| History | |
|---|---|
 Great Britain | |
| Name | Speculator |
| Launched | 1797, Thames [1] [2] |
| General characteristics | |
| Tons burthen | 100, or 161, [3] or 169, [1] or 183 [2] (bm) |
Speculator was launched in 1797 on the Thames. She may have served the British government between her launch and 1803. She then made one voyage as a whaler in the British southern whale fishery. What happened to her after her return is currently obscure.
Speculator first appeared in Lloyd's Register (LR) in the volume for 1802. [1]
| Year | Master | Owner | Trade | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1802 | J.Mildrum | Herbert | London–Southern fishery | LR |
Speculator was valued at £2,000 in 1802. [3]
Captain J. Mildrum (or Melden, Maldon, or Meldon), sailed from London on 25 May 1803, bound for the southern whale fishery. [4] On 5 March 1804 Speculator arrived at Saint Helena. She left on 15 March. As she crossed the equator she fell in with three ships flying British colours. One was a corvette of 20 guns and one was a large Dutch ship. Mildrum assumed they were a convoy from the Cape, at least until the corvette fired on Speculator. Speculator fled, firing her stern guns at her pursuers. She escaped and arrived safely at Ilfracombe prior to 2 May. [5]
The articles reporting this engagement mentioned that Speculator was a former gunbrig, and had false guns mounted. [5] There is no record of a gun-brig named Speculator during the period 1793 to 1817, either belonging to the Royal Navy or a hired armed vessel. It is possible that the Royal Navy purchased her and sailed her under another name, but there is no obvious candidate. [6]
Speculator remained listed in LR for some years, but with stale data. One source states that she was employed in the fishery during 1803 and 1807. [3] However, there was no further press mention of a Speculator, Mildrum, master, after 1804.
The British Royal Navy purchased HMS Shark on the stocks in 1775. She was launched in 1776, and in 1778 converted to a fireship and renamed HMS Salamander. The Navy sold her in 1783. She then became the mercantile Salamander. In the 1780s she was in the northern whale fishery. In 1791 she transported convicts to Australia. She then became a whaling ship in the southern whale fishery for a number of years, before becoming a general transport and then a slave ship. In 1804 the French captured her, but the Royal Navy recaptured her. Although she is last listed in 1811, she does not appear in Lloyd's List (LL) ship arrival and departure (SAD) data after 1804.
Goéland was the name ship of a two-vessel class of "brick-avisos", built to a design by Raymond-Antoine Haran and launched in 1787. She served the French Navy for several years carrying dispatches until in 1793 HMS Penelope and HMS Proserpine captured her off Jérémie. The Royal Navy took her into service briefly as Goelan and sold her in 1794. As the merchant brig Brothers she appears to have sailed as a whaling ship in the British southern whale fishery until 1808 or so, and then traded between London and the Brazils. She is no longer listed after 1815.
HMS Hyaena was a 24-gun Porcupine-class post-ship of the Royal Navy launched in 1778. The French captured her in 1793, took her into service as Hyène, and then sold her. She became a privateer that the British captured in 1797. The Royal Navy took her back into service as Hyaena and she continued to serve until the Navy sold her in 1802. The shipowner Daniel Bennett purchased her and renamed her Recovery. She made seven voyages as a whaler in the British southern whale fishery and was broken up 1813.
Robert was a 16-gun French privateer corvette launched in 1793 at Nantes. The British captured her in 1793 and named her HMS Espion. The French recaptured her in 1794 and took her into service as Espion. The British recaptured her in 1795, but there being another Espion in service by then, the British renamed their capture HMS Spy. She served under that name until the Navy sold her in 1801. Spy then became a slave ship in the triangular trade in enslaved people, a merchantman to South America, and privateer again. The French captured her in mid-1805 and sent her into Guadeloupe.
Vautour was a French privateer launched in 1797 at Nantes that made three privateering voyages. The Royal Navy captured her in 1800 during her fourth cruise. Private owners acquired her prior to late 1801 and employed her as the whaler Vulture in the South Seas whale fisheries between 1801 and 1809. A Spanish privateer captured her in 1809.
HMS Flirt was launched in 1782 but was completed too late to see any significant service in the American War of Independence. She then spent most of the years of peace in British waters. She sailed to Jamaica in 1791, but was laid up in Deptford in November 1792, and did not return to service before being sold in 1795. Daniel Bennett purchased her, had her almost rebuilt, and then employed her as a whaler in the Southern Whale Fishery. A French privateer captured her in 1803 as Flirt was returning to Britain from a whaling voyage.
Multiple British vessels have been named King George for one of the members of the British monarchs:
Éole was an 18-gun corvette of the French Navy, launched, captured, and later commissioned in the Royal Navy in 1799 as HMS Nimrod after her capture by HMS Solebay. She was then "the finest and most handsome ship-sloop in the British navy". She was sold in 1811. Nimrod made three whaling voyages between 1811 and 1819. On her first she captured several American whalers. Nimrod was last listed in 1820.
Harpooner was launched at Bristol in 1791. A French privateer captured her in 1793 on Harpooner's first whaling voyage to the South Seas and took her into Boston. This gave rise to an important court case.
HMS Swift was the whaler Pacific launched in 1802 that the British Royal Navy purchased in 1804 on her return from the Galápagos Islands. She served briefly in the Caribbean where she was involved in one notable capture of a Spanish garda-costa. She then served in the North Sea. The Navy laid her up July 1807, but then returned her to duty in 1810 as a storeship. The Navy sold her in 1814. She then resumed the name Pacific and returned to mercantile service. She was wrecked in 1828 but remained listed in 1833.
Hebe was launched in 1804 at Leith. From 27 April 1804 to 30 October 1812 she served the Royal Navy as a hired armed ship and transport. She spent her entire naval career escorting convoys to the Baltic. Afterwards, she became a transport that an American privateer captured in March 1814.
Juno was launched at Hull in 1793 as a West Indiaman. French privateers once detained her and once captured her, but the Royal Navy recaptured her. She made one voyage as a whaler in the Southern Whale Fishery, and then participated as a transport in a naval expedition. She then disappears from readily accessible records. In 1809 she may have been captured off Africa, or condemned at the Cape of Good Hope and broken up.
Brook Watson was launched in 1796, probably in Holland but possibly in Denmark. She became a prize in 1801 and by 1802 was a whaler in the British Southern Whale Fishery. She made two whaling voyages between 1802 and 1806. She then became a West Indiaman and was last listed in 1809 or 1810.
Aurora was launched at Whitby in 1789. Between 1799 and 1806 she made four voyages as a whaler to the British southern whale fishery. She was last listed in 1809 with stale data since her whaling voyages.
Greenwich was launched on the Thames in 1800. Between 1800 and 1813 Samuel Enderby & Sons employed her as a whaler in the British Southern Whale Fishery, and she made four whaling voyages for them. In 1813 the United States Navy captured her in the Pacific and for about a year she served there as USS Greenwich. Her captors scuttled her in 1814.
Resolution was launched at Liverpool in 1776 as the West Indiaman Thomas Hall; she was renamed in 1779. She sailed briefly as a privateer. Then between 1791 and 1804 Revolution made some six voyages as a whaler. On one voyage, in 1793, a French frigate captured her, but Resolution was re-captured. In 1804 a new owner returned her to the West Indies trade. She does not appear to have sailed after early 1805.
Atalanta was launched in Holland in 1795, perhaps under another name. She was captured in 1798, and thereafter traded generally as a British merchantman. She was brig-rigged. Between 1801 and 1804 she made two voyages as a slave ship in the triangular trade in enslaved people, and may have been temporarily captured during the second. She then became a West Indiaman. Next, between 1808 and 1814, she made two voyages as a whaler in Australian and New Zealand waters. After the whaling voyages she traded more widely, especially to the Baltic. She was last listed in 1833.
Sparrow was built in Bombay in 1777, possibly under another name. Between 1789 and 1798 Sparrow made several voyages as a whaler in the British southern whale fishery. In 1803 she was captured and recaptured. The French Navy captured and burnt her in 1806.
HMS Inspector was launched at Wivenhoe in 1782 as the only vessel built to her design. She participated in one campaign and also captured a handful of small merchant vessels before the Navy sold her in 1802. Most notably, her crew participated in the mutiny at the Nore. After her sale, she became the whaler Inspector. She made six complete voyages to the British southern whale fishery. A Chilean privateer captured her in May 1819. Eventually she was condemned as unseaworthy at Santander in 1821.
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