The Hudson's Bay Company ships Prince of Wales and Eddystone bartering with the Inuit off the Upper Savage Islands, Hudson Strait; by Robert Hood (1819) | |
History | |
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Great Britain | |
Name | Prince of Wales |
Operator | Hudson's Bay Company |
Builder | Randall & Brent, [1] Rotherhithe |
Launched | 1793 |
Fate | Wrecked 12 June 1849 |
General characteristics | |
Tons burthen | 342, [2] or 351, [1] or 380, or 840 [3] [Note 1] (bm) |
Complement | 36, or 45 [3] |
Armament | 16 or 18 × 9-pounder guns + 6 swivel guns [3] |
Prince of Wales was launched in 1793 on the Thames. She spent much of her career sailing for the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC). From 1845 she was a Greenland whaler, sailing out of Hull. In 1845 she was the last ship to see Sir John Franklin's expedition to the arctic. She was wrecked on 12 June 1849 in Davis Strait.
Prince of Wales had been launched in 1793 for the HBC, [1] and first appeared in Lloyd's Register (LR) with H.Hanwell, master, Hudson's Bay Company, owner, and trade London–Hudson Bay. [2] War with France had just begun and Captain Henry Hanwell acquired a letter of marque on 8 April 1793. [3] Hanwell sailed for Hudson Bay at the end of May, sailing via Stromness. She then sailed between York Factory or Moose Factory and London.
In 1811 Prince of Wales, Eddystone, and Edward and Ann carried immigrants to Hudson Bay.
On 1 June 1813 three merchant vessels sailed from Gravesend, bound for Hudson Bay: Prince of Wales, Eddystone, Ramsay, master, carried employees of the Hudson's Bay Company, and Ann, Neale, master, was taking a party of Moravian missionaries. On 13 June they sailed from Stromness in the Orkney Islands. There Prince of Wales had embarked 97 settlers for the Red River Colony. HMS Brazen sailed as their escort. On the way fever broke out on Prince of Wales, which resulted in the death of a number of the emigrants. Instead of landing at York Factory, the convoy arrived at Churchill, Manitoba, 100 miles away. [4] They arrived on 19 August, and Brazen left again on 20 September, escorting another convoy to England via the Orkney Islands and arriving at the Downs on 25 November.
In 1816–1817, Prince of Wales overwintered at Charlton Island. [1]
In 1819 Prince of Wales again carried settlers. [1]
On 16 July 1821, Prince of Wales, Eddystone, and Lord Wellington were sailing in company to York Factory in Hudson Bay when they encountered HMS Fury and Hecla at 61°20′N66°30′W / 61.333°N 66.500°W . The two British warships were under the command of Commander William Edward Parry. This was Fury's first Arctic journey, but Parry's second in search of the Northwest Passage.
On 24 July, an iceberg struck Prince of Wales, staving in her starboard side. Eddystone and Lord Wellington narrowly escaped. Prince of Wales began to take on water at an alarming rate. To lighten her, Eddystone took on her cargo. Consequently, the damaged timers rose above the water line, making temporary repairs possible. [5]
On 24 June 1826 as Prince of Wales was sailing out of Hoy Sound, bound for Hudson Bay, she struck a rock and was stuck there for four hours. She took on so much water she had to return and unload to effect repairs. [6] On 1 July she put into Kirkcaldy for the repairs. [7] On 10 July she resumed her voyage to Hudson Bay, repairs having been made. [8] She arrived at Hudson Bay on 17 September.
Prince of Wales again overwintered at Charlton Island in 1830–1831. Some of the crew joined Beaver on an expedition to the Ungava Peninsula. [1]
Prince of Wales overwintered at Charlton Island for a third time in 1833–1834. [1]
Disposal: On 23 February 1842 the HBC ordered that Prince of Wales be advertised for sale. She then sold in 1844 to John Chambers, of Kingston upon Hull. [1]
Prince of Wales then became a Northern Whale Fishery whaler.
Year | Master | Owner | Trade | Source & notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
1844 | W.Couldrey | Abbey & Co. | Hull–Davis Strait | LR; small repairs 1835 & 1844 |
1849 | T.Lee | Abbey & Co. | Hull–Davis Strait | LR; small repairs 1844 |
Prince of Wales, Captain Dannet, master, was the last to see Sir John Franklin's expedition to the Arctic. On 26 July 1845 she was at 74°48′N66°13′W / 74.800°N 66.217°W in Lancaster Sound, Baffin Bay and there saw HMS Erebus and Terror moored to an iceberg.
On 12 June 1849 Prince of Wales sank in Davis Strait after ice crushed her. Her crew took to her boats, survived, and eventually reached the Orkney Islands. [9]
The Hudson's Bay Company is a Canadian retail business group. A fur trading business for much of its existence, it became the largest and oldest corporation in Canada, before evolving into a major fashion retailer, operating retail stores across both the United States and Canada. The company's namesake business division is Hudson's Bay, commonly referred to as The Bay.
Hudson Bay, sometimes called Hudson's Bay, is a large body of saltwater in northeastern Canada with a surface area of 1,230,000 km2 (470,000 sq mi). It is located north of Ontario, west of Quebec, northeast of Manitoba, and southeast of Nunavut, but politically entirely part of Nunavut. It is an inland marginal sea of the Arctic Ocean. The Hudson Strait provides a connection between the Labrador Sea and the Atlantic Ocean in the northeast, while the Foxe Channel connects Hudson Bay with the Arctic Ocean in the north. The Hudson Bay drainage basin drains a very large area, about 3,861,400 km2 (1,490,900 sq mi), that includes parts of southeastern Nunavut, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Ontario, Quebec, all of Manitoba, and parts of the U.S. states of North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, and Montana. Hudson Bay's southern arm is called James Bay.
Charlton Island (Sivukutaitiarruvik) is an uninhabited island located in James Bay, Qikiqtaaluk Region, Nunavut, Canada. Located northwest of Rupert Bay, it has an area of 308 km2 (119 sq mi).
Numerous British vessels have borne the name Prince of Wales, after the then current Prince of Wales, the title borne by the heir-presumptive to the throne of the United Kingdom.
RMS Nascopie was a steamship built by Swan Hunter and Wigham Richardson of Newcastle upon Tyne, England. She was launched on December 7, 1911, and achieved speeds of 14.1 knots (26 km/h) during her sea trials. She was powered by triple expansion steam engines with cylinders 21.5, 35.5 and 58 inches in diameter and a stroke of 42 inches (1067 mm). Her boiler pressure was 180 pounds-force per square inch and the two main boilers were 15 feet in diameter and 11.5 feet long, fired by six furnaces.
Fort Churchill may refer to:
The Prince of Wales Fort is a historic bastion fort on Hudson Bay across the Churchill River from Churchill, Manitoba, Canada.
The Hudson Bay expedition was a series of military raids on the fur trading outposts and fortifications of the British Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) on the shores of Hudson Bay by a French Navy squadron under the command of the Comte de Lapérouse. Setting sail from Cap-Français, Saint-Domingue in 1782, the expedition was part of a series of globe-spanning naval conflicts between France and Great Britain during the American Revolutionary War.
HMS Alert was a 17-gun wooden screw sloop of the Cruizer class of the Royal Navy, launched in 1856 and broken up in 1894. She was the eleventh ship of the Royal Navy to bear the name, and was noted for her Arctic exploration work; in 1876 she reached a record latitude of 82° North. Alert briefly served with the US Navy, and ended her career with the Canadian Marine Service as a lighthouse tender and buoy ship.
William Kennedy was a Canadian fur trader, politician, and historian.
A number of sailing ships have been named Queen Charlotte.
James Isham (1716–1761) was chief factor (master) at both York Factory and Fort Prince of Wales in Canada during the mid-1700s. He kept detailed journals that described life in the region, including flora and fauna that were unknown to people in England at that time. His journals are important historical documents and he is well known to scholars of the fur trade in Canada during the early years of the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC).
Lord Wellington was launched in 1811 at Whitby as a London-based transport. She made one voyage to India c. 1816. In 1821 she made one voyage carrying Swiss settlers to Hudson's Bay. She sank in May 1823 after striking an iceberg in the North Atlantic.
Prince George was launched in 1806 at Rotherhithe. She began her 48-year career as a West Indiaman. The French captured and released her in December 1814, to carry captured British sailors back to Britain. She then again sailed as a West Indiaman. Towards the end of the 1820s she started sailing to New South Wales. In 1834 she made a voyage under charter to the Hudson's Bay Company. Thereafter she traded between London and Quebec. In 1842 she brought 262 immigrants from England to Quebec. She was last listed in 1854.
Eddystone was launched at Hull in 1802. She then sailed for the North West Company. The French Navy captured her in 1806 but an armed ship of the Royal Navy recaptured her within weeks. She next sailed for the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) from 1807 to about 1824. She then traded generally until May 1843 when she was wrecked.
Mainwaring was a schooner launched in Ipswich in 1807. The Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) acquired her and she spent the rest of her career sailing for the HBC until she was broken up in 1820.
King George was launched on the Thames in 1781. She spent about three-quarters of her career sailing for the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC), and was the third vessel by her name to sail for the HBC. She then spent the last quarter of her career as a whaler in the British northern whale fishery. She foundered there without a trace in 1822.
Queen Charlotte was built on the Thames in 1790. She made eight voyages for the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) before it sold her in 1800. She then traded to South America and the Mediterranean. In 1803 her crew mutinied and turned her over to the French, who promptly handed her and them back to the British authorities, despite the two countries being at war. She then spent much of her career sailing between London and the Cape of Good Hope. She was sailing for the Cape in October 1813 when a collision with another vessel resulted in Queen Charlotte being wrecked shortly thereafter.
William and Ann was launched in Bermuda in 1818. In 1824 the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) purchased William and Ann. In 1825 she became the first HBC vessel to trade with the Pacific Northwest, competing directly with the Boston fur traders. She made three voyages to Fort George on the Columbia River, and was lost on 10 March 1829 on her fourth as she was arriving there.
Sea Horse was launched in 1782 at Gravesend for the Hudson's Bay Company. She then became a merchantman that a French naval squadron captured in 1795. She next became the Spanish merchantman Principe Fernando, which a Guernsey privateer recaptured in January 1800. She became a merchantman again, and then made one voyage as a whaler. She became a Government transport and it was as a transport that she was wrecked in 1816 with great loss of life.