Harriot (1797 ship)

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History
British-Red-Ensign-1707.svgGreat Britain
NameHarriot
BuilderSpain
Launched1794
Acquired1797 by purchase of a prize
Captured1809
General characteristics
Tons burthen217, [1] or 226, or 227 [1] (bm)
Complement
  • 1797: 25 [1]
  • 1803*1803: 22 [1]
Armament
  • 1797: 14 × 6-pounder guns [1]
  • 1803: 8 × 6-pounder guns + 2 swivel guns [1]
  • 1810: 2 × 4-pounder guns (LR)
  • 1810: 10 × 12-pounder carronades (Register of Shipping)

Harriot (or Harriet) was launched in Spain in 1794, almost surely under another name, and taken in prize in 1797. She made two voyages as a London-based slave ship in the triangular trade in enslaved people. Under new ownership, she then made three voyages as a whaler in the British southern whale fishery. A privateer captured her as she was returning from her third whale-hunting voyage but the British Royal Navy recaptured her. After her recapture she became a merchantman. The Spanish seized her in the Pacific; she was condemned at Lima, Peru in March-April 1809, as a smuggler.

Contents

Slave ship

Harriot first appeared in Lloyd's Register in 1797. [2]

YearMasterOwnerTradeSource
1797J.ClarkParry & Co.London–AfricaLR

1st voyage transporting enslaved people (1797–1798): Captain James Clark (or Clark), acquired a letter of marque on 15 September 1797. [1] [lower-alpha 1] He sailed from London on 4 October, bound for the Bight of Benin. [4] In 1797, 104 vessels sailed from English ports, bound to Africa to acquire and transport captives; 12 of these vessels sailed from London. [5]

Harriot started acquiring captives on 27 November. She acquired captives in three places: Batoa, Popo, and Keta. Harriot departed Africa on 2 April 1798. She arrived at St Vincent on 2 May. She had embarked with 346 captives and she arrived with 339, for a 2% mortality rate. She sailed for London on 2 July and arrived there on 14 August. [4]

After the passage of the Slave Trade Act 1788 (Dolben's Act), masters received a bonus of £100 for a mortality rate of under 2%; the ship's surgeon received £50. For a mortality rate between two and three per cent, the bonus was halved. There was no bonus if mortality exceeded 3%. [6]

2nd voyage transporting enslaved people (1798–1799): Captain Clark sailed from London on 21 October 1798. [7] In 1798, 104 vessels sailed from English ports, bound to Africa to acquire and transport captives; 8 of these vessels sailed from London. This was the largest number of vessels to sail from England in the period 1795–1804, and the smallest number to sail from London. [5]

Harriot acquired captives at Anomabu, and arrived at Demerara on 20 June 1799 with 350 captives. [7]

Whaler

LR only caught up in its 1802 issue with Harriet's move from trading in captives to whaling.

YearMasterOwnerTradeSource
1802J.Clark
Chase		Parry
Mather & Co. 		London–Africa
London–Southern Fishery		LR

1st whaling voyage (1799–1801): Captain L. Chase (or Chace) sailed Harriet in 1799 and returned on 12 February 1801. [8]

2nd whaling voyage (1801–1803): Captain L. (or Samuel Chase) sailed from London in 1801, bound for Walvis Bay. Harriet was reported to have been at Walvis Bay in August 1801. [8] Between 10 July 1802 and 20 August she was at Port Jackson. [9] By September 1802 she was at New Zealand. She returned to England on 28 June 1803. [8]

3rd whaling voyage (1803-1805): Captain Samuel Chase was Harriet's captain initially, but died at some point. Captain Thaddeus Coffin acquired a letter of marque on 20 August 1803. [1] Harriet sailed from London in October 1803 for the Pacific. Harriet, Coffin, master, was at Chile in March 1804 and then sailed from Peru to New Zealand, where she was by October 1804. [8] Harriet was at Port Jackson between 24 April and 29 May 1805. She had come from the fisheries and was returning to them. [9] As Harriot was returning from Port Jackson to London a Spanish privateer captured her, but HMS Dryad recaptured her and sent her into Waterford. [10] Harriot, Coffin, master, finally returned to Gravesend on 24 December 1805. [8]

Merchantman

YearMasterOwnerTradeSource
1806T.Coffin
Glasspoole		MathersSouth Seas–CorkLR

Captain Glasspoole sailed on a voyage from Cork. One source classified the voyage as a whaling voyage, [11] though that attribution appears to be more on the basis of the destination than anything else; at the time some British vessels did sail to the Pacific coast of South America for trading purposes.

YearMasterOwnerTradeSource
1807GlasspooleMathersLondon–Buenos AiresLR
1808Glasspoole
Starling		Mather
Fenn & Co.		London–Buenos Aires
London–Surinam		LR
1809Starling
M'Hendrick		Fenn & Co.
Gwin & Co.		London–SurinamLR
1810M'HendrickGwin & Co.London–South SeasLR
1810M'HendrickGwynone & Co.London–South SeasRegister of Shipping (RS)

Fate

At some point Captain James Porter replaced M'Hendrick in command of Harriet. As with the voyage to the South Seas, Clayton classified the voyage as a whaling voyage, [11] though it was not necessarily so.

Lloyd's List reported in April 1810 that Harriet, Porter, master, had been taken and brought into Lima, where she was condemned. [12]

On 12 August 1809, the brig Rey Fernando VII found the British ship Harriet in the anchorage at Lengua de Vaca. The Spaniards found items and hidden silver, leading them to suspect smuggling. Rey Fernando VII took Harriet to Callao, where they arrived on the 27th. The court there, or at Lima, declared Harriet a legitimate prize. [13]

Notes

  1. ↑ Clark was the 13th leading slave ship captain of the 1785 to 1807 period. Between 1791 and 1806 he made nine voyages as a captain of slave ships, for five owners, in six vessels, first from London and then from Liverpool. [3]

Citations

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 "Letter of Marque, p.66 - accessed 25 July 2017" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 20 October 2016. Retrieved 27 October 2018.
  2. ↑ LR (1797), "H" supple. pages.
  3. ↑ Behrendt (1990), p. 105.
  4. 1 2 Trans Atlantic Slave Trade Database – Harriot voyage #81733.
  5. 1 2 Williams (1897), p. 680.
  6. ↑ Howley (2008), p. 151.
  7. 1 2 Trans Atlantic Slave Trade Database – Harriot voyage #81734.
  8. 1 2 3 4 5 British Southern Whale Fishery Database – Voyages: Harriet.
  9. 1 2 "Arrival of Vessels at Port Jackson, and their Departure". Australian Town and Country Journal, Saturday 3 January 1891, p.16. 3 January 1891. Retrieved 28 April 2012.
  10. ↑ "The Marine List". Lloyd's List. No. 4270. 12 November 1805. hdl:2027/uc1.c2735022.
  11. 1 2 Clayton (2014), p. 137.
  12. ↑ "The Marine List". Lloyd's List. No. 4451. 20 April 1810. hdl:2027/uc1.c2735024.
  13. ↑ Ortíz Sotelo (2015), p. 324.

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The ship that became Mary Ann was built in 1772 in France and the British captured her c. 1778. Her name may have been Ariadne until 1786 when she started to engage in whaling. Next, as Mary Ann, she made one voyage transporting convicts to New South Wales from England. In 1794 the French captured her, but by 1797 she was back in her owners' hands. She then made a slave trading voyage. Next, she became a West Indiaman, trading between London or Liverpool to Demerara. It was on one of those voyages in November 1801 that a French privateer captured her.

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Otter was launched at Liverpool in 1797, initially as a West Indiaman. She made seven voyages as a slave ship in the triangular trade in enslaved people. During her career she captured one merchantman and recaptured another. She was lost in 1807 on her way back to Britain from her seventh enslaving voyage.

Sarah was launched at Liverpool in 1797. She then made six voyages as a Liverpool-based slave ship in the triangular trade carrying enslaved people from West Africa to the West Indies. A French privateer captured Sarah in 1804 in a single-ship action on her seventh voyage after Sarah had gathered her slaves but before she could deliver them to the West Indies.

Governor Dowdeswell was launched in 1798 in Spain or France under another name. The British captured her in 1800. New owners in Liverpool renamed her and employed her as a slave ship for five voyages in the triangular trade in enslaved people. With the end of the British slave trade in 1807, new owners employed her as a whaler. She made one complete whaling voyage to the Pacific but the Spanish seized he during her second whaling voyage there.

Hannah was built in Liverpool in 1795. She made four voyages as a slave ship in the triangular trade of enslaved people. She was lost in 1801 as she was returning home after having delivered her captives on her fourth voyage.

Hannah was built at Liverpool in 1797. She made three voyages as a slave ship in the triangular trade in enslaved people. She then made one voyage as a whaler in the British southern whale fishery. Next, she became a West Indiaman and was lost in 1811.

Windsor Castle was launched at Whitby in 1783. Initially she was primarily a West Indiaman. Then from 1797 she made five voyages as a slave ship in the triangular trade in enslaved people. She foundered off Bermuda in 1803 after having disembarked her captives.

Resolution was launched at Liverpool in 1776 as the West Indiaman Thomas Hall; she was renamed in 1779. She sailed briefly as a privateer. Then between 1791 and 1804 Revolution made some six voyages as a whaler. On one voyage, in 1793, a French frigate captured her, but Resolution was re-captured. In 1804 a new owner returned her to the West Indies trade. She does not appear to have sailed after early 1805.

Caroline was a ship launched in France in 1792, possibly under another name. She was taken in prize in 1794 and sailed first as a West Indiaman, then as a whaler in the British southern whale fishery, and finally as a slave ship in the triangular trade in enslaved people. She was lost in 1801, after she had delivered her captives to Kingston, Jamaica on her second voyage from Africa.

Bolton was launched at Liverpool in 1792. She then made 10 voyages as a slave ship in the triangular trade in enslaved people. During her career she repelled one attack by a French privateer, was captured on a later voyage by another before being recaptured by the Royal Navy, and then was captured on her tenth voyage by yet another privateer after Bolton had gathered her captives but before she was able to deliver them to the West Indies. Bolton returned to British ownership, first sailing as West Indiaman, before embarking on an 11th enslaving voyage. She blew up on the African coast in 1806 after some of the captives aboard her succeeded in taking her over and setting fire to her.

Harriot was launched in Liverpool in 1786. For many years she was a West Indiaman, sailing between Liverpool and Barbados. In 1796 a French frigate captured her, but the British Royal Navy quickly recaptured her. She became a slave ship in the triangular trade in enslaved people. At the beginning of her of her first slave trading voyage a French privateer captured her, and again the Royal Navy quickly recaptured her. She made five slave trading voyages in all. Thereafter she traded with South America. She was last listed in 1814 with stale data.

Backhouse was launched in 1785 at Chester. She initially sailed as a West Indiaman. In 1792–1793 she made one voyage as a slave ship in the triangular trade in enslaved people. Once in 1796 and twice in 1797 she repelled attacks by French privateers in three single-ship actions. Backhouse made four more enslaving voyages and then returned to the West Indies trade. After about 1809 she became a London coaster and was last listed in 1813.

Nimble was built in Folkestone in 1781, possibly under another name. In 1786 Nimble was almost rebuilt and lengthened. Between 1786 and 1798 she made nine voyages as a whaler in the British Southern Whale Fishery. Between 1799 and 1804 she made four voyages from Liverpool as a slave ship in the triangular trade in enslaved people. On her first voyage as to gather captives she detained a neutral vessel, an action that resulted in a court case. On her second voyage to gather captives, a French privateer captured her, but the Royal Navy recaptured her. She was wrecked in 1804 or so after she had delivered her captives to St Thomas.

Atalanta was launched in Holland in 1795, perhaps under another name. She was captured in 1798, and thereafter traded generally as a British merchantman. She was brig-rigged. Between 1801 and 1804 she made two voyages as a slave ship in the triangular trade in enslaved people, and may have been temporarily captured during the second. She then became a West Indiaman. Next, between 1808 and 1814, she made two voyages as a whaler in Australian and New Zealand waters. After the whaling voyages she traded more widely, especially to the Baltic. She was last listed in 1833.

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References

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