History | |
---|---|
Great Britain | |
Name | George and Sarah |
Builder | South Carolina |
Launched | 1770 |
Renamed | Royal Bounty |
Fate | Wrecked 16 July 1819 |
General characteristics | |
Tons burthen | 282 (bm) |
Armament | 6 × 6-pounder guns, or 6 × 6-pounder guns + 2 × 12-pounder carronades |
Royal Bounty was launched in South Carolina in 1770, probably as George and Sarah. Her owners changed her name to Royal Bounty circa 1786. As Royal Bounty she sailed out of Leith, going on annual whale hunting voyages to the northern whale fishery (Greenland and Davis Strait). She was wrecked in 1819 on her 35th such voyage.
George and Sarah first appeared in Lloyd's Register (LR) in 1779. [1]
Year | Master | Owner | Trade | Source & notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
1779 | G.Watson | G.Selby | Cork transport | LR; lengthened 1774 |
1784 | G.Watson G.Selby | G.Selby | London London–Memel | LR; lengthened 1774, and good repair 1784 |
Circa 1785 new owners renamed George and Sarah to Royal Bounty; she also underwent a thorough repair. From then on until her loss she was a whaler. Although there is no online copy of LR for 1785, there is a press report that she had returned to Leith from Greenland in August 1785 "clean", i.e., without having caught anything.
Year | Master | Owner | Trade | Source & notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
1786 | R.Liddell | J.Scougal | Greenland–Leith | LR; lengthened and rebuilt 1778, thorough repair 1785; former George and Sarah |
1787 | R.Liddell W.Paton | J.Scougal | Greenland–Leith | LR; lengthened and rebuilt 1778, thorough repair 1785; former George and Sarah |
1789 | W.Paton J.Wilson | J.Scougal | Leith–Greenland | LR; lengthened and rebuilt 1778, thorough repair 1785, repairs 1786 |
1790 | C.Reid J. Boyd | J.Scougal | Leith–Greenland | LR; lengthened and rebuilt 1778, thorough repair 1785, repairs 1786 |
1792 | J.Boyd J.Newton | J.Scougal | Leith–Davis Strait | LR; lengthened and rebuilt 1778, thorough repair 1785 |
1805 | J.Newton J. Wright | Douglas | Leith–Davis Strait | LR; lengthened and rebuilt 1778, thorough repair 1785, repairs 1786, 1796, and 1800 |
1810 | J.Wright R.Kelly | Douglas | Leith–Davis Strait | LR; repairs 1800 |
1810 | J.Wright Kellie | Wood & Co. | Leith–Davis Strait | RS; small repairs 1806 & 1807 |
1814 | R.Kellis Drysdale | Douglas | Leith–Greenland | LR; repairs 1811 |
1818 | J.Drysdal J.Rich | Woods & Co. | Leith–Greenland | LR; repairs 1811 |
1819 | J.Rich | Wood & Co. | Leith–Greenland | LR; repairs 1811 |
The data below for the period 1785 to 1814 comes from press mentions. The data from 1814 on comes primarily from Coltish, [2] augmented by press reports.
Year | Master | Where | Whales | Tuns whale oil | Butts blubber | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1785 | Liddell | Greenland | Clean late in the season | |||
1786 | 4 | |||||
1787 | Paton | Greenland | 12 | |||
1788 | Paton | Greenland | 1 | 20 | Seven seals, & 1 cwt of whalebone | |
1789 | Reid | Greenland | Clean | |||
1790 | Boyd | Davis Strait | ||||
1791 | Boyd | Greenland | Clean | |||
1792 | No press report | |||||
1793 | Davis strait | 1 | ||||
1794 | Davis Strait | 2 | ||||
1795 | Davis Strait | 7 | ||||
1796 | Davis Strait | 5 | ||||
1797 | Newton | Davis Strait | 8 | Full ship | ||
1798 | Davis Strait | Clean | ||||
1799 | Newton | Davis Strait | 8 | Full ship | ||
1800 | Newton | Davis Strait | 7 | |||
1801 | Newton | West coast of Greenland | Full ship; Royal Bounty grossed £5463 for the voyage [3] | |||
1802 | Newton | Davis Strait | 10 | |||
1803 | Newton | Davis Strait | ||||
1804 | Newton | Davis Strait | 9 | 400 | ||
1805 | Wright | Davis Strait | 6 | |||
On 13 April 1806 Royal Bounty lost her mizzen mast and several men but was able to get a new mast and proceed to the fishery.
Year | Master | Where | Whales | Tuns whale oil | Butts blubber | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1806 | Wright | Davis Strait | 3 | |||
1807 | No press report | |||||
1808 | Wright | Davis Strait | 8 | |||
1809 | Wright | Davis Strait | 9 | |||
1810 | Kelley | Davis Strait | Well fished | |||
1811 | Davis Strait | 8 | ||||
1812 | Kellie | Greenland | 19 | 300 | ||
1813 | Kelly | Greenland | 2 | 70 butts | ||
1814 | Drysdale | Greenland | 6 | 47.5 | 260 butts or 291 casks | 3.5 tons whale fins |
1815 | Drysdale | Davis Strait | 3, 7, or 8 | 36.5 | ||
1816 | Drysdale | 6, or 15 | 50 | |||
1817 | Drysdale | Greenland | 4 | 26.5 | ||
1818 | Ritch | Greenland | 3 | 15 | ||
1819 | Ritch | Greenland | 3 | Lost with her cargo | ||
Royal Bounty, Ritch, master, was wrecked on 16 July 1819. She was one of 10 whalers lost within a few days of each other in the Davis Strait due to gales in the ice fields. Her crew was saved. [4] She had taken three whales before she was lost. [5]
Citations
References
HMS Hecla was a Royal Navy Hecla-class bomb vessel launched in 1815. Like many other bomb vessels, she was named for a volcano, in this case Hekla in southern Iceland. She served at the Bombardment of Algiers in 1816. Subsequently she took part in three expeditions to the Arctic. She then served as a survey vessel on the coast of West Africa until she was sold in 1831. She became a merchantman and in 1834 a Greenland whaler. She was wrecked in 1840.
William and Ann was built at a King's Yard in 1759, under another name. From 1786 until 1791 she was a whaler in the northern whale fishery. In 1791 she transported convicts to New South Wales and then began whale hunting around New Zealand; she returned to England in 1793. Circa 1801 she again became a whaler in the northern whale fishery, sailing from Leith. She continued whaling until 1839. She then began trading widely, to Bahia, Bombay, Archangel, Spain, Honduras, and the Mediterranean. She was last listed in 1857, having been in service for over 90 years.
HMS Swan was launched on 21 November 1767 at Plymouth as the lead ship of the 24 ships in the 14-gun Swan-class of ship-sloops built in the 1760s and 1770s. She served during the American Revolutionary War and the French Revolutionary War. She bore the name HMS Explosion between 1779 and 1783; at the time she was classed as a fireship. She was laid up in 1801 and finally sold in 1814. Swan then became a whaler in the northern whale fishery, sailing out of Kingston-on-Hull. She also made one voyage to the southern whale fishery (1819–1821) and one merchant voyage to Brazil and Hamburg, before returning to the northern whale fishery. She was broken up circa. 1841.
Andrew Marvel was launched at Hull in 1812. From 1812 to 1835 she was a Greenland whaler, hunting bowhead whales in the northern whale fishery. Thereafter she became a merchantman. She foundered in September 1843 while on a voyage from Hull to Saint John, New Brunswick.
Earl Fauconberg was launched at Whitby in 1765. From 1784 on she made numerous voyages as a Greenland whaler. She was lost there in 1821.
Aurora was launched at Kingston upon Hull. She traded with the Baltic until 1803 when she became a Greenland whaler. She was lost in 1821 on her 18th voyage to the northern whale fishery.
Blenheim may have been launched in 1776 in Philadelphia as Britannia. By 1777 she was the Massachusetts-based privateer American Tartar and had taken several prizes. She had also participated in an inconclusive single-ship action with a British merchantman. The British Royal Navy captured American Tartar late in 1777 and she became HMS Hinchinbrook. The Royal Navy sold her in 1783 and she became the West Indiaman Blenheim. In 1785-86 she became a Greenland whaler and she continued in that trade until two French frigates captured and burnt her in 1806.
Lord Wellington was launched in 1810 at Hull. She made 20 voyages to Davis Strait and Greenland as a northern whale fishery whaler. She was lost in June 1834 on her 21st voyage.
Majestic was launched at Sunderland in 1811. In 1812 she became a whaler in the British northern whale fishery, whaling at Davis Strait. She was lost there on 16 July 1819.
Regalia was launched at Sunderland in 1811. In 1819 she made a voyage to Calcutta, sailing under a license from the British East India Company (EIC). she also sailed to New South Wales and Van Diemen's Land. From Sydney she engaged in several sealing hunting voyages to the waters around Macquarie Island. In 1826 she transported convicts from Dublin to New South Wales. From 1831 until 1852, when she was wrecked at Davis Strait, Regalia was a whaler in the northern whale fishery.
Gardiner and Joseph was launched at Hull in 1802. She made seven voyages as a whaler in the northern whale fishery until she was wrecked in November 1808.
Jane was launched at Kingston upon Hull in 1813 as a West Indiaman. Between 1818 and 1836 she was a whaler in the northern whale fishery. She then became a merchantman and was wrecked in 1866.
Royalist was launched in 1794 at Sunderland. She was a general trader until 1812 when she became a whaler in the northern whale fishery. She was lost in 1814 while whaling at Greenland.
Hebe was launched at Hull in 1809. She initially sailed as a West Indiaman, but then sailed to the Mediterranean. In 1813 a privateer captured her but the Royal Navy quickly recaptured her. Between 1816 and 1819 she made two voyages to India, sailing under a license from the British East India Company (EIC). On her return new owners sailed her as a whaler. She was wrecked on 10 March 1821 on her second whaling voyage to the British northern whale fishery.
Princess Charlotte was launched in 1814 at South Shields. She initially sailed as West Indiaman. Then between 1818 and 1819 she made a voyage to India and one to Ceylon, both under a license from the British East India Company (EIC). On her return in 1819, Princess Charlotte became a whaler in the northern whale fishery. She continued whale hunting until ice crushed her on 14 June 1856.
Prince of Orange was launched in Sunderland in 1814. She originally sailed as a West Indiaman but then became an East Indiaman, sailing to India under a license from the British East India Company (EIC). She made two voyages transporting convicts to Australia, the first in 1820–1821 to New South Wales, and the second in 1822 to Van Diemen's Land. Between 1830 and 1840 she made nine voyages as a whaler to Davis Strait. She was lengthened and rebuilt in 1846. In December 1852 she grounded and it took some months to get her off. She then need major repairs. She also suffered damages in 1854. She foundered in 1858.
Home Castle was launched in Aberdeen in 1811. From 1813 on she was a whaler in the British northern whale fishery. She was lost in 1829 while whaling in Davis Strait.
Several vessels have been named Royal Bounty:
Isabella was launched in Kingston upon Hull in 1813. She initially sailed as a transport, and then as a merchantman trading with Canada. In 1817 the British Admiralty hired her as one of two vessels that would go on an expedition to search for a Northwest Passage. The expedition was unsuccessful. In 1820 she underwent two maritime mishaps, only one of which was substantive. From 1824 until she wrecked in the ice in June 1835 she was a whaler in the northern whale fishery.
Cumbrian was launched at Shields in 1811. Initially, during the last years of the French Revolutionary Wars, Cumbrian was a transport. After the end of the war she became a West Indiaman. In 1817 she made one voyage to Bengal, sailing under a licence from the British East India Company (EIC). In 1819 she became a whaler, sailing from Kingston upon Hull to the northern whale fishery. From 1835 on she left whaling and started trading more widely, to North America, Bombay, and Africa. She was driven ashore in August 1844, refloated, and subsequently condemned.