Harriet (or Harriett; pre-1808 Harriot) was launched at Calcutta, between 1793 and 1795. Between 1795 and 1801 she made three voyages for the British East India Company (EIC), and was chartered for use as a transport for a naval campaign that was cancelled. She became a transport and then in 1817 made another voyage to India, this time under a license from the EIC. She then became a whaler in the British Southern Whale Fishery, making seven complete whaling voyages and being lost c.1841 on her eighth.
1st EIC voyage (1795–1796): Captain Matthew Sparrow sailed from Calcutta on 30 December 1795. She carried rice on behalf of the British government which was importing grain to address high prices for wheat in Britain following a poor harvest.
Harriet reached St Helena on 6 March 1796 and Falmouth on 14 May. She arrived at the Downs on 14 June.[6]
Harriet was admitted to registry in Great Britain on 11 August 1796.[5] She first appeared in Lloyd's Register in 1796.[3]
Year
Master
Owner
Trade
Source
1796
H.Arthur
London–India
LR
Captain Henry Archer sailed from the Downs on 19 September 1796, bound for Madras and Bengal. Harriet reached the Cape on 8 December and Madras on 3 March 1797. From there she reached visited Trincomalee on 12 June before returning to Madras on 12 July. She then arrived at Pondicherry on 15 August and returned to Madras on 17 August.[6] The EIC chartered a number of East Indiamen and country ships to serve as transport for a planned attack on Manila. The vessels assembled in Penang, which Harriet reached on 5 September. However, the Government cancelled the invasion following a peace treaty with Spain and the EIC released the vessels it had engaged. (Later Harriet received £10,438 3s 2d for her services.)
Harriet arrived at Calcutta on 11 December. Homeward bound she was at Kedgeree on 23 February 1798. She reached Colombo on 31 March, the Cape on 27 June, and St Helena on 6 August. She arrived back at the Downs on 18 October.[6]
Captain Henry Archer acquired a letter of marque on 30 January 1799.[4]Harriot sailed from Gravesend on 15 February 1799, bound for India.
Captain Alexander Sinclair sailed from Calcutta on 10 April 1801, bound for Britain. She was at Saugor on 23 April and Acheh on 23 May. She reached St Helena on 15 August and arrived at the Downs on 1 November.[6]
In 1803 Harriot was sold to Boehm & Co.
Year
Master
Owner
Trade
Source & notes
1803
W.King
Boehm&CO.
London–India
LR
1808
W.King
Boehm&CO.
London–India
LR
1809
Black
M'Inly& Co.
London transport
LR
1812
Black J.Bailey
M'Inly& Co.
London transport
LR
1813
J.Bailey
J.Hubbard
Plymouth–Petersburg
LR
1813
J.Bagley
J.Hubbard
London–Lisbon
Register of Shipping (RS)
1813
J.Bailey
J.Hill
London transport
RS (Supple.); damages & large repair 1813
1814
J.Bailey
J.Hubbard
London
LR; repairs 1813
A House of Commons report stated that Harriet had been sold to the government before 1814 for use as a transport.[7] If so, this is not obvious from her listings in either LR or the RS.
In 1813 the EIC had lost its monopoly on the trade between India and Britain. British ships were then free to sail to India or the Indian Ocean under a license from the EIC.[8]
Year
Master
Owner
Trade
Source & notes
1816
J.Bailey
J.Hubbard
London–India
LR; repairs 1813
1818
AdePyster J.Gradon
A.Hill
London–India
LR; large repair 1813
On 8 July 1816, Harriet, de Peyster, master, sailed for Madras and Bengal under a license from the EIC.[9] On 29 July Harriet was at Madeira, having come from London on her way to India. She returned to Liverpool from Bengal on 27 October 1817.
Harriet's owners next employed her as a whaler in the British Southern Whale Fishery. She made eight whale fishing voyages and was lost on the last of these.[lower-alpha 3]
1st whaling voyage (1818–1820): Captain John Gradon sailed for the Pacific on 28 July 1818. Harriet was reported in the Juan Fernández Islands and at California. She returned to Britain on 5 August 1820.[10]
2nd whaling voyage (1821–1823): Captain Dixon sailed from England on 4 February 1821. Harriet returned to Britain on 27 June 1823.[10]
3rd whaling voyage (1823–1824): Captain Dixon sailed from Britain on 25 August 1823. Harriet returned on 4 November 1824 from the Cape of good Hope with 500 casks of whale oil, plus whale fins and 20 seal skins.[10]
4th whaling voyage (1825–1827): Captain John Clark sailed from Britain on 19 January 1825, bound for New Zealand. She returned on 25 May 1827 with 500 casks.[10]
5th whaling voyage (1827–1830): Captain Clark sailed from Britain on 3 September 1827, bound for the Pacific. In May 1829 Harriet was at Sydney, New South Wales. she returned to Britain on 29 June 1834 with 700 casks of whale oil.[10]
Year
Master
Owner
Trade
Source & notes
1830
Clarke Raine
Hill&Co.
London–South Seas
Register of Shipping; small repairs 1825, 1827, and 1830
6th whaling voyage (1830–1834): Captain J. Rains sailed from Britain on 26 August 1830, bound for the whaling grounds off Japan. Harriet returned on 27 June 1830 with 780 casks of whale oil.[10]
7th whaling voyage (1834–1838): Captain Richard Cuthbert sailed from Britain on 14 December 1834, bound for the Pacific Ocean. She was variously reported at Oahu, the Bay of Islands, and Honolulu. Harriet put into Honolulu on 30 November 1837 with all but four members of her crew helpless with scurvy. She may also have visited Pago Pago; a missionary reported that the harbour there was also known as Cuthbert's harbour after the master of the first British vessel to have visited. Harriet returned full to Britain on 24 July 1838 with 1800 barrels of whale oil.[10]
Loss
Captain Charles Bunker sailed Harriet from Britain on 8 June 1839, bound for the Pacific for her eighth whaling voyage. In 1840 she was at Sydney. In 1844 it was reported that while she was at Strong's Island (Kosrae in 1841, the locals seized Harriet, murdered Bunker and his crew, and burnt Harriet to the water line.[10]
Notes, citations, and references
Notes
↑ Lloyd's Register and the Register of Shipping both gave a launch year of 1793, but Hackman gives a more precise date. Unfortunately, Phipps, who gives the fullest listing of vessels built in Calcutta at this time, has no information on Harriet.[2]
↑ Her owners were Almon Hill, Limehouse, ship builder; John Boulcott Junior, ship broker; and James Hill, Limehouse, ship builder.[10]
↑ The British Southern Whale Fishery database currently describes Harriet as an American prize of 363 tons (bm). This is incorrect.[10]
Hackman, Rowan (2001). Ships of the East India Company. Gravesend, Kent: World Ship Society. ISBN0-905617-96-7.
House of Commons, Parliament, Great Britain (1814). Minutes of the Evidence Taken Before the Select Committee on Petitions Relating to East-India-Built Shipping. H.M. Stationery Office.CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
Phipps, John (1840). A Collection of Papers Relative to Ship Building in India ...: Also a Register Comprehending All the Ships ... Built in India to the Present Time ... Scott.
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Cadmus was launched in 1813 at Sunderland. She traded with the East Indies under license from the British East India Company (EIC) until 1827. Then between 1827 and 1834 she made two voyages as a whaler. She was lost in 1835.
Varuna was launched at Calcutta in 1796. She made four voyages as an "extra ship" for the British East India Company (EIC), and then spent two years as a troopship. She returned to India in 1806. She was lost in 1811, probably in a typhoon.
Lord Camden was launched in 1783 as an East Indiaman for the British East India Company. She made five voyages for the EIC before her owner sold her.
Earl of Wycombe was launched in 1786 as an East Indiaman. She made six voyages for the British East India Company (EIC). In 1800 she became a general trader, trading across the Atlantic to the West Indies and Canada. She was lost without a trace c.1803.
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Reliance was launched at Coringa in 1815. She sailed east of the Cape of Good Hope until c.1827 when she sailed to England and assumed British registry. Once in Britain she sailed back and forth to Bengal under a license from the British East India Company (EIC). She also twice transported military convicts to New South Wales from Bengal. In 1832 Bennett sent Reliance on a whaling voyage to the Pacific. After she returned she sailed on a second whaling voyage, but this time to the Indian Ocean where she wrecked at the end of 1836.
Partridge was built at Antwerp in 1813, under another name, and was taken in prize. From 1814 she was under British ownership. Between 1814 and 1822 she traded with India, sailing under a license from the British East India Company (EIC). She then became a whaler, making three voyages to the British Southern Whale Fishery before she was broken up in 1834.
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 British Northern Whale Fishery. She returned to trade in 1841 and was lost on 1 December 1843 homeward bound from Quebec.
Sally was launched in 1782 at Liverpool as a West Indiaman. She made one voyage as a whaler and one as an East Indiaman sailing to Bengal under charter to the British East India Company (EIC). After a storm damaged her in 1805 as she was on her way in 1805 from Liverpool to Africa as a slave ship she had to put into Barbados where she was condemned.
Mellish was launched in 1819 at Kidderpore, Calcutta as Chicheley Plowden but renamed within the year and sold for a "free trader", i.e, a ship trading between England and India sailing under a license from the British East India Company (EIC). She then made two voyages transporting convicts, the first to New South Wales, and one to Van Diemen's Land (VDL). She next made two voyages as a South Seas whaler between 1831 and 1838. She was wrecked on 5 October 1844.
Spy was built in France in 1780, almost surely under another name, and taken in prize. The British East India Company (EIC) purchased her in 1781 and used her for almost two years as a fast packet vessel and cruiser based in St Helena. It then sold her and she became a London-based slave ship, making two voyages carrying slaves from West Africa to the West Indies. She then became a whaler, making seven whaling voyages between 1786 and 1795. She was probably wrecked in August 1795 on a voyage as a government transport.
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Indus was launched in 1803 at Newcastle on Tyne. In 1804 the British East India Company (EIC) hired her for six voyages to India as an "extra ship". She completed the last of these six voyages in 1814. Thereafter she continued to trade with India, but privately, sailing under a licence from the EIC. She was last listed in 1823.
Mediterranean was launched in 1810 in Lowestoft or Great Yarmouth. Initially she sailed to the Mediterranean. Between 1819 and 1823 she made two voyages as a whaler in the British southern whale fishery. She then traded with India, sailing under a licence from the British East India Company (EIC). She may have shifted to India, before returning to British registry in 1835–1837 while performing a third whaling voyage. She then disappeared from online records.
Harriet was launched in Massachusetts in 1809. The British captured her and on 13 January 1813 a prize court condemned her. New owners retained her name. She became a West Indiaman, and made one voyage to New South Wales. Between 1818 and 1832 she made four complete voyages as a whaler in the British southern whale fishery. She was lost in October 1833 in the Seychelles on her fifth whaling voyage.
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