hecla was withdrawn from Arctic service. [8]
Commander Thomas Boteler was appointed captain of Hecla in December 1827. [2] She then was engaged in surveying the West African Coast in 1828–31. After Boteler's death in November 1829, Commander F. Harding became her captain. [6]
Hecla was put up for sale in 1831 at Woolwich. [9] She was sold in April for £1,990 to Sir E. Banks. [2]
Hecla entered Lloyd's Register (LR) in 1831 with R. Jumson, master, Banerman, owner, and trade London–St Petersburg. [3] She underwent repairs in 1832 and then became a merchantman. The Register of Shipping for 1833 shows her with Allen, master, Banerman, owner, and trade Liverpool–Savannah. [10]
Banerman used her for one season in 1834 as a northern seas whaler. Under the command of Captain Reid she caught five whales, yielding 63 tun of whale oil, in the Davis Strait. [11] In 1835 Banerman sold her to Kirkcaldy. Hecla was operating out of Kirkcaldy when she was lost in 1840. [12] A gale on 23 June 1840 drove her against ice floes, crushing her. [13]
Hecla still appeared in LR for 1845 with M. Wright, master, Elder & Co. owner, and trade Leith–Davis Strait. Her homeport was Kirkcaldy, and her entry included the remark "wants repair". It had the annotation, "wrecked". [14]
HMS Fury was a Hecla-class bomb vessel of the British Royal Navy.
HMS Griper was a Bold-class gun-brig of the British Royal Navy, built in 1813 by Mark Williams and John Davidson at Hythe. She participated in the 1819 expedition to the Arctic led by William Parry, made a voyage to Greenland and Norway in 1823, and took part in Parry's third expedition in 1824 as a support ship. Her crew in 1819, 1823, or 1824, qualified for the "Arctic Medal", which the Admiralty issued in 1857. She was eventually broken up in 1868.
HMS Swan was launched on 21 November 1767 at Plymouth as the lead ship of the 24 ships in the 14-gun Swan-class of ship-sloops built in the 1760s and 1770s. She served during the American Revolutionary War and the French Revolutionary War. She bore the name HMS Explosion between 1779 and 1783; at the time she was classed as a fireship. She was laid up in 1801 and finally sold in 1814. Swan then became a whaler in the northern whale fishery, sailing out of Kingston-on-Hull. She also made one voyage to the southern whale fishery (1819–1821) and one merchant voyage to Brazil and Hamburg, before returning to the northern whale fishery. She was broken up circa. 1841.
Brunswick was launched at Hull and initially was a Greenland whaler. Her owner withdrew her from the northern whale fishery in 1836 and then deployed her sailing to New York and Sierra Leone. She was apparently on a voyage to India when she was wrecked on 7 April 1842.
Cicero was launched at Hull in 1819 as a Greenland whaler, hunting bowhead whales. She made six full voyages to the Greenland whale fishery and was lost in July 1826 on her seventh.
Andrew Marvel was launched at Hull in 1812. From 1812 to 1835 she was a Greenland whaler, hunting bowhead whales in the northern whale fishery. Thereafter she became a merchantman. She foundered in September 1843 while on a voyage from Hull to Saint John, New Brunswick.
Earl Fauconberg was launched at Whitby in 1765. From 1784 on she made numerous voyages as a Greenland whaler. She was lost there in 1821.
Aurora was launched at Kingston upon Hull. She traded with the Baltic until 1803 when she became a Greenland whaler. She was lost in 1821 on her 18th voyage to the northern whale fishery.
Blenheim may have been launched in 1776 in Philadelphia as Britannia. By 1777 she was the Massachusetts-based privateer American Tartar and had taken several prizes. She had also participated in an inconclusive single-ship action with a British merchantman. The British Royal Navy captured American Tartar late in 1777 and she became HMS Hinchinbrook. The Royal Navy sold her in 1783 and she became the West Indiaman Blenheim. In 1785-86 she became a Greenland whaler and she continued in that trade until two French frigates captured and burnt her in 1806.
Lord Wellington was launched in 1810 at Hull, England. She made 20 voyages to Davis Strait and Greenland as a northern whale fishery whaler. She was lost in June 1834 on her 21st voyage.
Regalia was launched at Sunderland in 1811. In 1819 she made a voyage to Calcutta, sailing under a license from the British East India Company (EIC). She also sailed to New South Wales and Van Diemen's Land. From Sydney she engaged in several sealing hunting voyages to the waters around Macquarie Island. In 1826 she transported convicts from Dublin to New South Wales. From 1831 until 1852, when she was wrecked at Davis Strait, Regalia was a whaler in the northern whale fishery.
Gardiner and Joseph was launched at Hull in 1802. She made seven voyages as a whaler in the northern whale fishery until she was wrecked in November 1808.
Gardiner and Joseph was launched at Hull in 1810. She made 11 voyages to Greenland or Davis Strait as a whaler in the northern whale fishery. She then traded briefly between Hull and North America. She foundered on 9 October 1824.
Jane was launched at Kingston upon Hull in 1813 as a West Indiaman. Between 1818 and 1836 she was a whaler in the northern whale fishery. She then became a merchantman and was wrecked in 1866.
Prince of Wales was launched in 1793 on the Thames. She spent much of her career sailing for the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC). From 1845 she was a Greenland whaler, sailing out of Hull. In 1845 she was the last ship to see Sir John Franklin's expedition to the arctic. She was wrecked on 12 June 1849 in Davis Strait.
Home Castle was launched in Aberdeen in 1811. From 1813 on she was a whaler in the British northern whale fishery. She was lost in 1829 while whaling in Davis Strait.
William Lee was launched in 1831 in Hull as a whaler in the British northern whale fishery. She made six whaling voyages. In 1833, she participated in the rescue of the explorer John Ross, and his crew. After the collapse of the whale fishery, her owners sold her in 1836. Under new ownership, she traded more widely, to Russia, Calcutta, and North America. She was wrecked in December 1847.
Isabella was launched in Kingston upon Hull in 1813. She initially sailed as a transport, and then as a merchantman trading with Canada. In 1817 the British Admiralty hired her as one of two vessels that would go on an expedition to search for a Northwest Passage. The expedition was unsuccessful. In 1820 she underwent two maritime mishaps, only one of which was substantive. From 1824 until she wrecked in the ice in June 1835 she was a whaler in the northern whale fishery.
Zephyr was a vessel built at Hull in 1796. She initially traded with the Baltic, though for a year or so she was a London-based transport. From 1810 she made 27 voyages as a whaler in the northern whale fishery. She returned to mercantile trade and was last listed in 1853.
William was launched at Kingston upon Hull in 1811. She made 19 complete voyages to Davis Strait and Greenland in the British northern whale fishery, but was lost to ice on her 20th. Her loss gave rise to an interesting case in claims for salvage.