History | |
---|---|
Great Britain | |
Name | Kitty |
Owner |
|
Builder | Ulverston, or Lancaster [1] |
Launched | 1800 [1] |
Fate | 1804 Hired armed ship |
United Kingdom | |
Name | Kitty |
Operator | Royal Navy |
In service | 17 May 1804 |
Out of service | 17 January 1805 |
Fate | Returned to owners |
United Kingdom | |
Name | Kitty |
Owner | |
Fate | Last listed 1852 |
General characteristics | |
Tons burthen | 307, [1] or 310, [4] or 320, [5] or 322 [2] (bm) |
Propulsion | Sails |
Complement | 100 [5] |
Armament |
|
Kitty was a sailing ship that began her career as a West Indiaman. She then served the Royal Navy from 17 May 1804 to 17 January 1805 as a hired armed ship. Next she became a privateer. As a privateer she captured a Spanish vessel in a notable single ship action that earned her captain an honour sword. On her return from privateering Kitty returned to mercantile service, particularly later trading with Russia. She underwent repairs in 1830 and a change in ownership to emerge as a whaler in the southern whale fishery. After four whaling voyages between 1830 and 1846, she returned to mercantile service and was last listed in 1852.
Kitty entered Lloyd's Register in 1800 with Redemayne, master, Miller & Co., owners, and trade Lancaster–St Kitts [6] The Register of Shipping for 1805 showed Kitty with K. Mallet, master, Clays, owner, and trade London-Government service. [7]
She served the Royal Navy from 17 May 1804 to 17 January 1805 as a hired armed ship. [4]
In March 1805 Kitty sailed for the South Seas, which has led the leading sources on the ships of the British Southern Whale Fishery to classify her as a whaler. [8] [3] However, she was sailing as a privateer, not a whaler.
In March Kitty's master described her as a "private ship of war". He had received a letter of marque against the French on 5 February 1805. [5] On 10 March, while under the command of Thomas Musgrave, she captured the Spanish privateer Felicity (or Felicidad) in the Channel. Felicity was armed with 20 guns and had a crew of 170 men. She was under the command of Jose Vincento de Cinza and had been out 10 days. In the one and a half hour engagement Kitty suffered one man killed and two seriously wounded. [9] Felicidad, of St Andero, had four men killed and 14 wounded. [10]
In his after-action letter, Musgrave reported that fewer than 20 of her crew had ever seen a gun fired, and fewer than 40 had ever been to sea before she left port on 3 March. [9] Kitty's owner and the Lloyd's Patriotic Fund presented Commander Musgrave with an honour sabre worth 30 pounds for the action. [11]
The "privateer Kitty", Musgrave, master, was reported as being well in River Plate on 5 November 1806. [12] That month she was at Maldonado, Uruguay, where Sir Home Riggs Popham, who was leading a British invasion of the Rio Plate hired her to take Mr. Blennerhassett, purser of Raisonable, to Rio de Janeiro to buy supplies and to convey a message. Kitty was waiting to take hides and tallow to London and her owner agreed to charter her. He asked £1000 for "wear, tear and expenses", but accepted £750. Popham was well pleased because he thought this cheaper than using a naval vessel, had he had one to spare. [13] She returned to Maldonado on 18 December. [14]
On her return from Buenos Aires, Kitty continued to trade with South America, and then Russia.
Year | Master | Owner | Trade | Source & notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
1810 | W.Perry T. Codnor | Milford | London–Rio Janeiro London–Buenos Aires | Register of Shipping (RS) |
1815 | Warren | Parson | London transport London-Archangel | RS |
1820 | Warren | Parsons | London–St Petersburgh | RS |
1825 | Cole | Parkins | London–St Petersburgh | RS |
1830 | Burridge | Parsons | London–St Petersburgh | RS |
1830 | S. Barney | Meaburn | London–South Seas | RS 1830 "K" Supple.; [2] large repair 1830 |
Kitty emerged from repairs in 1830 somewhat larger, and this time clearly a whaler. Between 1830 and 1846 she made four whaling voyages. Records differ on who owned Kitty during her whaling years. A key database gives the name of her owner as Cruikshank. [3]
Whaling voyage #1 (1830–1835): Although the date that Kitty left England is obscure, she was reported to have been at Guam on 7 August and 5 December 1832, and Honolulu between 1 and 5 April 1833. She had sailed under the command of S. Barney, and she returned to England on 16 February 1835 with Sam Barry Whitton as master. She returned with 260 casks of whale oil and four fins (an indeterminate quantity of baleen). [3]
Whaling voyage #2 (1835–1838): Captain John King sailed on 8 July 1835, bound for Timor. Kitty was at Copang on 27 November 1835 and again on 3 September 1838. Three days later she was at Amoorang, and again on 10 August 1837. Homeward bound, she was at the Cape of Good Hope on 3 February 1838. She arrived back in England on 2 May with 100 tons of sperm oil. [3]
Whaling voyage #3 (1838–1841): Captain George Benson sailed from England on 21 June, bound for Timor. Kitty was at Timor on 16 April 1839 and Copang on 7 November. She was at Guam on 8 June 1840 and in September back at Timor. She was again at Copang on 7 June 1841 and 7 July. Homeward bound, she was at Saint Helena on 22 October, and arrived back in England on 11 December. [3]
Whaling voyage #4 (1842–1846): Captain George Benson again sailed for Timor on 30 May 1842. Kitty was at Brava, Cape Verde, by 2 July, and at Guam on 16 July 1843. She returned to England on 15 July 1846 with 150 tons of sperm oil. [3]
Kitty had undergone small repairs in 1842 and she underwent some more in 1847. Lloyd's Register for 1847 listed her master as J. Romley, her owner as Coates & Co., and her location as London, with no trade given. [15] by 1850 She was trading between Shields and the Baltic. She is last listed in 1852 with a trade of London–Spain.
Elligood was constructed in Nova Scotia in 1794 for Liddle & Co. She performed one voyage for the British East India Company (EIC). She was primarily a whaler, but also visited Australia. She is last listed in 1806.
Cyrus was a whaler launched at Salem in 1800. She performed one whaling voyage for French owners before a British letter of marque captured her in 1803. From 1804 on, she performed 17 whaling voyages for British owners in the almost half a century between 1804 and 1853. The first five were for Samuel Enderby & Sons. Between 1 August 1834 and 2 June 1848 her captain was Richard Spratly, namesake of Spratly Island and the group of islands and reefs known as the Spratly Islands. She apparently made one last voyage in 1854, but then no longer traded. She was last listed in Lloyd's Register in 1856.
Albion was a full-rigged whaler built at Deptford, England, and launched in 1798. She made five whaling voyages to the seas around New South Wales and New Zealand. The government chartered her in 1803 to transport stores and cattle, to Risdon Cove on the River Derwent, Tasmania.
Speedy was a whaler launched on the Thames in 1779. She also made voyages to New South Wales, transporting female convicts in 1799. She made two voyages transporting slaves in 1805 and 1806, and was captured in January 1807 on her way into London after having delivered her slaves to Antigua in 1806.
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.
Charming Kitty was a ship captured from the Spanish. She first appeared in Gret Britain's Protection Lists for whalers in 1799. She conducted four whaling voyages between 1799 and 1808 before becoming a West Indiaman, trading with the Caribbean. She was wrecked in October 1813.
Camden was built at Whitby in 1813. She served as a general trader for much of her career, though in 1820-21 she made one voyage to Bombay for the British East India Company (EIC). Between 1824 and 1831, Camden sailed under charter to the Hudson's Bay Company. Between 1833 and 1837 she was a Greenland whaler out of the Whitby whale fishery, and was the last vessel from Whitby to engage in whaling. She was last listed in Lloyd's Register in 1850.
Crescent was launched at Rotherhithe in 1790. She initially traded with the Levant, particularly Smyrna. After the outbreak of war with France she may have tried her hand as a privateer. In 1796–1798 she made a voyage to the East Indies, almost surely on behalf of the British East India Company (EIC). A French privateer captured her but the British Royal Navy quickly recaptured her. In 1802-1804 she made one voyage as a slave ship carrying slaves from West Africa to Jamaica. In 1805 she became a whaler. She was lost in 1807 off Patagonia while homeward bound from her first whaling voyage.
Emma was a merchant vessel launched at Calcutta in 1809 that served as a government armed ship in the British invasion of Île de France in 1810. In 1811 she sailed to England where she was sold. She then became a transport and later a whaler. Between 1815 and 1853 she made 11 whaling voyages. She was then sold and became a merchantman on the England-Australia run. Between 1851 and 1853 she made one more whaling voyage to the South Seas fisheries. She then returned to the England-Australia trade. In 1857 her home port became Hull, and she became a Greenland whaler, though that role may have begun as early as 1855. She was converted in 1864 to a screw steamer but was lost in April while seal hunting.
HMS Coquette was launched in 1807 and spent her naval career patrolling in the Channel and escorting convoys. In 1813 she engaged an American privateer in a notable but inconclusive single-ship action. The Navy put Coquette in ordinary in 1814 and sold her in 1817. She became a whaler and made five whaling voyages to the British southern whale fishery before she was lost in 1835 on her sixth.
Adventure was a French privateer captured in 1803. She became a whaler that made two voyages to the Southern Whale Fishery. She was wrecked in April 1808 as she set out on her third.
HMS Inspector was launched in 1801 at Mistley as the mercantile Amity. The Royal Navy purchased her in 1803 and laid her up in 1808 before selling her in 1810. She then returned to mercantile service. Between 1818 and 1825 she made four voyages as a whaler in the British southern whale fishery. She returned to mercantile service and was last listed in 1833 as being at Falmouth.
Manchester Packet was built at New York in 1806. She immediately transferred to British registry and spent a number of years trading across the Atlantic. In 1814 she successfully repelled an attack by a U.S. privateer. In 1818 she returned to U.S. registry. She eventually became a whaler operating out of New London, Connecticut. In May 1828 she made the first of five whaling voyages; she was condemned in 1835 while on her sixth voyage.
Fonthill was a ship built in France in 1781 and was probably taken in prize in 1782. Fonthill sailed as a West Indiaman between 1783 and 1791, then became a whaler southern whale fishery and made four whaling voyages between 1791 and 1799. On her third voyage she took back from Cape Town a Dutch captain whose vessel had been captured bringing in arms and ammunition from Batavia to stir up unrest against the British at the Cape. After refitting, in 1800, Fonthill became a whaler in the northern whale fishery. Fonthill was last listed, with stale data, in 1810, but whose last reported whaling voyage took place in 1806.
Woodlark was launched at Moulmain in 1832. Circa 1835 she sailed to London and transferred to British registry. Between 1836 and 1844 she made two whaling voyages. In 1848 she transferred her ownership and registry to Sydney, from where she continued to sail for some time. She briefly appeared and was last listed as being in New Zealand in 1890–1891.
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.
Rambler was a ship built in France and taken in prize in 1797. However, she did not appear under the name Rambler until 1803 when William Bennett purchased her for use as a whaler. He may, therefore, have renamed her. She made three complete voyages as a whaler. A French privateer captured her in 1807 as Rambler was returning from her fourth whaling voyage.
Caledonia was launched in 1780 in Spain. She apparently was taken in prize circa 1797. She made one voyage to the Caribbean and then under a subsequent owner made five voyages as a whaler in the Southern Whale Fishery. She may then have become a transport, but though listed in the registries until 1813, does not clearly appear in ship arrival and departure data after 1805.
Venus was launched in France in 1802, possibly under another name. A Guernsey privateer captured her in 1805, but she first appeared as Venus in 1815. She traded generally until in 1830 she carried cargo to Port Jackson. Between 1831 and 1835 she made several voyages from Port Jackson as a whaler, sailing primarily to New Zealand waters. She returned to England and was last listed in 1838.
Harmony was launched in 1798 in Lancaster as a West Indiaman. Between 1805 and 1807 she sailed to the Pacific on a privateering voyage. Early in the voyage she was engaged in a single ship action in which her target repelled the attack, killing Harmony's master and inflicting severe casualties on her crew. Although Harmony returned to trading with the West Indies, in 1817 she made one voyage to India under a licence from the British East India Company. On her return she traded between Hull and Petersburg, and Quebec. New owners in 1821 decided to use her as a whaler in the northern whale fishery. She was lost there on her first whaling voyage.