Venus was launched at Deptford in 1788 and made 15 voyages as a whaler in the British southern whale fishery. Of 812 whalers in the British southern whale fishery database for which there was data, she had the fifth highest number of whaling voyages. She was last listed in 1823.
Venus first appeared in Lloyd's Register (LR) in the 1789 volume (published in 1788), with D.Coffin, master, A[lexander]&B[enjamin] Champion, owners, and trade London–South Seas.[3][lower-alpha 1]
1st whaling voyage (1788): Captain Daniel Coffin sailed Venus from London in 1788. (He had sailed on a whaling voyage for A&B Champion in Triumph in October 1787.)[5]
2nd whaling voyage (1789–1790): Captain Coffin sailed from London on 30 March 1789, bound for the coast of Africa.[5]Venus arrived at the Cape of Good Hope in just two months. She then was the first British ship to whale on Madagascar Grounds in the Mozambique Channel.[2]Venus returned to England on 21 October 1790.[5]
3rd whaling voyage (1790–1792): Captain Coffin sailed from London on 23 December 1790, bound for the Pacific. Venus returned to London on 20 May 1792 with 1500 barrels of whale oil from 27 "fishes".[5] She had sailed from Rio de Janeiro on 25 March 1792 in company with Liberty, Clark, master.[6] She was also reported to have been at the Falkland Islands on 17 April.
4th whaling voyage (1792–1794): Captain Coffin sailed from London on 10 July 1792, bound for the Pacific.[5] By November Venus was "All Well" at the Juan Fernández Islands. In March 1794, she was at St Helena, awaiting a convoy for the return to England.[7]Venus returned to London on 21 July 1794.
5th whaling voyage (1794–1797): Captain S. Squires (or Squire), sailed from London on 9 October 1794, bound for Peru. Venus returned to London on 18 April 1797.[5]
6th whaling voyage (1797–1800): Captain John Allez (or Allen), sailed from England in 1797, bound for the Pacific.[5] On 8 December 1797 Venus, Allen, master, was at 26°00′N20°30′W / 26.000°N 20.500°W / 26.000; -20.500 on her way to the South Seas. She was in company with the East IndiamanBelvedere.[8]Venus returned to England on 25 April 1800.[5]
7th whaling voyage (1800–1801): Captain Owen Bunker sailed from England on 20 May 1800. Venus, Barnabas Gardner, master, returned on 9 February 1801.[5]
8th whaling voyage (1801–1803): Captain Barnabas Gardner (or Gardiner) sailed from London for Port Jackson and the South Seas on 31 March 1801.[5]Venus arrived at Port Jackson on 16 September with a cargo of general merchandise.[9][10] While at Port Jackson Captain Gardiner was one of three South Sea whaling masters interviewed by Governor King about the best route to Australia and the relative merits of the whale fishery offshore compared with that off the west coast of South America.[11] The vessel departed Sydney 13 October.[12] She then fished off New Zealand. She last left Port Jackson on 18 May 1803, bound for England,[10] and in company with Greenwich. The two parted company on 11 June in a gale at 50°30′N140°30′W / 50.500°N 140.500°W / 50.500; -140.500. Venus sailed via Cape Horn and arrived at London on 26 September 1803.[5][lower-alpha 2]
9th whaling voyage (1804–1806): Captain Gardner sailed from England on 19 January 1804, bound for Timor. Venus returned to London on 29 October 1806.[5]
Between her 9th and 10th whaling voyages, Venus's ownership changed. LR for 1808 showed her master changing from B. Gardner to J. Dunn, her owner from Champion to Birnie, and her trade from London–South Seas to London–Botany Bay.[13] She did not sail to New South Wales; Venus, Dunn, master, did not reappear on the list of vessels arriving at Port Jackson.[14]
10th whaling voyage (1808–1810): Captain John Dunn sailed from London on 4 March 1808. She was reported to have been at 2°30′S23°40′W / 2.500°S 23.667°W / -2.500; -23.667 on 12 April, bound from London to the South Seas in company with Scorpion.[15]Venus was reported off the coast of Peru in 1809 and 1810.[5]
11th whaling voyage (1811): Captain Dunn sailed from London on 1 February 1811, and returned seven months later on 2 September.[5]
12th whaling voyage (1812–1814): Captain Mattinson (or Mathieson, or Matheson), sailed from London on 2 December 1812. In February 1813 she was well in the South Sea fishery, in this case Timor, as were Inspector, Albion, Baroness Longueville, Good Sachem, Ocean, Thames, and Cumberland .[16]Venus arrived back in England on 24 May 1814.[5]
13th whaling voyage (1814–1816): Captain Rattleston, or Mattinson, sailed from London on 30 August 1814, bound for Timor. Venus returned on 12 December 1816 with 500 casks of sperm oil and headmatter, and four casks of "train".[5]
14th whaling voyage (1817–1819): Captain Mattinson sailed from London on 14 March 1817. Venus returned on 24 August 1819 with 400 casks of whale oil.[5]
15th whaling voyage (1820–1823): Captain Gray sailed from London on 14 March 1820.[5]Lloyd's List (LL) reported that Venus, Gray, master, had arrived at Falmouth on 7 March 1823 from the South Seas, having lost her anchor and cables, and short of provisions having been out three years.[17]Venus returned to London on 19 March 1823.[5]
Fate
Venus was last listed in Lloyd's Register in 1823. She was last listed in the Register of Shipping in 1824 with A. Bray, master, but that did not represent a change of master. The Register of Shipping had been carrying Bray as her master for a number of year.
Notes
↑ Daniel Coffin appeared in a list of whale captains from Nantucket. It showed him as captain of Venus, and sailing from English ports.[4]
The ship that became Mary Ann was built in 1772 in France and the British captured her c. 1778. Her name may have been Ariadne until 1786 when she started to engage in whaling. Next, as Mary Ann, she made one voyage transporting convicts to New South Wales from England. In 1794 the French captured her, but by 1797 she was back in her owners' hands. She then made a slave trading voyage. Next, she became a West Indiaman, trading between London or Liverpool to Demerara. It was on one of those voyages in November 1801 that a French privateer captured her.
William was a merchant vessel built in France in 1770 or 1771. From 1791 she made numerous voyages as a whaler in the southern whale fishery. She also made one voyage in 1793 transporting supplies from England to Australia. She then resumed whaling, continuing until 1809.
Speedy was a whaler launched on the Thames in 1779. She also made voyages to New South Wales, transporting female convicts in 1799. She made two voyages transporting slaves in 1805 and 1806, and was captured in January 1807 on her way into London after having delivered her slaves to Antigua in 1806.
Rockingham was launched in America in 1767 as Almsbury. By 1768 Samuel Enderby & Sons were her owners and her name was Rockingham. At least from 1773 Enderbys were using her as a whaler, and she made eight whaling voyages for them under that name. On 4 July 1773, she met the Phipps' expedition by Shpitzbergen. In 1782 Enderbys renamed her Swift, and as Swift she then performed ten whaling voyages on the Brazil Banks and off Africa until through 1793. She was still listed in Lloyd's Register as whaling until 1795.
HMS Terror was bomb vessel launched in 1741, converted to a sloop, and sold in 1754. She went into mercantile service, becoming the northern whale fishery whaler Duke of York. In 1784 her name changed to Elizabeth and Margaret, and she continued as a Greenland whaler, before becoming a whaler in the British southern whale fishery. She was last listed in 1794.
Eliza was launched in 1789 in New Brunswick. Between 1791 and 1800 she made six voyages as a whaler in the British southern whale fishery. She next made one voyage as a slave ship in the triangular trade in enslaved people. She then disappears from online resources.
British Tar was launched at Shields in 1792 and made five voyages as a whaler and several as a West Indiaman. She then became a general trader. She was lost on 29 January 1818.
Lord Hawkesbury was launched in the United States in 1781, probably under another name. She entered Lloyd's Register in 1787. She made six voyages as a whaler. On her second whaling voyage she "the first parcel of ambergris 'by any English whaler'". She was lost on the seventh after a squadron of French naval vessels had captured her. One of her original, British crew succeeded in regaining sufficient control from her prize crew to enable him to run her aground, wrecking her.
Renown was launched in 1794 at New Bedford, Massachusetts. She made four voyages from Nantucket as a whaler. In 1813, while she was on her fifth American whaling voyage, she became the first American whaler that British whalers captured in the South Seas. She was sold in London and under the name Adam became first a London-based transport and then a whaler in the British southern whale fishery. She made four whaling voyages and was wrecked in 1825 at the outset of her fifth British whaling voyage.
Robust was built in France in 1779. The British captured her in 1781 and she was registered at Liverpool in 1783. She first entered Lloyd's Register in 1789 as whaler in the northern whale fishery. Then in December 1788 she left on the first of three voyages as a slave ship in the triangular trade in enslaved people. On her third voyage as a slave ship Robust captured a French slave ship and recaptured two British slave ships that a French privateer had captured earlier. After her third voyage as a slaver owners shifted her registry to Bristol and she then made two voyages to the southern whale fishery. She returned from the second voyage in 1797 and is last listed in 1798.
Hercules was launched at Georgia in 1771. She appeared in Lloyd's Register in 1778 and became a West Indiaman. Between 1792 and 1796 she made three voyages as a whaler in the Southern Whale Fishery. In 1797 the French captured Hercules as she was on her fourth voyage.
Chesterfield was built in America in 1781, but it is not clear where and under what name. She arrived in England in 1791. Between 1792 and 1798 Chesterfield made three voyages to the southern whale fishery. On the first of these her crew was involved in a sanguinary encounter with the local inhabitants of an island in Torres Strait. Also in 1793, on the first voyage, her captain named the Chesterfield Islands after his vessel, or her namesake. After her whaling voyages new owners sailed her to trade with the Mediterranean. A Spanish privateer captured her in 1805.
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.
Barbara was launched in Philadelphia in 1771 and came to England circa 1787. She initially sailed as a West Indiaman, but then between 1788 and 1800 made five complete voyages as a whaler. The Spanish captured her late in 1800 in the Pacific during her sixth whaling voyage.
Liberty was of British origin, built in 1775, that first appeared as Liberty in 1787. She made six complete whale hunting voyages in the British Southern Whale Fishery before being lost in 1798 on her seventh voyage.
Spy was built in France in 1780, almost surely under another name, and taken in prize. The British East India Company (EIC) purchased her in 1781 and used her for almost two years as a fast packet vessel and cruiser based in St Helena. It then sold her and she became a London-based slave ship, making two voyages in the triangular trade carrying enslaved people from West Africa to the West Indies. She then became a whaler, making seven whaling voyages between 1786 and 1795. She was probably wrecked in August 1795 on a voyage as a government transport.
Tamerlane was launched in 1769 in Bermuda. She first appeared in British records in 1788 and then carried out three voyages as a whaler in the Britishsouthern whale fishery. Next, she made one voyage as a slave ship in the triangular trade in enslaved people. French frigates captured and burnt her in 1794.
Harriot was launched in Spain in 1794, almost surely under another name, and taken in prize in 1797. She made two voyages as a London-based slave ship in the triangular trade in enslaved people. Under new ownership, she then made three voyages as a whaler in the British southern whale fishery. A privateer captured her as she was returning from her third whale-hunting voyage but the British Royal Navy recaptured her. After her recapture she became a merchantman. The Spanish seized her in the Pacific; she was condemned at Lima, Peru in March-April 1809, as a smuggler.
Nimble was built in Folkestone in 1781, possibly under another name. In 1786 Nimble was almost rebuilt and lengthened. Between 1786 and 1798 she made nine voyages as a whaler in the British Southern Whale Fishery. Between 1799 and 1804 she made four voyages from Liverpool as a slave ship in the triangular trade in enslaved people. On her first voyage as to gather captives she detained a neutral vessel, an action that resulted in a court case. On her second voyage to gather captives, a French privateer captured her, but the Royal Navy recaptured her. She was wrecked in 1804 or so after she had delivered her captives to St Thomas.
Mentor was launched in New England in 1781. From 1784 she sailed from Great Britain, trading between London and New York or Quebec. From 1789 she made three complete voyages as a whaler in the British Southern Whale Fishery. The French Navy captured her in early 1795 as she was returning from her fourth whaling voyage.
References
Anon., ed. (1876). Catalogue of Nantucket Whalers: And Their Voyages from 1815 to 1870. Nantucket: Hussey & Robinson.
Clayton, Jane M (2014). Ships employed in the South Sea Whale Fishery from Britain: 1775–1815: An alphabetical list of ships. Berforts Group. ISBN9781908616524.
Hackman, Rowan (2001). Ships of the East India Company. Gravesend, Kent: World Ship Society. ISBN0-905617-96-7.
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