Hector (1809 ship)

Last updated
History
Civil Ensign of the United Kingdom.svgUnited Kingdom
NameHector
Acquired1809 by purchase of a prize
FateCaptured and burnt 1814
General characteristics
Tons burthen262, [1] or 263 [2] (bm)
Complement25
Armament1 × 12-pounder + 6 × 6-pounder guns + 4 × 18-pounder guns "of the New Construction" [1]

Hector was a 19th-century ship that the British captured around 1809. She became a West Indiaman, making at least one voyage to Hayti. New owners in 1811 sent her off to the Pacific to engage in whale hunting. There the Spanish detained her, but then released her. Next, the United States Navy captured her in an engagement. Her captors took her into Valparaiso, where they burnt her in February 1814.

Contents

Career

Hector first appeared in Lloyd's Register in 1809 with Pringle, master, Henry & Co., owners, and trade London–West Indies. It also noted that she had undergone small repairs. [1] She sailed from Gravesend on 6 June 1809 for Hayti. The volume for 1810 showed her master changing from Pringle to W. Pixley. The Register of Shipping for 1811 showed her master changing from W. Pixley to J. Richards, her owner from Henry & Co. to Gibbons, and her trade from London–Hayti to London–South Seas. [2]

On 13 August 1811 Hector, Richards, master, was at Plymouth, having come from London on her way to the South Seas. [3] Captain Richards sailed Hector to the Peruvian coast. On 3 October she was at Rio de Janeiro. By 30 May 1812 she was off the coast by Lima with 30 tons of whale oil. [4]

Early in 1813 the Spanish privateer Santa Teresa detained Hector off Peru's Punta Aguja on suspicion of dealing in contraband. Richards had on board 900 pesos whose origin he could not explain. On 30 January a Naval Court liberated Hector, but fined Richards 500 pesos. The court then reduced the fine to 300 pesos in response to his pleas and in consideration of the alliance between Spain and England. Shortly thereafter Hector returned to whaling. [5] Lloyd's List reported that Hector had been liberated in March. [6]

In the action off James Island on 28 May 1813 Lieutenant John Downes, of the U.S. Navy, in the captured British whaler Georgiana, exchanged broadsides with Hector. Hector struck after she had suffered two dead and six wounded; the Americans suffered no casualties. Downes put all his prisoners, including those he had captured earlier, on the captured whaler Rose and sent her to Saint Helena. [7] Before he did so, he had the prisoners swear not to take up arms against the United States until they had been formally exchanged, and he further threw her guns overboard, as well as her cargo of sperm oil. [8] Lloyd's List reported that the American sent Hector and another vessel captured on the 28th, Catharine, to Tombus. It further reported that although Rose had been sent for England, she proved leaky and had to put into Lima. [9]

Actually, Downes sailed Georgiana, Catherine, and Hector to rendezvous with Captain Porter and the USS Essex there. Eventually Downes and Porter met and Porter re-arranged his forces and his prizes. He then sent Downes in Essex Junior to Valparaiso with the prizes Hector, Catherine, Policy, and Montezuma, and the American ship Barclay, with the instructions to leave Barclay there and to sell the prizes. [10] Downes was unable to sell Hector, Catherine, and Montezuma.

Fate

Porter and Essex eventually came into Valparaiso. There, on 14 February 1814, Essex towed Hector out to sea and burned her. [11]

Citations

  1. 1 2 3 Lloyd's Register (1809), Supple. pages "H", Seq.№H60.
  2. 1 2 Register of Shipping (1811), Seq.№312.
  3. ↑ Lloyd's List No.4589.
  4. ↑ British Southern Whale Fishery database: Hector.
  5. ↑ Ortíz Sotelo (2015), p. 318.
  6. ↑ Lloyd's List №4790.
  7. ↑ Clayton (2014), p. 176.
  8. ↑ Porter (1815), pp. 210–211.
  9. ↑ Lloyd's List №4818.
  10. ↑ Porter (1815), pp.213–4.
  11. ↑ Porter (1875), pp.229–230.

Related Research Articles

USS <i>Essex</i> (1799)

The first USS Essex of the United States Navy was a 36-gun or 32-gun sailing frigate that participated in the Quasi-War with France, the First Barbary War, and in the War of 1812. The British captured her in 1814 and she then served as HMS Essex until sold at public auction on 6 June 1837.

HMS <i>Eclipse</i> (1807) Brig-sloop of the Royal Navy

HMS Eclipse was a Royal Navy Cruizer-class brig-sloop built by John King at Dover and launched in 1807. She served off Portugal and then in the Indian Ocean at the capture of the Île de France. Shortly thereafter she captured Tamatave. She was sold for mercantile service in 1815. She traded with India until 1823. Then between 1823 and 1845 she made seven voyages as a whaler.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Action off James Island</span> 1813 naval engagement between Britain and the United States

The action off James Island was a naval engagement of the War of 1812. In May 1813 an American frigate captured three British whalers off James Island in the South Pacific. Only one of the whalers resisted and the resultant single-ship action was one of the few fought in Pacific waters during the war. The British later recovered all the whalers involved.

Seringapatam was built in 1799, of teak, as a warship for Tippu Sultan, the ruler of Mysore. However, the British stormed his citadel at Seringapatam that year and he was killed in the action. The vessel was sailed to England in the hopes that the Admiralty would buy it. The Admiralty did not, and British merchants bought her to use as a whaler. She made six voyages to the Southern Atlantic and the Pacific until 1813, on her sixth voyage, when during the War of 1812, a US frigate captured her. She served briefly as a tender to the frigate before mutineers and British prisoners recaptured her and sailed to Australia. After her return to her owners, she returned to whaling until 1846, making another nine voyages. She then sailed between London and New South Wales until 1850. In the 1850s and 1860s she sailed to Aden and Hamburg, ending her years trading between Shields and Quebec. She is no longer listed in 1870.

Vautour was a French privateer launched in 1797 at Nantes that made three privateering voyages. The Royal Navy captured her in 1800 during her fourth cruise. Private owners acquired her prior to late 1801 and employed her as the whaler Vulture in the South Seas whale fisheries between 1801 and 1809. A Spanish privateer captured her in 1809.

Éole was an 18-gun corvette of the French Navy, launched, captured, and later commissioned in the Royal Navy in 1799 as HMS Nimrod after her capture by HMS Solebay. She was then "the finest and most handsome ship-sloop in the British navy". She was sold in 1811. Nimrod made three whaling voyages between 1811 and 1819. On her first she captured several American whalers. Nimrod was last listed in 1820.

Dart was launched in South America under a different name. She was taken in prize circa 1806. Once under British ownership she performed one voyage as a whaler in the southern whale fishery. She then traded as a merchantman before in 1810 receiving a letter of marque. As a privateer she did something quite unusual: she made a voyage to Africa where she captured five slave ships. After this Dart returned to normal trading, this time with South America. In 1813 as she was returning to London from Buenos Aires she stopped at Pernambuco, where she was condemned as unseaworthy.

Georgiana was launched in 1791. She served as a merchantman, packet ship for the British East India Company (EIC), a whaler, a warship of the navy of the United States of America, and a merchant vessel again. She was sold after being condemned in 1818 as leaky.

Portsea was launched at Calcutta in 1807. She was a country ship; that is, she primarily traded east of the Cape of Good Hope. She participated as a transport in the British invasion of Mauritius. She then carried French prisoners of war to France. She also made one voyage to St Helena from Bengal under charter to the British East India Company (EIC). In 1814 a storm dismasted her and she was lengthened, but it is not clear whether before or after the dismasting. She made two voyages as a South Seas whaler between 1828 and 1835. In 1838 she made one voyage transporting convicts to New South Wales. She carried coal to Valparaiso in 1840 and there her owners turned her into a coal hulk. Her final fate is not known.

Montezuma was launched in Philadelphia in 1804. She came into British hands c.1807 after having been seized for attempting to evade the British East India Company's monopoly on British trade with India. She then initially traded with Charleston until 1811 when she went whaling in the Galápagos Islands. There the Americans captured her in 1813. Her captors sailed her to Valparaiso where the Spanish colonial government seized her.

Renown was launched in 1794 at New Bedford, Massachusetts. She made four voyages from Nantucket as a whaler. In 1813, while she was on her fifth American whaling voyage, she became the first American whaler that British whalers captured in the South Seas. She was sold in London and under the name Adam became first a London-based transport and then a British Southern Whale Fishery whaler. She made four whaling voyages and was wrecked in 1825 at the outset of her fifth British whaling voyage.

Sarah was launched at Hartlepool in 1800. Between 1807 and 1813 Sarah made two voyages as a whaler in the British southern whale fishery. On her first whaling voyage her captain claimed the Auckland Islands for Britain. As she was coming home a French privateer captured her, but a British privateer recaptured her. After her whaling voyages Sarah became a transport, a West Indiaman, and traded with North America. She was last listed in 1826.

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.

Sir Andrew Hammond was launched at Bermuda in 1800. She spent almost a dozen years as a West Indiaman. From 1812 on she was a whaler. On her first whaling voyage she sailed to the Pacific where the United States Navy captured her. She then served briefly in the United States Navy before the British Royal Navy recaptured her. She returned to whaling and made a further eight whaling voyages. She was lost in 1841 on her tenth whaling voyage.

Charlton, was built in America. She first appeared in British-origin online records in 1803. She made three complete voyages as a whaler. She was on her fourth voyage when the U.S. Navy captured her. After her captors released her she returned to England and then disappears from easily accessible online records.

Catharine first appeared in the registers in 1809 as American-built and having undergone repairs in that year. In 1811 she became a whaler and sailed to the Pacific where the United States Navy captured her. Her captors sailed her to Valparaiso to sell her but when they were unable to do so they took her out to sea and burned her in February 1814.

Policy was launched at Dartmouth in 1801. She was a whaler that made seven whaling voyages between 1803 and 1823. On her second whaling voyage, in 1804, she was able to capture two Dutch vessels. On her fourth voyage the United States Navy captured her, but the British Royal Navy recaptured her. She was lost at Tahiti in 1824 on her eighth whaling voyage.

Greenwich was launched on the Thames in 1800. Between 1800 and 1813 Samuel Enderby & Sons employed her as a whaler in the British Southern Whale Fishery, and she made four whaling voyages for them. In 1813 the United States Navy captured her in the Pacific and for about a year she served there as USS Greenwich. Her captors scuttled her in 1814.

Rose was launched at Liverpool in 1806. She made one voyage as a slave ship in the triangular trade in enslaved people. Following the abolition of the slave trade new owners sailed her to South America, to New South Wales, and then to the South Seas as a whaler. While Rose was off Peru the U.S. Navy captured her, but released her as a cartel. She returned to England and began trading with Savannah. She was last listed in 1823.

Grand Sachem was launched at Newburyport, Massachusetts in 1801. She was registered at Bideford in 1803, but until 1815 sailed from Milford Haven. Between approximately 1803 and 1822, she made eight voyages as a whaler in the British southern whale fishery. She was last listed in 1822 and was broken up in 1826.

References

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.