Whaler
From 1817, L'Aigle made four complete voyages as a whaler in the British Southern Whale fishery, and was lost in 1830 on her fifth.
1st whaling voyage 1817–1819): Captain Robert Poole (or Pool) sailed from England on 12 July 1817. L'Aigle returned on 4 January 1819 with 650 casks of oil. [3]
2nd whaling voyage 1819–1821): Captain Valentine Starbuck sailed from England on 6 April 1819, bound for the Sandwich Islands. L'Aigle returned on 6 July 1821 with a full ship of 550 casks and 14 tanks. [3]
3rd whaling voyage 1822–1824): Captain Starbuck sailed from England on 7 January 1822, bound for the Sandwich Islands. In May 1822 she spoke Grace at Charles Island. In June L'Aigle was off Peru while in the company of Spring Grove. L'Aigle was at Oahu, Fanning Atoll, at Maui, and off Japan. She returned home via Rio de Janeiro and arrived back in England on 2 May 1824 with 550 casks. [3]
On this voyage, in 1823, Starbuck sighted Starbuck Island, which he named Volunteer Island. Captain George Anson Byron, of HMS Blonde, sighted the island in 1825 and renamed it Starbuck Island.
When he sailed back to England, Starbuck brought with him King Kamehameha II of Hawaii, Queen Kamāmalu, and a party of ten notables and retainers. L'Aigle sailed on 27 November 1823. When L'Aigle stopped at Rio de Janeiro in February 1824, Kamehameha met Emperor Pedro I. The Royal party disembarked at Portsmouth on 17 May. They were to meet with King George IV on 21 June, but they fell ill with measles. They died before they could meet him. Queen Kamāmalu died on 8 July and King Kamehameha II died on 14 July. L'Aigle's owners dismissed Starbuck and sued him for having cut his whaling voyage short to bring the Hawaiians to England. [lower-alpha 1]
4th whaling voyage 1825–1827): Captain Dixon sailed from England on 20 May 1825, bound for the Pacific. L'Aigle was reported at Honolulu and Tahiti. She returned to England on 24 October 1827 with 700 casks, plus fins and 34 seal skins. [3]
Kamehameha II was the second king of the Kingdom of Hawaii. His birth name was Liholiho and full name was Kalaninui kua Liholiho i ke kapu ʻIolani. It was lengthened to Kalani Kaleiʻaimoku o Kaiwikapu o Laʻamea i Kauikawekiu Ahilapalapa Kealiʻi Kauinamoku o Kahekili Kalaninui i Mamao ʻIolani i Ka Liholiho when he took the throne.
HMS Blonde was a 46-gun modified Apollo-class fifth-rate frigate of 1,103 tons burthen. She undertook an important voyage to the Pacific Ocean in 1824. She was used for harbour service from 1850 and was renamed HMS Calypso in 1870, before being sold in 1895.
Indispensable was a sailing ship built in France and launched in 1791. She was captured in 1793 at the outbreak of the French Revolutionary Wars and thus came into British hands, keeping her name. She performed two voyages for the British East India Company (EIC) between 1793 and 1797. During this period and later she made two voyages transporting convicts to New South Wales. Amongst her notable events were the discovery of Indispensable Strait (1794), the capture of a Spanish vessel (1798), and the rescue of some castaways (1814). She later went on serve as a whaler in the South Seas until autumn 1827. She ceased trading after this last voyage and was broken up by April 1830.
Catherine, was a whaler, launched in 1811 at New Bedford, that also made one voyage transporting convicts from England to New South Wales in 1813. She made seven whaling voyages between 1813 and 1831.
King George was built on the Thames in 1783 as a West Indiaman. From 1817 she made four voyages to the British Southern Whale Fishery, and was condemned at Guayaquil in 1824 on her fifth.
Amelia Wilson was built in France under another name and captured by the British in 1809. Her new owners renamed her and she became a West Indiaman. She later became a whaler and was wrecked in 1833 on her fifth whaling voyage.
Cumberland was launched in 1800 and sailed as a West Indiaman until 1807 or 1808 when she was sold to Enderbys. She then made five voyages as a South Seas whaler. Enderbys sold Cumberland and she proceeded to sail between England and Australia. In 1827 she sailed from Hobart and was never seen again. It later transpired that pirates had captured her off the Falkland Islands and killed her crew and passengers.
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.
Eliza was a French prize that made nine voyages as a whaler between 1802 and 1822. She is last listed in 1824.
Rambler was launched in America in 1812. The British captured her in 1813 as she was returning to America from Manila. She then briefly became a West Indiaman. In 1815 she became a whaler in the Southern Fishery. She made four complete whaling voyages and was wrecked on her fifth.
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.
Swan was launched at Flensburg in 1806. By 1808 Samuel Enderby & Sons had acquired her. Between 1808 and 1810 she made one whaling voyage during which she rediscovered Bouvet Island. Enderby's sold her and from 1811 on she traded widely. Then in 1823 Enderbys repurchased her and she made two more whaling voyages for them. She then became a West Indiaman and was last listed in 1833.
Spring Grove was a Spanish vessel, launched in 1801, that had been taken in prize in 1806 and that her new owners had renamed. She made six voyages as a Southern Whale Fishery whaler before she wrecked in 1824 on the outbound leg of what was to have been her seventh voyage.
Venus was launched at Deptford in 1788 and made 15 voyages as a whaler in the British Southern Whale Fishery. She was last listed in 1823.
Vansittart was launched at New York in 1807, under another name. She was captured c.1814 and new owners gave her the name Vansittart. She was initially a West Indiaman. Then between 1817 and 1837 she made seven voyages as a whaler in the British Southern Whale Fisheries. Thereafter she was a merchantman sailing out of Shields. She foundered on 2 February 1855.
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.
Harriet 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.
Thames was a Spanish vessel launched in 1804, almost certainly under a different name, and captured circa 1805. She became a whaler, making eight whaling voyages between 1805 and 1826. Although the registers carried Thames for some years after her return from her eighth voyage, there is no evidence that she ever sailed again.
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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