Related Research Articles
Britannia may refer to any one of a large number of ships:
Many ships have been named Princess Royal, including:
Several ships have been named Princess Amelia:
Multiple British vessels have been named King George for one of the members of the British monarchs:
A number of sailing ships have been named Queen Charlotte.
Several vessels have been named Harriet, or Harriot:
Several ships have been named Harpooner:
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.
HMS Otter was the French merchantman Glanure, which the Royal Navy (RN) captured early in 1778. The Royal Navy took her into service as the sloop HMS Otter and she served in the American theatre. The Navy sold her in 1783. She became a merchantman and then a slave ship in the triangular trade in enslaved people. She made two complete voyages bringing captives to Jamaica. The French captured her in December 1795 as she was on her way to deliver her third cargo of captives.
Several vessels have been named Spy:
Tartar was launched on the River Thames in 1787. Initially, she traded between London and Smyrna. Between 1792 and 1794 she made one voyage to Bengal and back carrying dispatches for the British East India Company (EIC). On her return she became a packet for the Post Office Packet Service, sailing from Falmouth, Cornwall. In June 1796 she was bringing mail from New York back to Falmouth when a French privateer captured her.
Tartar was built in France in 1778, almost surely under another name. She was taken in prize and appears under British ownership in 1780. After a short career as a privateer, she made a voyage between 1781 and 1783 as an extra East Indiaman for the British East India Company (EIC). She then became a whaler in the northern whale fishery. After whaling she traded with the Baltic and then served as a London-based transport. She was probably lost in 1799, and was last listed in 1801. If Tartar is the vessel lost in 1799, in 1796 French warships captured her, but the Royal Navy quickly recaptured her.
Fly was a ship launched in 1772 in Liverpool. She then made three voyages to Africa as a slave ship. Circa 1780 she was renamed Tartar. She then made six more slave trading voyages. From circa 1789 she became a local trader. She was last listed in 1794.
HMS Spy was a Bonetta-class sloop launched at Rotherhithe in 1756 for the Royal Navy. The Navy sold her in 1773. From 1776, or perhaps earlier she was a transport. Then from 1780 to 1783, as Mars, she was first a privateer and then a slave ship, engaged in the triangular trade in enslaved persons. Between 1783 and 1787 her name was Tartar, and she traded with the Mediterranean. From 1787, as Southampton, she was a whaler in the British southern whale fishery. She made at least four complete whaling voyages and was last listed in 1792.
A number of vessels have been named Ranger:
Several vessels have been named Mary Ann:
Tartar was launched at Bristol in 1778. Initially she sailed, with some success, as a privateer. Then in 1781 she became a slave ship in the triangular trade in enslaved people. She made one complete voyage as an enslaving ship; French naval vessels captured Tartar on her second enslaving voyage.
Several vessels have been named Molly:
Several ships have been named Trelawney or Trelawny.
True Briton was launched at Liverpool in 1775. She made two voyages as a slave ship in the triangular trade in enslaved people. During the second of these voyages there was an unsuccessful insurrection by the slaves she was carrying. Then in 1777–1778 she made another slave voyage, this time under the name John. On her return to Liverpool, she became the privateer Bellona, and succeeded in taking several prizes. Bellona then made three voyages as a slave ship. In 1786 her ownership changed, and so did her name. She became Lord Stanley, and under that name proceeded to make 11 slave voyages. In 1794, at Havana, a deadly fever spread through the vessel, apparently after she had landed her slaves. On her last voyage the captain acted with such brutality towards a black crew member that the man, who providentially survived, sued the captain when the vessel arrived at Liverpool and won substantial damages.
References
- Marshall, M.A.N. (1963). "Norfolk Ships". The Mariner's Mirror. 49 (1): 62–68. doi:10.1080/00253359.1963.10657716.
