Swan | |
History | |
---|---|
Great Britain | |
Name | HMS Swan |
Ordered | 18 January 1766 |
Builder | Plymouth Dockyard |
Laid down | June 1766 |
Launched | 21 November 1767 |
Commissioned | February 1768 |
Fate | Sold September 1814 |
United Kingdom | |
Name | Swan |
Acquired | 1814 by purchase |
Fate | Broken up c.1841 |
General characteristics | |
Class and type | Swan-class |
Tons burthen | 3004⁄94 bm |
Length |
|
Beam | 26 ft 9 in (8.2 m) |
Depth of hold | 12 ft 9 in (3.89 m) |
Complement | 125 |
Armament |
|
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.
American Revolutionary War:December, 1774 under command of Capt. James Ayscough serving in British North America. [1] Swan took Europe and sent her to Cowes around 17 July 1793.
War of the Second Coalition:On 10 April, 1799 under command of Captain Carew, she and frigate HMS Hind captured American merchant sloop "Fair Columbian" off the coast of Florida ( 29°09′N78°48′W / 29.150°N 78.800°W ). Eventually Fair Columbian's crew reasserted control of the ship and brought her into Baltimore. [2]
On 17 January, 1800 USS Warren made contact with sloop of war HMS Swan, Jacob Watson commanding, off Abaco Island operating out of Bermuda. [3]
In 1814 Swan became a whaler sailing to the Northern Whale Fishery. She made annual voyages to Greenland or Davis Strait from 1815 to 1819.
Swan, Taylor, master, made five annual voyages between 1815 and 1819. The data below is from Coltish. [4]
Year | Grounds | "Fish" (Whales) | Tuns whale oil |
---|---|---|---|
1815 | Greenland | 6 | 91 |
1816 | Davis Strait | 10 | 154 |
1817 | Davis Strait | 11 | 165 |
1818 | Davis Strait | 4 | 58 |
1819 | Davis Strait | 5 | 48 |
In 1819–1821 Swan made one voyage to the South Seas Whale Fishery. Captain Dring sailed on 2 November 1819, bound for Walvis Bay. Swan returned to Hull on 28 September 1821 with 170 tons of whale oil. The cargo bounty was £500, and the cargo's value was £3420. [5]
Swan then sailed as a merchantman to Brazil. On 4 March 1822 she was at Falmouth, having come from Hull and on her way to Rio de Janeiro. She arrived at Rio on 30 April. On 23 June she was at Bahia. By 12 September she had returned to Deal and on the 17th she sailed for Hambro. She arrived at Cuxhaven on 25 September, and Hambro the next day. She returned to Hull on 22 November.
Swan, Dring, master, returned to the Northern Whale Fishery in 1823. In 1823 and 1824 she did her whale hunting off Greenland. From 1825 to 1840 she was at Davis Strait. The data below is primarily from Coltish. [4]
Year | Master | "Fish" (Whales) | Tuns whale oil |
---|---|---|---|
1823 | Dring | 12 | 111 |
1824 | Dring | 3 | 55 |
1825 | Dring | 8 | 120 |
1826 | Dring | 11 | 190 |
1827 | Dring | 160 | |
1828 | Dring | 19 | 204 |
1829 | Dring | 13 | 195 |
1830 | Dring | 0 | "Clean" |
1831 | Dring | 6 | 90 |
1832 | Dring | 25 | 214 |
1833 | Dring | 24 | 196 |
1834 | Dring | 19 | 151 |
1835 | Dring | 2 | 90 butts blubber containing 25 tons of train oil, plus one ton of fins |
1836/1837 | Dring | 3 | c.30 |
In 1836 Swan, Robert Dring, master, was the last of the Northern Fishery whalers to sail for the fisheries. In October she became ice-bound (beset) and did not get free until spring of 1837. In 1837 she was at Peterhead on 29 June, having gotten free of the ice on 24 May. The first whaler to sight Swan, on 14 May, was William and Ann. Swan was then some 30 miles west of Disco and Captain Stairton's men refused to got to Swan's assistance on the grounds that Swan was far off and they weren't paid to do so. She was only able to get free because the crews of five whalers came upon her and sawed 3000 feet of heavy ice to get her out. The vessels also provided provisions, with one, Charlotte, Adamson, master, being particularly helpful. Then Dunscombe, owned by the same company as Swan, left off her fishing, provided 20 men to fill out Swan's crew, and accompanied her home. Of Swan's crew of 48 men, 20 had died, 14 of them in an attempt to reach a Danish colony in her boats. In addition to the men of her crew who died, five more men also died. Swan had taken on a boat of six men from the wrecked Jane and Mary, of London; of the six, only the mate survived. [6]
On 18 August Swan, Dring, master, sailed from Hull to Petersburg. She returned on 14 November. Such off-season voyages may have been more common than this one instance would suggest.
Year | Master | "Fish" (Whales) | Tuns whale oil |
---|---|---|---|
1838 | Dring | 14 | 165 |
1839 | Dring | 3 | Note: Swan also returned with a polar bear she had lassoed in the water |
1840 | Dring | 1 | |
Year | Master | Owner | Trade | Source & notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
1840 | R.Dring | Cooper & Co. | Hull–Davis Strait Hull | LR; small repairs 1837 & 1838; "wants repair" |
Her entry in LR for 1841 and 1842 carried no trade data. Her entry in the 1842 volume bore the annotation "broken up" beneath her name. [7]
William and Ann, was built at a King's Yard in 1759, under another name. From 1786 until 1791 she was a whaler in the northern whale fishery. In 1791 she transported convicts to New South Wales and then began whale hunting around New Zealand; she returned to England in 1793. Circa 1801 she again became a whaler in the northern whale fishery, sailing from Leith. She continued whaling until 1839. She then began trading widely, to Bahia, Bombay, Archangel, Spain, Honduras, and the Mediterranean. She was last listed in 1857, having been in service for over 90 years.
Duckenfield Hall was launched on the Thames in 1783. She spent most of her career trading with the West Indies. She made one voyage for the British East India Company (EIC) between 1797 and 1798. In 1819 she became a Greenland whaler. She was wrecked in the Orkney islands in 1820 while returning from a whaling voyage.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Hebe was launched at Hull in 1809. She initially sailed as a West Indiaman, but then sailed to the Mediterranean. In 1813 a privateer captured her but the Royal Navy quickly recaptured her. Between 1816 and 1819 she made two voyages to India, sailing under a license from the British East India Company (EIC). On her return new owners sailed her as a whaler. She was wrecked on 10 March 1821 on her second whaling voyage to the British northern whale fishery.
Princess Charlotte was launched in 1814 at South Shields. She initially sailed as West Indiaman. Then between 1818 and 1819 she made a voyage to India and one to Ceylon, both under a license from the British East India Company (EIC). On her return in 1819, Princess Charlotte became a whaler in the northern whale fishery. She continued whale hunting until ice crushed her on 14 June 1856.
Royal Bounty was launched in South Carolina in 1770, probably as George and Sarah. Her owners changed her name to Royal Bounty circa 1786. As Royal Bounty she sailed out of Leith, going on annual whale hunting voyages to the northern whale fishery. She was wrecked in 1819 on her 35th such voyage.
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.
Cumbrian was launched at Shields in 1811. Initially, during the last years of the Napoleonic Wars, Cumbrian was a transport. After the end of the war she became a West Indiaman. In 1817 she made one voyage to Bengal, sailing under a licence from the British East India Company (EIC). In 1819 she became a whaler, sailing from Kingston upon Hull to the northern whale fishery. From 1835 on she left whaling and started trading more widely, to North America, Bombay, and Africa. She was driven ashore in August 1844, refloated, and subsequently condemned.
Gibraltar was launched in 1776 in France, almost certainly under another name. Between 1787 and 1795, she was a whaler in the northern whale (Greenland) fishery. A French privateer captured her in February 1796 as she was on her way to the fishery, and burnt her. Her loss led the British government to increase the protection of the outward-bound whaling fleet.
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.
Dwina was launched at Kingston upon Hull in 1792. She primarily traded between Hull and Baltic ports, though she did make some voyages to the Mediterranean. In 1802 she became a whaler in the northern whale fishery. She made two complete voyages; ice wrecked her in 1804 shortly after she arrived at Greenland on her third voyage.
Lady Forbes was launched at Leith in 1799. She became a West Indiaman, sailing under a series of letters of marque. She survived a major hurricane and an attack by pirates. From 1819, she was a whaler in the British northern whale fishery. She made three annual whaling voyages before she was lost in 1822 when ice crushed her.