Phoenix was launched in 1804 as an East Indiaman. She made six voyages for the British East India Company (EIC), between 1805 and 1819. In 1810 and 1811 she participated as a transport in two British military campaigns. She was broken up by 1821.
Phoenix may have been ordered as Princess Amelia, but renamed before launch.[4]
EIC voyage #1 (1805-1807): Captain John Ramsden acquired a letter of marque on 31 December 1804.[3] He sailed from Portsmouth on 8 March 1805, bound for St Helena and Bengal. Phoenix reached St Helena on 5 JUne and arrived at Diamond Harbour on 28 September. She was at Saugor on 29 October, stopped at Colombo on 20 December, and reached Bombay on 18 January 1806. She returned to Diamond Harbour on 31 March. Homeward bound, she was at Saugor on 14 July. She then stopped at Madras on 7 October and Trincomalee on 18 October. She reached the Cape of Good Hope on 30 December and St Helena on 23 January 1807. She arrived at The Downs on 12 April.[2]
EIC voyage #2 (1808-1809): Captain Ramsden sailed from Portsmouth on 9 February 1808, bound for St Helena and Madras. Phoenix reached St Helena on 19 April, the Cape on 31 May, and Madras on 3 August. She then visited Masulipatam (21 August), and Coringa (31 August), before returning to Madras on 16 September. Homeward bound, Phoenix was part of a convoy that departed Madras on 25 October. HMSAlbion provided the escort for the nine East Indiamen of the convoy. A gale commenced around 20 November at 10°S90°E / 10°S 90°E / -10; 90 and by 22 November had dispersed the fleet. By 21 February three of the Indiamen — Lord Nelson, Glory, and Experiment had not arrived at Cape Town.[5] Apparently all three had foundered without a trace.
Phoenix was at the Cape on 12 January 1809, reached St Helena on 24 [January], and arrived at The Downs on 23 May.[2]
The Court of Directors of the EIC held an inquiry on this and another loss the next year. Ramsden reported that although he had survived a typhoon, the 20–23 November hurricane was the worst he had experienced. Phoenix was the last to see the missing vessels and all the captains of the surviving ships agreed that the missing vessels must have foundered from the violence of the hurricane.[6]
EIC voyage #3 (1810-1812): Captain Ramsden sailed from Portsmouth on 13 April 1810, bound for Madras and Bengal. Phoenix was at São Tiago on 23 May and reached Madras on 28 August.[2]
There the British government hired her as a transport for the Île de France (Mauritius). Phoenix was at Rodrigues on 6 November, and Mauritius on 29 November. The invasion took place on 3 December.[2]
On 14 March Phoenix was at Saugor and by 4 May Malacca. She was in the 3rd division of transports, which sailed from Malacca on 14 June. By 5 July she was at Balambangan and by 4 August Batavia. She was back at Diamond Harbour on 19 October and Calcutta on 15 November. Homeward bound, she was at Saugor on 23 December and Madras on 8 February 1812. She reached St Helena on 11 May and arrived at The Downs on 21 July.[2]
EIC voyage #4 (1814-1815): Captain John Pyke sailed from Portsmouth on 8 June 1814, bound for Bengal and Madras. Phoenix was at Madeira on 23 June and arrived at Saugor on 23 November. Homeward bound, she was at Madras on 16 February 1815, Colombo on 23 March, and the Cape on 31 May. She reached st Helena on 29 June and arrived at the Downs on 29 August.[2]
EIC voyage #5 (1816-1817): Captain Pyke sailed from The Downs on 17 April 1816, bound for Madras and Bengal. Phoenix reached Madras on 28 July, Saugor on 28 August, Kidderpore on 7 September, and the New Anchorage on 19 October. Homeward bound, she was at Saugor on 17 December, the Cape on 17 February 1817, and St Helena on 8 March. She arrived at Blackwall on 7 May.[2]
Captain Pyke died at his home in Dorset on 7 March 1818.[8]
EIC voyage #6 (1818-1819): Captain Thomas White sailed from The Downs on 26 April 1818, bound for Madras and Bengal. She reached Madras on 18 August and arrived at Diamond Harbour on 29 August. Homeward bound, she was at the New Anchorage on 5 December, reached St Helena on 30 May 1819, and arrived at The Downs on 6 August.[2]
Fate
Phoenix never sailed again. On 25 September 1821 her register was cancelled, demolition being completed.[1]
Northumberland was launched in 1805. She made six voyages as an extra ship of the British East India Company (EIC), between 1805 and 1818. In 1810 and 1811 she served as a transport in the British invasions of Mauritius and Java. She was sold for breaking up in 1819.
Lord Keith was launched in 1804 by and for Peter Everitt Mestaer. He chartered her to the East India Company (EIC) for six voyages, and she then went on to make another two voyages for the EIC. On her second voyage, and unusually for an East Indiaman, she participated in the proceeds for the recapture of a former British Royal Navy brig and possibly in a skirmish with a French ship. On her third voyage she participated in a notable action. She was broken up c.1820.
Lord Melville was launched in 1803 as an East Indiaman for the British East India Company (EIC). She made six voyages for the company before she was sold for a hulk in 1817.
Huddart was launched in 1803 as an East Indiaman. She made eight voyages for the British East India Company (EIC), between 1803 and 1818. In 1810-1811 she participated as a transport in two British military campaigns. In 1818 new owners deployed her in sailing to Canada. She was wrecked there in 1821.
Hugh Inglis was launched in 1799 as an East Indiaman. She made seven voyages for the British East India Company (EIC), between 1800 and 1817. In 1810 and 1811 she participated as a transport in two British military campaigns. She was sold for breaking up in 1817.
William Pitt was launched in 1805 as an East Indiaman. She made seven voyages for the British East India Company (EIC), between 1805 and 1819. In 1810 and 1811 she participated as a transport in two British military campaigns. She was sold for breaking up in 1820.
Lord Castlereagh was launched on the Thames in 1802 as an East Indiaman She made seven voyages for the British East India Company (EIC) before she was sold in 1820. She then may have sailed one or twice to Bombay under license from the EIC. Her subsequent disposition is currently obscure.
Princess Amelia was launched in 1786 as an East Indiaman for the British East India Company (EIC). She made four voyages to India for the EIC and was lost in April 1798 to a fire off the Malabar Coast.
Sir Stephen Lushington was launched in 1796 as an East Indiaman. She made seven voyages for the British East India Company (EIC). During this period she took part as a transport in two military campaigns, the cancelled attack on Manila in 1797, and the capture of Mauritius in 1810. In 1812 she became a West Indiaman, thought around 1816 she made another voyage to India. Thereafter her ownership and trade becomes ambiguous: she either traded with Spain until 1822, or with South America until 1825.
Castle Eden was launched in 1800 as an East Indiaman. She made six voyages for the British East India Company (EIC) before she became a transport in 1812.
Lady Castlereagh was launched in 1803. She made six apparently uneventful voyages to India and one to China for the British East India Company (EIC). She left the EIC's service and made one voyage transporting convicts to Australia. She was returning from having delivered her convicts to Port Jackson and Van Diemen's Land when she was damaged in October 1818 a gale at Madras. She was surveyed there, condemned, and sold for breaking up.
Worcester was launched in 1785 as an East Indiaman for the British East India Company (EIC). She made eight voyages to India and China for the EIC and participated as a transport in two naval expeditions before she was sold in 1809 for breaking up.
Walthamstow was launched in December 1799 in Rotherhithe. She made six voyages for the British East India Company (EIC). She was sold in 1814 for breaking up.
Surrey was launched in 1804 at Deptford as an East Indiaman. She made six voyages for the British East India Company (EIC). She was sold for breaking up in 1816.
Thomas Grenville was an East Indiaman launched at the Bombay Dockyard for the British East India Company (EIC), and one of only a handful of East Indiamen that it actually owned. She made 14 voyages for the EIC. It sold her in 1834 when it gave up its maritime activities. She was sold for a free trader and burnt in Bombay in June 1843 in a suspicious fire.
Tigris was launched in Newcastle-upon-Tyne in 1802. She made six voyages between 1803 and 1815 as an "extra ship" for the British East India Company (EIC). After her stint as an East Indiaman, Tigris became a West Indiaman. She was wrecked in December 1823.
Devaynes was launched in 1802 and made six voyages as an East Indiaman for the British East India Company (EIC). She then made one more round-trip to India, sailing under a license from the EIC. She was condemned at Bengal in 1817 on a second licensed voyage to Bengal.
Lord Duncan was launched on the River Thames in 1798 as an East Indiaman. She made seven voyages for the British East India Company (EIC) before she was sold in 1813 for breaking up.
Asia was launched in 1811 on the River Thames as an East Indiaman. She made 10 voyages for the British East India Company (EIC). She then continued to sail to India and China after the EIC gave up its trading activities in 1834. She was condemned and hulked in 1840.
Prince Regent was launched at Blackwall in 1811. She made ten voyages for the British East India Company (EIC), between 1811 and 1834 to India and China. She made one more voyage to China after the end of the EIC's trading activities in 1833, and was broken up in 1838.
References
Hackman, Rowan (2001). Ships of the East India Company. Gravesend, Kent: World Ship Society. ISBN0-905617-96-7.
Hardy, Horatio Charles (1811) A register of ships, employed in the service of the Honorable the United East India Company, from the year 1760 to 1810: with an appendix, containing a variety of particulars, and useful information interesting to those concerned with East India commerce. (Black, Parry, and Kingsbury).
Select Committee on Petitions Relating to East-India-Built Shipping, House of Commons, Parliament of Great Britain (1814) Minutes of the Evidence Taken Before the Select Committee of the House of Commons on Petitions Relating to East-India-built Shipping. (His Majesty's Stationery Office).
Taylor, Stephen (2008) [2007]. Storm and Conquest: The Battle for the Indian Ocean, 1809. Faber. ISBN978-0-571-22467-8.
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