| History | |
|---|---|
 Great Britain | |
| Name | William |
| Launched | 1770, France [1] |
| Fate | Last listed in the Register of Shipping in 1809 |
| General characteristics | |
| Tons burthen | 302, [2] or 305 (bm) |
| Complement | 28 [2] |
| Armament |
|
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.
William first entered Lloyd's Register in 1786. The table below recapitulates information from Lloyd's Register for William, built in France in 1770.
| Year | Master | Owner | Burthen | Trade |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1786 | R. Hill | Matthews | 350 | London-Dominica |
| 1787 | R. Hill | Matthews | 350 | London-Dominica |
| 1789 | S. Hill S. Pearce | Matthews | 350 | South Carolina—London London—"Piscat" (Piscataqua ?) |
| 1790 | S. Pearce | Clapcoat | 305 | London—Piscat |
| 1791 | T.Sweetland John Ralph Moss [4] | Clapcoat Enderby | 305 | London—Piscat London—South Seas Fishery |
Lieutenant John Ralph Moss RN became William's master in January 1791. Sailing from London on 25 February, she was driven ashore at Sheerness with many others by a sudden blizzard.She finally departed for the South Sea from the Downs on 3 April.William proceeded first to Delagoa Bay in Southeast Africa, where she was reported on 28 August. By 18 January 1792 she was spoken with north of the Falkland Islands, so she had doubled both capes by the time she arrived in the Pacific, where she touched at the Juan Fernandez Islands later that month. She was reported on the coast of Peru in April and September, and called again at the Juan Fernandez Islands in November for firewood and fresh provisions to counter scurvy. She passed Gravesend inbound on 21 April 1793 with 141 tuns of sperm oil, five tuns of whale oil, and 2347 seal skins. [5] [6]
Under the command of William Folger, she sailed from England via Cork, Ireland, on 21 September 1793, with 2080 barrels of beef and pork, the Colony's new Assistant Chaplain, Rev. Samuel Marsden, and one female convict. William arrived at Port Jackson, New South Wales, on 10 March 1794. [7] After unloading her goods, she purportedly left for China. [8]
There is some confusion about her ownership and later role on this voyage. Lloyd's Register gave her owner as Samuel Enderby & Sons. A database of whaling voyages gives her owner as Mather & Co., [5] but also lists Enderbys as her owners from 1791 on. Both sources agree that she was a whaler.
Apparently, William went whaling off Peru instead of going to China. She was reported off the coast of Peru, and then on the coast of Chile in November 1794. She returned to Britain on 29 November 1795 with 64 tuns of sperm oil, 57 tuns of whale oil, and 32 cwt of whale bone. [5]
On 12 April 1796, Captain George Fitch sailed William for the South Seas whaling grounds. She was reported to have been off Massafuero (Más Afuera) Island in August. Then at Chatham Island (Galapagos) on 6 November. She was in company with Greenwich between February and May 1797 at the Galapagos. On 8 July Williams was at Cape Corrientes (Mexico). She was off Chile on 21 November. Then she was off Bahia (possibly Bahía de Banderas), California, in January 1798 bound for the Galapagos and then Easter Island. She was reported at St Helena shortly before she returned to England on 10 July 1798. [5]
Fitch made another whaling voyage in William, sailing to Peru in 1798. William, Cornwall, and Resolution returned from Peru together. [9] On 27 December 1800 they were 25 leagues west of Scilly when they encountered a 20-gun French privateer. In the ensuing engagement Cornwall took many shots to her hull. By the time the French privateer sailed off Cornwall had eleven feet of water in her hold and was quite water-logged. [10] The engagement had lasted five hours and the whalers arrived at Falmouth on the 28th. [9] William returned to Gravesend on 4 January 1801. [11]
On 4 March 1801 Captain Robert Poole received a letter of marque for William. [2]
Poole left Britain on 20 March. William was reported off the coast of Brazil in November. Later, she was reported at St Helena. She returned to Britain on 25 May 1802. [5]
The Register of Shipping for 1802 showed William's master changing from Poole to J. Cottle. Her owner was still S. Enderby, and her trade was still the South Seas Fishery. [3]
Obediah Cottle (or Catterell) sailed from Britain on 22 August, bound for the Pacific. William was reported to have been in the Pacific in November 1803 and March 1804, and at St Helena on 23 December. She returned to Britain on 21 March 1805. [5]
William was last listed in the Register of Shipping in 1809.
Citations
References
Britannia was a 301 burthen ton full-rigged whaler built in 1783 in Bridport, England, and owned by the whaling firm Samuel Enderby & Sons. She also performed two voyages transporting convicts to Port Jackson. She was wrecked in 1806 off the coast of New South Wales.
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 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.
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.
HMS Rattler was a 16-gun sloop of the Royal Navy. Launched in March 1783, she saw service in the Leeward Islands and Nova Scotia before being paid off in 1792 and sold to whaling company Samuel Enderby & Sons. She made two voyages as a whaler and two as a slave ship before she was condemned in the Americas as unseaworthy in 1802. She returned to service though, sailing as a whaler in the northern whale fishery, sailing out of Leith. She continued whaling until ice crushed her in June 1830.
Butterworth was launched in 1778 in France as the highly successful 32-gun privateer Américaine, of Granville. The British Royal Navy captured her early in 1781. She first appeared in a commercial role in 1784 as America, and was renamed in 1785 as Butterworth. She served primarily as a whaler in the Greenland whale fisheries. New owners purchased her in 1789. She underwent a great repair in 1791 that increased her size by almost 20%. She is most famous for her role in the "Butterworth Squadron", which took her and two ship's tenders on an exploration, sealing, otter fur, and whaling voyage to Alaska and the Pacific Coast of North America. She and her consorts are widely credited with being the first European vessels to enter, in 1794, what is now Honolulu harbour. After her return to England in 1795, Butterworth went on three more whaling voyages to the South Pacific, then Africa, and then the South Pacific again. In 1802 she was outward bound on her fourth of these voyage, this to the South Pacific, when she was lost.
Rockingham was launched in America in 1767 as Almsbury. By 1768 Samuel Enderby & Sons were her owners and her name was Rockingham. From 1775 Enderbys were using her as a whaler, and she made eight whaling voyages for them under that name. 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.
Perseverance was launched on the Thames in 1801. She then spent her entire career of 16 voyages as a whaler. Early in her career a French privateer captured her, but the British Royal Navy quickly recaptured her. Perseverance would herself later capture a vessel too. She was broken up in 1841.
Cumberland was launched in 1800 and sailed as a West Indiaman until 1807 or 1808 when she was sold to Enderbys. She then made five voyages as a whaler in the British southern whale fishery. Enderbys sold Cumberland and she proceeded to sail between England and Australia. In 1827 she sailed from Hobart and was never seen again. It later transpired that pirates had captured her off the Falkland Islands and killed her crew and passengers.
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.
Fonthill was a ship built in France in 1781 and was probably taken in prize in 1782. Fonthill sailed as a West Indiaman between 1783 and 1791, then became a whaler southern whale fishery and made four whaling voyages between 1791 and 1799. On her third voyage she took back from Cape Town a Dutch captain whose vessel had been captured bringing in arms and ammunition from Batavia to stir up unrest against the British at the Cape. After refitting, in 1800, Fonthill became a whaler in the northern whale fishery. Fonthill was last listed, with stale data, in 1810, but whose last reported whaling voyage took place in 1806.
Hope was built at Liverpool in 1770, though it is not clear under what name. She first appeared in Lloyd's Register (LR) in 1786 as a Greenlandman, a whaler in the British northern whale fishery. From 1789 on she was a whaler in the British southern whale fishery. She then made five whaling voyages to Africa or the South Pacific. On the fifth she captured Haasje; this resulted in a court case over the distribution of prize money. Hope was last listed in 1798.
Comet was launched in 1791 at Rotherhithe. At the outbreak of war with France, she briefly became a privateer before the British East India Company (EIC) chartered her for one voyage to bring back sugar, saltpeter, and other goods from Bengal. Between 1812 and 1821 she made three voyages as a whaler in the British southern whale fishery. Then between 1823 and 1840 she became a whaler based in Hull, whaling in the northern whale fishery. She returned to trade in 1841 and was lost on 1 December 1843 homeward bound from Quebec.
Morse was launched in 1747 for the British Royal Navy, but under another name. After 1775 she was John and Alice (1775), Potomack (1776–1779), Betsy (1780-1781), and then in 1782 Resolution. In 1784 S. Mellish purchased her and she became the whaler Morse. She initially engaged in whale hunting in the British northern whale fishery. Then from 1787 she made numerous voyages as a whaler primarily in the southern whale fishery, but with some returns to the northern fishery. There is no further mention of her in Lloyd's List Ship arrival and departure (SAD) data after August 1802.
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.
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.
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.
Bellisarius was built in South Carolina in 1762 or 1779, possibly under another name. Between 1789 and 1799 she made six complete voyages as a whaler in the British southern whale fishery. Afterwards she sailed as a merchantman. She was last listed in 1809.
Several ships have been named Lucy.