Sir Edward Hughes was launched in 1784 as an East Indiaman for the British East India Company (EIC). She spent four years as a country ship, i.e., sailing in the East Indies but without going to Britain. Then between 1788 and 1803 she made eight voyages to India and China for the EIC. In 1804 the EIC sold Sir Edward Hughes to the British Royal Navy, which commissioned her as a 38-gun frigate. The Navy renamed her Tortoise in 1807 and converted her to a storeship in 1808. After the end of the Napoleonic Wars she became variously a coal depot, a hulk, and then a convict transport. In 1844 she became a receiving ship at Ascension Island. She was lost there in 1859, or broken up there in 1860, or 1863.
Indian shipwrights built water tanks or cisterns into their vessels that made the use of water butts or casks unnecessary. These tanks were perfectly water tight and saved stowage and manual labour. However, in their designs, the shipwrights did not prioritize sailing speed.[5]
EIC service
She was named after Admiral Sir Edward Hughes, the outgoing Commander-in-Chief, East Indies Station, who retired in 1784. Between 1784 and 1788, Sir Edward Hughes traded locally in India.[2] Thereafter she made nine voyages to China or India, with one to the West Indies under contract to the Navy in between the voyages for the EIC.
First EIC voyage (1788–1789)
Captain Joseph Smith left Bombay on 21 August 1788. Sir Edward Hughes arrived at Whampoa anchorage on 14 October. Outward bound, she crossed the Second Bar on 26 December, reached St Helena on 19 March 1789, and arrived at the Downs on 17 May.[1]
Second EIC voyage (1790–1791)
Captain Robert Anderson left the Downs on 14 March 1790, reached Madras on 1 July and Penang on 15 August, before arriving at Whampoa on 4 October. Homeward-bound, Sir Edward Hughes crossed the Second Bar on 18 December, reached the Cape on 9 April 1791, and St Helena on 28 April, and arrived at the Downs on 28 June.[1]
Third EIC voyage (1792–1793)
Captain Anderson left Falmouth on 15 February 1792, reached Madras on 9 June, Penang on 29 July, and Malacca on 30 August. They arrived at Whampoa on 26 September. Homeward-bound, she crossed the Second Bar on 26 November, arrived at St Helena on 19 March 1793, and arrived at Portsmouth on 9 June.[1]
Fourth EIC voyage (1794–1795)
Captain Anderson received a letter of marque on 16 January 1794.[3] However, he did not sail Sir Edward Hughes again. Instead, Captain James Urmston received a letter of marque on 10 May.[3]
Under Urmston'a command, Sir Edward Hughes left Plymouth on 22 June 1794. She arrived at the Cape on 9 September, and Bombay on 1 December. She left Tellicherry on 18 January 1795, reached St Helena on 18 March, and arrived at the Downs on 23 July.[1]
West Indies voyage (1795-6)
In 1796, Sir Edward Hughes sailed as part of Admiral Hugh Cloberry Christian's expedition to the West Indies. She carried hospital tents, bedding, and stores.[6][7] After numerous starts aborted by weather issues, the fleet sailed on 20 March, to invade St Lucia, with troops under Lieutenant-General Sir Ralph Abercromby. St Lucia surrendered to the British on 25 May.[8] The British went on to capture Saint Vincent and Grenada. Sir Edward Hughes returned to Britain in September 1796.[1]
Captain Urmston and Sir Edward Hughes left Plymouth 22 February 1797. She reached the Cape on 4 May, and arrived at Bombay on 4 July. She then sailed back and forth along the Malabar and Coromandel coasts. She visited Tellicherry (9 October), Cochin (18 October), Anjengo (24 October), Calicut (1 November), Tellicherry (14 November), Calicut (25 November), Cannanore (1 December), Tellicherry (7 December), Cannanore (16 December), and Tellicherry 28 December. She was at Bombay on 9 January 1798. (She had carried Major Lachlan Macquarie, Jonathan Duncan Governor of Bombay, and General Stuart from Calicut to Bombay. By 28 April, she had reached the Cape, and by 26 May, St Helena. She arrived at the Downs on 2 August.[1]
Sixth EIC voyage (1799–1800)
Urmston sailed Sir Edward Hughes from Portsmouth on 2 April 1799, and arrived at Bombay on 23 July. She was at Goa on 6 September, Managalore on 18 September, Calicut on 24 September, and Madras on 5 October. She reached the Cape on 30 December, and St Helena on 27 January 1800, before arriving at the Downs on 30 May.[1]
Seventh EIC voyage (1800–1)
Sir Edward Hughes left Portsmouth on 5 September 1800, and reached Madeira by 23 September. Sir Edward Hughes, Price William Henry, Basket, master, and Hawke, Baker, master, were reported to have been "all well" on 11 November at 28°11′S27°23′W / 28.183°S 27.383°W / -28.183; -27.383.[9] She reached Madras on 29 January 1801. She then visited Masulipatam (23 March), Narsipore (25 March), Coninga (28 March), and Vizagapatam (31 March). She reached the Cape on 12 July, and St Helena on 14 August. She arrived at the Downs on 31 October.
Eighth voyage (1802–1803)
Captain Urmston was still in command of Sir Edward Hughes when she sailed from the Downs on 18 April 1802.[1] She was reported to have been "all well" on 5 May at 28°35′N19°14′W / 28.583°N 19.233°W / 28.583; -19.233.[10] She reached Johanna on 9 August, and arrived at Bombay on 29 August. She visited Surat on 13 October, but returned to Bombay by 22 October. She then visited Tellicherry (2 November), Cochin (12 November), Calicut (19 November), Mahé (24 November), Tellicherry (25 November), and Managalore (29 November), before returning to Bombay by 8 December. When she left Bombay she again carried Lachlan Macquarie, who was returning to Britain. Sir Edward Hughes was at Mahé on 13 January 1803 and Calicut two days later. She reached the Cape on 5 March, and St Helena on 25 March, before arriving back at the Downs on 9 May.[1]
On her return to Britain, the EIC had Sir Edward Hughes fitted as a frigate. Captain Thomas Barrow received a letter of marque on 3 October 1803. This showed her as having doubled her armament and her complement relative to her service as an Indiaman.[3] Barrow sailed from Portsmouth 26 October 1803, with destination Madras and with the EIC intending her to remain in the Far East.[1]
The Royal Navy purchased Sir Edward Hughes in May 1804 in India for £35,000.[4] However, the notice of her capturing Jeune Clementine in July still refers to Sir Edward Hughes as belonging to the EIC. Furthermore, some records state that the EIC presented her to the Navy in 1805.[14][a]
In 1806, Captain Gilbert Heathcote replaced Christian.[4] On 6 June 1806, Sir Edward Hughes escorted Ganges to Bombay as Ganges was leaky and had to interrupt her return to Britain in order to undergo repairs.[17][b] In September, Captain Edward Ratsey replaced Heathcote.
In December, Sir Edward Hughes was part of a squadron under Rear-Admiral Sir Thomas Troubridge, in Blenheim, and including Harrier. By 27 March 1807, Sir Edward Hughes was at Madras.[1]
By April, the three warships were at Pulo Aura awaiting four East Indiamen coming from China. On 6 April, Blenheim grounded on a sandbank in the Straits of Malacca. It took four days before she could be righted to enable her to return to Penang. Sir Edward Hughes took off her stores, though the heaviest had had to be thrown overboard.[18]
Sir Edward Hughes was next reported to have been near the Equator on 1 June 1807, escorting a convoy to the Cape.[19]
On 19 September Sir Edward Hughes and Scorpion were in company and so shared in the proceeds of the capture on that day of the Danish ship Christle.[20]
Tortoise arrived at Sheerness on 9 October and two days later sailed to Woolwich. There she was put in ordinary in December.[4]
HMS Tortoise
Sir Edward Hughes was renamed HMS Tortoise on 28 November 1807. Between March and July 1808, Tortoise was at Woolwich being fitted as a storeship for the Royal Navy. In May, Commander Thomas Cook recommissioned her. She was in the Mediterranean in 1812, and at Gibraltar in 1813.[4]
Immediate post-war
In 2 April 1817, Tortoise was at St Helena. Her captain, Cooke, had an audience with Napoleon.
Between September and November 1824, Tortoise was at Portsmouth being fitted as a coal depot. She was at Milford until 1838.[4]
Convict transport
Between January and August, Porpoise was at Chatham being fitted for a storeship. James Wood was appointed on 22 May 1841, as master of Tortoise. However, Tortoise's next task was to transport convicts to Van Diemen's Land.
On 12 August, Wood received orders take on convicts, carry them to Van Dieman's Land, and then sail to New Zealand to gather timber and spars for the Navy. Wood had been captain of HMSBuffalo when she had wrecked at Mercury Bay off Whitianga in 1840, on an identical mission. The actual task of identifying trees to be cut down, and marking them, was the responsibility of the Navy's Purveyor of Timber, Thomas Laslett, who had accompanied Wood in Buffalo.[21]
Tortoise departed Plymouth on 26 October, and arrived at Hobart on 19 February 1842, having travelled via the Cape.[22] She had embarked 400 male prisoners, of which three were re-landed and three died on the voyage, and so disembarked 394.[23] The 96th Regiment of Foot provided 103 officers and men to serve as the guard force. There were also some 50 soldiers' wives and children on board.
While Tortoise was at Hobart, HMSBeagle, with Charles Darwin on board, came into port. On 9, or 16 March, Tortoise left Hobart for New Zealand.
Gathering wood in New Zealand
Grave of Able Seaman William Sampson at Te Karo BayGrave of William Sampson
Tortoise sailed to the Bay of Islands to gather Kauri wood (Agathis australis) for spars for the Navy. Between 21 March and 19 June, Tortoise succeed in gathering 103 masts along New Zealand's Coromandel Coast. While she was at Te Karo Bay on 6 May, Able Seaman William Sampson drowned when her jolly boat overturned in the surf. He was buried in a grave that the Royal New Zealand Navy still maintains.[24]
In 1842, Major Bunbury, of the 80th Regiment of Foot, took 40 to 50 men, half of the force he had brought in 1840 to Auckland from Sydney, and launched a punitive expedition against the Te Arawa tribe at Tauranga. Tortoise provided some support for the expedition.[25] She contributed two 18-pounder carronades, 100 round shot, and 50 rounds of canister, as well as sailors and marines. The Acting Governor of New Zealand exercised some mediation and then withdrew his force when he realised that it was too small to prevail and that the Māori resented the English interfering in their intertribal wars. After the British left, the locals ate some of their prisoners, which is the last recorded incident of this kind in New Zealand. The fortuitous presence of the Tortoise's carronades was essential in giving the expedition gravitas.[26]
Tortoise's expedition was the third, and last, that the Royal Navy mounted to gather kauri-wood spars. (The first had consisted of HMS Coromandel and HMS Dromedary in 1821.) After her return to Britain in October 1843, Tortoise was at Chatham where between December and March 1844, she underwent fitting out as a receiving ship for Ascension Island.
Ascension Island
HMS Tortoise at Ascension Sept 1853
Commander William Finlaison sailed Tortoise to Ascension Island in spring 1844. He had been appointed Administrator of the island, but resigned due to poor health after a few months, and was replaced by Commander Arthur Fleming Morrell that October.
On 12 November 1846, Captain Frederick Hutton replaced Morrell in command of Tortoise and as Administrator of Ascension Island.[27] The island was a supply depot for the Royal Navy's West Africa Squadron, which had the task of suppressing the slave trade. In support of that mission, Tortoise had a ship's tender, Snap.
In March 1847, fire broke out in the coal Torotise's hold. Her crew and men from the garrison worked for four days and nights before they could clear all the hold and subdue the fire. Even so, her beams were burnt 3 to 5 inches through.[28]
In 1852, William Hewgill Kitchen replaced Hutton. In 1854, Captain William Farquharson Burnett was captain of Tortoise. Then in 1855, Captain G.A.Seymour replaced Burnett.
The merchant vessel The Abyssinian, of 1000 tons, arrived at Ascension Island on 16 May 1856, in a sinking state with five feet of water in her hold and the water rising at a rate of two feet an hour. The master and crew were exhausted from pumping and stated that they were going to abandon her. Instead, between 18 May and 22 July, 111 men, crew from Tortoise and 24 Africans, removed 800 tons of cargo from The Abyssinian, uncovering the leak, which they fixed. Then over 17 days Tortoise's boats returned the cargo. The master tendered a payment of £800. She then continued on her journey to London. The salvors took the case to court, which found that value of the salvage was £23,464. The court ruled that given the value of the vessel and cargo, her state, and the amount of effort expended to save the voyage and cargo, £800 was too little. It awarded them £1,500.[31][32] Shares were allocated in proportion to the number of days each salvor was employed on the occasion.[33]
Capt. J Elliott replaced Seymour in 1857.
Fate
The fate of Tortoise is a little unclear. The Admiralty issued an order on 18 October 1859, that she be broken up at Ascension Island.[4] However, in 1979, a Royal Navy team of divers searching the waters around Ascension Island for any trace of William Dampier's ship Roebuck, found a number of other wrecks. They identified three: HMSMaeander, lost in 1870; Normandie, an iron sailing ship of 1900, and Soudan, lost in 1892. They also found an older wreck that they speculated was Tortoise, which "broke away from its moorings in 1859".[34] Other reports have her being broken up at Ascension in 1860,[2] or 1863.[4]
Notes
↑ On 21 May 1806, the Court of Directors of the EIC held a meeting to suspend a portion of the Company's by-laws to enable the company to purchase or build two ships to replace Sir Edward Hughes, and Britannia.[15]Britannia had been wrecked on the Brazilian coast on 1 November 1805, while participating in Sir Home Popham's expedition to the Cape. Her cargo was charged to the British government.
↑ Ganges then remained at Bombay until 27 February 1807.
Neptune was a three-decker East Indiaman launched in 1780 at Deptford. She made five voyages for the British East India Company (EIC), the last one transporting convicts to Port Jackson as one of the vessels of the notorious Second Fleet. This voyage resulted in a private suit against the master and chief officer for wrongful death. A fire and explosion in 1796 at Cape Town destroyed Neptune.
Royal Admiral was an East Indiaman, launched in 1777 on the River Thames. She made eight trips for the East India Company (EIC) before she was sold. She then continued to trade. She made two trips carrying convicts from England to Australia, one as an East Indiaman in 1791, and a second in 1800. On this second voyage as a convict transport she was present at a notable naval action.
Barwell was a merchantman launched in 1782. She made six voyages for the British East India Company (EIC). She then left the EIC's service but continued to sail. She made one voyage transporting convicts in 1797 from England to Australia. She was last listed in 1807.
Scarborough was an East Indiaman launched in December 1734 that performed two voyages for the British East India Company (EIC). The Admiralty purchased her in 1739 and commissioned her as HMS Scarborough. The original intent was to use her as a storeship, but instead she was fitted up as a hospital ship. The Admiralty sold her in 1744.
Houghton was launched in 1782 and made six voyages as an East Indiaman for the British East India Company (EIC). In 1794 she was part of an EIC squadron that had some success against French privateers and naval vessels in the Sunda Strait, and then in 1796 she participated as a transport in the British capture of St Lucia. She was sold in 1799 and her owner took her out to India to work in the tea trade between India and China. She foundered in 1803.
HMS Greenwich was the East Indiaman Greenwich, launched in 1766 that made four voyages to India for the British East India Company. The Royal Navy purchased her in 1777 for use as a frigate during the American Revolutionary War, but then converted her to a storeship and receiving ship. She saw service in North American waters and off the English port of Sheerness between 1777 and 1783, but was ultimately declared surplus to requirements and sold into private hands at Deptford Dockyard.
Rockingham was launched as an East Indiaman in 1785. She made seven voyages for the British East India Company (EIC) between 1786 and 1802 before she was sold for breaking up.
Ponsborne was launched in 1779 as an East Indiaman for the British East India Company (EIC). She made six voyages for the EIC before she was wrecked in 1796 at Grenada after having landed troops there.
Raymond was launched in 1782 as an East Indiaman for the British East India Company (EIC). She made six voyages for the EIC and participated as a transport in Admiral Hugh Cloberry Christian's expedition in 1795–96 to the West Indies. The French captured her in 1798. American owners purchased her, renamed her Orion, and sailed her from Mauritius to Boston in 1799.
Britannia was launched by the Bombay Dockyard in 1772, and was rebuilt in 1778. The British East India Company (EIC) apparently acquired her in 1775. Between 1779 she made eleven complete voyages as an East Indiaman for the EIC. She also participated in three naval campaigns, during the first of which she was deployed as a cruiser off Sumatra. There she engaged and captured a French ship. In the other two she served as a transport. She set out for her twelfth EIC voyage but was lost in 1805 during the third naval campaign.
Duke of Montrose was launched in 1785 as an East Indiaman. She made eight voyages for the British East India Company (EIC). She then briefly became a troop transport, sailing to the West Indies. She was sold in 1811 for breaking up.
Essex was launched in 1780 as an East Indiaman. She made six voyages for the British East India Company (EIC). On her first voyage she was present at an inconclusive battle with the French, and later at a second inconclusive engagement with a French frigate. In 1798 she was sold to be hulked or broken up.
General Eliott was launched in 1782 as the East Indiaman Fletcher, but was renamed before completion to honour General Elliott's defence of Gibraltar. Under the ownership of Robert Preston, she made six voyages for the British East India Company (EIC) and one voyage as a transport for a naval expedition. She then became a West Indiaman until she was sold for breaking up in 1802.
Travers was launched in 1800 as an East Indiaman. She made four complete voyages as an "extra ship" for the British East India Company (EIC). She was wrecked near the end of the outward-bound leg of her fifth voyage.
Sir William Pulteney was launched in 1803 at Calcutta as a country ship She sailed to England on a voyage for the British East India Company (EIC) and her owner sold her there. The EIC then engaged her as an "extra ship" for six voyages as an East Indiaman to India and back. She was sold in 1817.
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.
Belvedere was launched in 1787 at Itchenor. She made six voyages for the British East India Company (EIC). She then briefly sailed as a West Indiaman. She was broken up by 1805.
Earl Fitzwilliam was launched in 1786 at Deptford. She made four voyages for the British East India Company (EIC). She made four complete voyages for the EIC, three to India and one to India and China. She caught fire on 23 February 1799 on her fifth voyage while she was in the River Ganges.
Carmarthen was launched in 1802 as an East Indiaman. She made eight round-trip voyages to India as an "extra" ship for the British East India Company (EIC). On her first voyage she participated in an experiment in bringing variolation to India and other British possessions to combat smallpox. After leaving the EIC's employment, she took one more voyage to India, sailing under a licence from the EIC. She was last listed in 1820.
Grenville was launched at Deptford in 1764 as an East Indiaman. She made four voyages for the British East India Company (EIC) before her owners sold her in 1777 to the Royal Navy, which renamed her HMS Tortoise and employed her as a transport. She foundered in 1779.
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House of Lords, Select Committee on the Extinction of the African Slave Trade, Parliament of Great Britain (1849). Report from the Select Committee of the House of Lords: Appointed to Consider the Best Means which Great Britain Can Adopt for the Final Extinction of the African Slave Trade; and to Report Thereon to the House; Together with the Minutes of Evidence, and an Appendix and Index Thereto.
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