HMS Etrusco (1794)

HMS Etrusco was launched in 1789 at Rhode Island as President Washington. Home Riggs Popham purchased her at Calcutta and transferred to her the name and papers of a previous vessel of his named Etrusco, a Tuscan ship.

History
United States
Name: President Washington
Builder: Rhode Island[1]
Launched: 1789[1]
Fate: Sold 1791 at Calcutta
Grand Duchy of Tuscany
Name: Etrusco
Owner: Home Riggs Popham
Acquired: 1791 by purchase
Fate: Seized c.1793
Great Britain
Name: Etrusco
Owner: Home Riggs Popham
Fate: Sold to the government 1794
Great Britain
Name: HMS Etrusco
Acquired: 1794 by purchase
Fate: Abandoned at sea 15 August 1798
General characteristics [2]
Tons burthen: 919, or 999[1] (bm)
Length:
  • Overall: 137 ft 8 in (42.0 m)
  • Keel: 116 ft 5 7⁄8 in (35.5 m)
Beam: 38 ft 6 in (11.7 m)
Depth of hold: 13 ft 6 in (4.1 m)
Propulsion: Sail
Complement: 125
Armament: 16 × 6-pounder guns

Career

Merchantman: Between 1787 and 1793 Popham was engaged in a series of commercial ventures in the Eastern Sea, sailing for the Imperial Ostend Company. During this time he took several surveys and rendered some services to the British East India Company, which were officially acknowledged.[3]

In December 1791 he purchased at Calcutta and fitted out an American ship, President Washington, at a cost of about £20,000. He named his purchase Etrusco, transferring to President Washington the name and papers of his previous ship.[3] She therefore sailed under the flag of the Duke of Tuscany.[4]

Popham sailed Etrusco to China and took on board a cargo valued at £50,000, the property of himself and two merchants, apparently French. He also took on the freight charge, which he valued at £40,000. Etrusco arrived at Ostend in July 1793, where the English frigate HMS Brilliant seized her and then brought her back to England.[Note 1]

Etrusco was claimed as a prize for having French property on board, and condemned as a droit of admiralty for infringing the British East India Company's (EIC) monopoly by bringing tea from China.[3][Note 2]

Etrusco first appeared in Lloyd's Register (LR) in 1794 with B. Georgi, master, Popham, owner, and trade Cork–Hamburg.[1]

Royal Navy: The Admiralty purchased Etrusco in 1794. Commander James Hanson commissioned her as HMS Etrusco in May 1795; she was registered on 29 June 1795. Commander George Reynolds replaced Hanson in September 1797.[2]

Loss

Etrusco was part of a convoy from Martinique to England when a storm on 23 July 1798 dismasted her completely. Her timbers were already in a poor state before she had left the West Indies and after the storm and the loss of her masts she was now leaking. She progressed under jury rig but on 15 August, the transfer of the last of her crew to HMS Assurance and Beaver was complete. Commander Reynolds fired three of her 6-pounder guns downwards through her bottom to scuttle her and then left her.[7]

Lloyd's List reported that the armed ship Etrusco, from the West Indies, had foundered on 25 August in a gale of wind but that her crew had been saved.[8]

Notes, citations, and references

Notes

  1. The only prize money announcement gives her captor as the hired armed cutter Grace.[5]
  2. Popham contended that he had rendered important services to the EIC and that the governor-general in council had sanctioned the voyage. The case was the subject of prolonged litigation. In 1805 Popham received a grant of £25,000 against his claim for £70,000, not including the heavy costs of the lawsuit.[6]

Citations

  1. LR (1794), Seq.№360.
  2. Winfield (2008), p. 397.
  3. Chisholm (1911), p. 88.
  4. House of Commons (1813) The Parliamentary Debates for the Year 1803 to the Present Time, Volume 25, pp.1039–1040.
  5. "No. 16166". The London Gazette. 26 July 1808. p. 1037.
  6. Dictionary of National Biography:Popham, Home Riggs.
  7. Hepper (1994), p. 87.
  8. "The Marine List". Lloyd's List (3032). 18 September 1798. Retrieved 30 April 2020.

References

  •  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Popham, Sir Home Riggs". Encyclopædia Britannica. 22 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 88.
  • Hepper, David J. (1994). British Warship Losses in the Age of Sail, 1650–1859. Rotherfield: Jean Boudriot. ISBN 0-948864-30-3.
  • Winfield, Rif (2008). British Warships in the Age of Sail 1793–1817: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates. Seaforth Publishing. ISBN 978-1-86176-246-7.
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