| History | |
|---|---|
 United Kingdom | |
| Name | Lady Shore |
| Namesake | Lady Charlotte Shore, wife of Sir John Shore |
| Owner | James Willcocks |
| Builder | Calcutta |
| Launched | 6 January 1794 |
| Notes | This vessel is frequently conflated with Lady Shore (1793 ship) |
| General characteristics | |
| Tons burthen | 482 [1] [2] |
| Sail plan | Ship rigged |
| Complement | 35 [1] |
| Armament | |
Lady Shore was a merchantman launched at Calcutta in 1794. In 1797, she commenced a voyage as a convict ship to Australia until a mutiny cut the voyage short.
Lady Shore was launched by James Willcocks, Calcutta, in 1794 for his own account. He was also her master. [lower-alpha 1] Lady Shore was admitted to Registry in Britain on 19 January 1797. [2]
Under the command of James Willcocks, Lady Shore sailed from Gravesend, England in May 1797, with cargo, 58 soldiers for the New South Wales Corps, and 119 prisoners. [3] [lower-alpha 2] She sailed under a letter of marque dated 3 April that gave her crew as 35, her size as 482 tons (bm), and her armament as 10 guns. [1] However, she had a crew of only 26 when she departed. [8]
Amongst the prisoners were Sélis and Thierry, French prisoners of war from the capture of the corvette Bonne Citoyenne on 10 March 1796. Sélis had been chief helmsman of the corvette, and Thierry was a pilot. They had already made two escape attempts with fellow prisoners. On 28 March 1797, Sélis and Thierry and six other former escapees were embarked on Lady Shore, bound for Botany Bay.
Once aboard, the French decided that their only means of escape was to seize the ship. To this end, they recruited fellow prisoners, three Germans and one Spaniard. In addition to Sélis and Thierry, the mutineers were Laurèche, Delehay, Malleo, Mallicot, Le Garshe, Lockart, Crippong, Greville, Wolfe, and Jean Prevost (Prevôt). [9] They planned carefully, with each man having a specific task during the takeover.
On 1 August 1797, at 2a.m., the prisoners crept into the sentries' station while the sentries slept and seized the sentries' weapons. At a signal, the shout of "Vive la République!" ("Long live the Republic!"), the mutineers ran to take their fighting positions: one controlled the hatch to the women's quarters; two, the hatch of the quarters where the soldiers slept, threatening to kill anyone trying to get out; two covered the deck and were to shoot any sailor or soldier present there and who would not surrender; two controlled the hatch of the officers' quarters; two were to arrest the captain; two were to seize the three officers on deck and prevent them from giving alarm; and the last one would open an ammunition box, distribute it to his fellow mutineers, and patrol to prevent anyone from flanking them. [10]
Seeing two armed mutineers running about, the chief mate, Lambert, fired and mortally wounded Delehay, but was himself killed immediately. Captain Willcocks attempted to resist, but received three bayonet wounds, perhaps from Prevost. Willcocks died two days later. Soldiers attempted to climb on deck, but the men on the hatches repelled them. The French then proceeded to seal the hatches, disarm the crew, and put Sélis and Thierry in command of the ship. The British officers had to sign the certificate of seizure that was the custom when a prize was taken at war. The French recruited some of their prisoners to help sail the ship: seven Irishmen, Conden, Keaning, Lynch, M'Ginnis, Keating, Kelly and Sheridan; and four Englishmen: Church, New, Deviling and Pyott. [9]
The mutineers elected Sélis Captain and Thierry Lieutenant. [11] Sélis and Thierry wrote regulations threatening death to any Frenchman colluding with the British or talking of surrender in case of an encounter at sea, and any British caught with weapons or fomenting another mutiny; and fifty lashes for anyone speaking ill of the Republic. These regulations were translated into English and posted all over the ship. [12]
On 14 August, around 1p.m., fearing that such a large quantity of prisoners would be difficult to control, the mutineers singled out some of the officers and soldiers (the second and third mates, the lieutenant commanding the army detachment, an ensign, two sergeants, two corporals and two privates); after having them pledge not to fight against France and her allies for one year and a day, [13] the French provided them with navigation instruments and food, and cast them adrift in a long boat off the coasts of Brazil, [3] with their wives and children, as well as four convicts, for a total of 29 people. [14] The long boat safely reached the shore the next day in the afternoon. [15]
Lady Shore then sailed to Montevideo; she arrived on 31 August, hoisted the French colours, and saluted the commanding ship with 11 cannon shots, and the harbour with 15. [3] Initially, the Spanish contested the validity of the capture. They came aboard, removed all the prisoners and arrested the three Germans and seven French. [16] After Sélis and Thierry protested to the Vice-Roy, [17] and sought support from the French ambassador, Laurent Jean François Truguet, the Spanish released the French prisoners. It was not until a French frigate squadron under Captain Landolphe, comprising Médée, Franchise and Concorde, sailed into the harbour, [18] that the Spanish acknowledged their authority over the ship and the prisoners. [3]
HMS Tremendous may have recaptured Lady Shore in 1801. [19] Corroborating evidence is scarce. There is a general mention that the Royal Navy recaptured her and took her to Cape Town. [4] Lloyd's List reported in June 1801 that Lady Shore and Chesterfield had been recaptured near the River Plata and taken into Cape Town. [20] Her subsequent fate is obscure.
The men and women in the long boat eventually made their way to Rio de Janeiro and then to Britain, in some cases via Lisbon.
The Spanish retained the female convicts, distributing them as servants among the ladies of the city. Some of the convict women became prostitutes. [6] Some behaved well and ended up married and settled. Those who behaved in a "loose and disorderly manner" were imprisoned; eventually they converted to Roman Catholicism and reformed their ways. [7]
In November 1799, a Bow Street Officer had arrived in London from Portsmouth with Jean Sanlard, alias Provost, and Jean Baptiste Escala. They had been captured aboard a French frigate in the West Indies. [7] Prevost was arrested for having assaulted and murdered "Wilcox". He was tried and hanged. [21]
In 1804, four Englishmen were captured on board several Spanish vessels. Three turned out to be members of the New South Wales Corps, who claimed not to have been part of the mutiny, and one was Lancelot Knowles. The Spanish authorities held them as prisoners of war at Buenos Aires. They had recently been freed and were being sent to Spain for onward transfer to England when they were captured. [7]
The Spithead and Nore mutinies were two major mutinies by sailors of the Royal Navy in 1797. They were the first in an increasing series of outbreaks of maritime radicalism in the Atlantic World. Despite their temporal proximity, the mutinies differed in character. The Spithead mutiny was a simple, peaceful, successful strike action to address economic grievances, while the Nore mutiny was a more radical action, articulating political ideals as well, which failed.
HMS Defiance was a 74-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, built by Randall and Co., at Rotherhithe on the River Thames, and launched on 10 December 1783.
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Alexander was a merchant ship launched at Hull in 1783 or 1784. She was one of the vessels in the First Fleet, that the British government hired to transport convicts for the European colonisation of Australia in 1788. On her return voyage from Australia the British East India Company permitted her to carry a cargo from Canton back to Britain. Thereafter she traded out of London until 1809, when she is no longer listed.
HMS Repulse was a 64-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 28 November 1780 at East Cowes, on the Isle of Wight.
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Captain Sir Thomas Staines was an officer in the Royal Navy.
Bonne Citoyenne was a 20-gun corvette of the French Navy launched in 1794, the name ship of a four-vessel class. She was part of the French fleet active in the Bay of Biscay and English Channel. The Royal Navy captured her in 1796, commissioning her as the sloop-of-war HMS Bonne Citoyenne.
Rear-Admiral Sir Charles Cunningham KCH was an officer of the Royal Navy during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century. He saw action during the American War of Independence and the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, eventually rising to the rank of rear-admiral.
Captain John Black, was an English seafarer, who had a short but eventful career that included privateering and exploration. He was best known, during his own lifetime, for a mutiny on Lady Shore in August 1797, as it sailed south in the Atlantic Ocean, bound for Sydney, New South Wales, carrying female convicts. As a result of the mutiny, Black and several other members of the crew were put into a small boat and left to find their way to the nearest land, being Brazil.
Vaillante was a 20-gun French Bonne-Citoyenne-class corvette, built at Bayonne and launched in 1796. British naval Captain Edward Pellew in Indefatigable captured her off the Île de Ré on 7 August 1798. The Admiralty took her into the Royal Navy as the post ship HMS Danae. Some of her crew mutinied in 1800 and succeeded in turning her over to the French. The French returned her to her original name of Vaillante, and sold her in 1801. As a government-chartered transport she made one voyage to Haiti; her subsequent history is unknown at this time.
Sugar Cane, was a three-decker merchantman and convict ship. In 1793 she transported convicts from Ireland to Australia. On her return trip she sailed from Bengal to Britain under contract to the British East India Company. During the French Revolutionary Wars she sailed under a letter of marque as a slave ship. She made two voyages carrying enslaved people from West Africa to the Americas. In 1796 or 1797, on her second slave trading voyage she captured a French ship, but shortly thereafter was herself captured. The British Royal Navy recaptured her and she apparently was returned to service. She is last listed in 1798.
Minerva was a merchantman launched in 1773 in the East Indies. She traded there for more than 20 years before she made three voyages for the British East India Company (EIC). The first EIC voyage was from 1796 to 1798. In 1799 she transported convicts from Ireland to Australia while under charter to the EIC. From Australia she sailed to Bengal, and then back to Britain. She underwent repairs in 1802 and then traveled to St Helena and Bengal for the EIC. She was lost in 1805 or 1806 under circumstances that are currently unclear.
A number of ships have been named Friendship:
Ceres was an East Indiaman launched in 1787. She made three trips to China for the British East India Company (EIC). After the outbreak of war with France in 1793, the Admiralty, desirous of quickly building up the Royal Navy, purchased a number of commercial vessels, including nine East Indiamen, to meet the need for small two-decker fourth rates to serve as convoy escorts. The Admiralty purchased Ceres in 1795 and renamed her HMS Grampus. In 1797 the Admiralty converted her to a storeship. That year her crew participated in the Spithead and Nore mutinies. Grampus grounded in January 1799 and was destroyed.
The Cutting out of the Hermione, or Capture of Hermione, was a naval action that took place at Puerto Cabello, Venezuela on 25 October 1799. The formerly British frigate HMS Hermione, which had been handed over to the Spanish by its crew following a vicious mutiny, lay in the heavily guarded sea port of Puerto Cabello, now under the command of Don Ramón de Chalas.
Cyprus was a brig launched at Sunderland in 1816. The colonial government in Van Diemen's Land purchased her in 1826. In 1829 as she was transporting convicts from Hobart Town to Macquarie Harbour Penal Station, some of the convicts seized Cyprus. They sailed her via Japan to Canton, where they scuttled her.
Brunswick was launched in 1792 as an East Indiaman for the British East India Company (EIC). She made five complete voyages for the EIC before the French captured her in 1805. Shortly thereafter she wrecked at the Cape of Good Hope.
Calder was a brig launched in 1821 at Calcutta. A new owner in 1822 sailed her to Australia and she then traded in the Pacific until in 1825 she sailed to Chile and was wrecked at Valparaiso. There a new owner salvaged her and returned her to sailing under the name Indefatigable. On Indefatigable's first voyage the Chilean members of her crew mutinied, killing her captain. The mutineers sailed to Guam where the authorities took Indefatigable in prize. She was later lost in a typhoon in the China Sea.
Friendship was launched in France or Spain, possibly in 1780. The British captured her in 1797 and she became a West Indiaman, and from 1798 a slave ship in the triangular trade in enslaved people. Friendship made two complete voyages carrying captives from West Africa to the West Indies. On her third voyage crew members mutinied, taking her before she had embarked any captives. They sailed for a French port in the Caribbean but the Royal Navy retook her in 1801 and brought her into Barbados. There the Government Agent sold her. The incident resulted in a legal dispute between the owners and the insurers that in 1813 was decided in favour of the owners. New owners in 1803 continued to sail Friendship as West Indiaman. She was last listed in 1810.
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