Harriot (1797 ship)

Harriot (or Harriet) 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. Under new ownership, she then made three voyages as a whaler. 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. She was captured and condemned at Lima, Peru in late 1809.

History
United Kingdom
Name:	Harriot
Builder:	Spain
Launched:	1794
Acquired:	1797 by purchase of a prize
Captured:	1809
General characteristics
Tons burthen:	217,[1] or 226, or 227[1] (bm)
Complement:	1797: 25[1] 1803*1803: 22[1]
Armament:	1797: 14 × 6-pounder guns[1] 1803: 8 × 6-pounder guns + 2 swivel guns[1] 1810: 2 × 4-pounder guns (LR) 1810: 10 × 12-pounder carronades (Register of Shipping)

Slave ship

Harriot first appeared in Lloyd's Register in 1797.[2]

Year	Master	Owner	Trade	Source
1797	J.Clark	Parry & Co.	London–Africa	LR

1st slave voyage (1797–1798): Captain James Clark acquired a letter of marque on 15 September 1797.[1] He sailed from London on 4 October, bound for the Bight of Benin, and started acquiring slaves on 27 November. She acquired slaves in three places: Batoa, Popo, and Keta. Harriot departed Africa on 2 April 1798. She arrived at St Vincent on 2 May. She had embarked 346 slaves and she arrived with 339, for a 2% mortality rate. She sailed for London on 2 July and arrived there on 14 August.[3]

2nd slave voyage (1798–1799): Captain Clark sailed from London on 21 October 1798. Harriot acquired slaves at Anomabu, and arrived at Demerara on 20 June 1799 with 350 slaves.[4]

Whaler

LR only caught up in its 1802 issue with Harriet's move from slave trading to whaling.

Year	Master	Owner	Trade	Source
1802	J.Clark Chase	Parry Mather	London–Africa London–Southern Fishery	LR

1st whaling voyage (1799–1801): Captain L. Chase (or Chace) sailed Harriet in 1799 and returned on 12 February 1801.[5]

2nd whaling voyage (1801–1803): Captain L. (or Samuel Chase) sailed from London in 1801, bound for Walvis Bay. Harriet was reported to have been at Walvis Bay in August 1801.[5] Between 10 July 1802 and 20 August she was at Port Jackson.[6] By September 1802 she was at New Zealand. She returned to England on 28 June 1803.[5]

3rd whaling voyage (1803-1805): Captain Samuel Chase was Harriet's captain initially, but died at some point. Captain Thaddeus Coffin acquired a letter of marque on 20 August 1803.[1] Harriet sailed from London in October 1803 for the Pacific. Harriet, Coffin, master, was at Chile in March 1804 and then sailed from Peru to New Zealand, where she was by October 1804.[5] Harriet was at Port Jackson between 24 April and 29 May 1805. She had come from the fisheries and was returning to them.[6] As Harriot was returning from Port Jackson to London a Spanish privateer captured her, but HMS Dryad recaptured her and sent her into Waterford.[7] Harriot, Coffin, master, finally returned to Gravesend on 24 December 1805.[5]

Merchantman

Year	Master	Owner	Trade	Source
1806	T.Coffin Glasspoole	Mathers	South Seas–Cork	LR

Captain Glasspoole sailed on a voyage from Cork. One source classified the voyage as a whaling voyage,[8] though that attribution appears to be more on the basis of the destination than anything else; at the time some British vessels did sail to the Pacific coast of South America for trading purposes.

Year	Master	Owner	Trade	Source
1807	Glasspoole	Mathers	London–Buenos Aires	LR
1808	Glasspoole Starling	Mather Fenn & Co.	London–Buenos Aires London–Surinam	LR
1809	Starling M'Hendrick	Fenn & Co. Gwin & Co.	London–Surinam	LR
1810	M'Hendrick	Gwin & Co.	London–South Seas	LR
1810	M'Hendrick	Gwynone & Co.	London–South Seas	Register of Shipping (RS)

Fate

At some point Captain James Porter replaced M'Hendrick in command of Harriet. As with the voyage to the South Seas, Clayton classified the voyage as a whaling voyage,[8] though it was not necessarily so.

Lloyd's List reported in April 1810 that Harriet, Porter, master, had been taken and brought into Lima, where she was condemned.[9]

Citations and references

Citations

1. "Letter of Marque, p.66 - accessed 25 July 2017" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 20 October 2016. Retrieved 27 October 2018.
2. LR (1797), "H" supple. pages.
3. Trans Atlantic Slave Trade Database – Harriot voyage #81733.
4. Trans Atlantic Slave Trade Database – Harriot voyage #81734.
5. British Southern Whale Fishery Database – Voyages: Harriet.
6. "Arrival of Vessels at Port Jackson, and their Departure". Australian Town and Country Journal, Saturday 3 January 1891, p.16. Retrieved 28 April 2012.
7. "The Marine List". Lloyd's List (4270). 12 November 1805. hdl:2027/uc1.c2735022. Retrieved 18 October 2020.
8. Clayton (2014), p. 137.
9. "The Marine List". Lloyd's List (4451). 20 April 1810. hdl:2027/uc1.c2735024. Retrieved 18 October 2020.

References

• Clayton, Jane M (2014). Ships employed in the South Sea Whale Fishery from Britain: 1775–1815: An alphabetical list of ships. Berforts Group. ISBN 9781908616524.