Vulture (c. 1800 ship)

For other ships of the same name, see HMS Vulture.
History
United Kingdom
Name: Vulture
Namesake: Vulture
Owner: Mather & Co.
Acquired: 1802 by purchase
Fate: Captured 1809; no longer listed in 1810
General characteristics
Tons burthen: 312,[1] or 320[2] (bm)
Propulsion: Sail
Complement:
Armament:

Vulture was a whaler that her owners apparently acquired prior to late 1801 and employed in the South Seas whale fisheries between 1801 and 1809. Lloyd's Register describes her as a copper-sheathed ship and French prize. A Spanish privateer captured her in 1809.

Origins

Vulture first appears in Lloyd's Register for 1801, where the supplement shows Vulture's origins as France, and her owner as Mather & Co.

One source states that she was formerly a Rotch ship out of Dunkirk that had been captured and sold to London merchants.[5] (William Rotch Jnr. was an American Quaker who had operated whalers out of Dunkirk between 1786 and 1794. Rotch had left Dunkirk well before 1802 and his vessels would have been flying American flags, not French. For Vulture to have been a prize of war and a Rotch ship, she would probably have to have been captured between 1793 and around 1795. If he had sold her prior to her capture then there is no issue. Unfortunately, there is no readily available account of the capture of a Vulture.

Career

Her first captain for Mather & Co. Henry Glasspoole. Under his command she returned from the South Seas Whale fishery in October 1802, at which time she was valued at £8,000.[6])

He sailed her for the fisheries again and by March 1803 was reported "all well" off the coast of Chile.[6] He had left before the resumption of war with France and was issued a letter of marque on 27 August 1803, hence in absentia.[1] (Although Lloyd's Register (1803 and 1804) gives her owner as Mather & Co. and her trade as South Seas Fisheries; it does not describe any armament.)

Vulture returned to Britain in 1804, via St Helena. She travelled in convoy with the East Indiamen Calcutta, City of London, Ceylon, Prince of Wales, and Wyndham, the merchant ship Rolla, which was carrying a cargo from China for the British East India Company, and another south seas whaler, the Lively.[Note 2] Their escort was HMS Courageaux.[8] On the way the convoy ran into severe weather with the result that Prince of Wales foundered with the loss of all on board; this had been her maiden voyage.[8][9] The convoy arrived in British waters in mid-October.

Thomas Folger replaced Glasspoole in 1804. Folger was an American from Nantucket.[10] He received a letter of marque dated 6 December 1804.

In 1805 Vulture was near Lima when she encountered a Spanish vessel sailing there from Concepción, Chile. The Spanish vessel bore a comparable armament to that of Vulture and a single-ship action ensued. Vulture prevailed and Folger put a prize crew of six men on board the Spanish vessel, leaving also two Englishmen who had been on board the Spaniard, as well as the Spanish boatswain and two Spanish seamen, and instructing the men to sail to St Helena. A few days later, the Spaniards managed to take over the vessel while killing all but two of the Englishman, one of whom was the only man on the vessel who knew anything of navigation. A few weeks later, the two Englishmen killed the three Spaniards. The Englishmen wrecked the Spanish vessel by running aground as they tried to enter the harbour at Mocha Island.[11]

Vulture was reported at the Galapagos Islands in September 1805. From there she and the Elizabeth visited New Zealand.[6]

On 22 July 1806 Vulture arrived at Port Jackson, from "England". She left Port Jackson for the "Fisheries" in September.[12]

In the 1808 volume of Lloyd's Register Folger remains master, but a later entry that same year gives Vulture's master as Christie. There is also a modification to her armament with two 6-pounder guns replacing the two 9-pounders. This later description carries over to the 1809 Lloyd's Register.

However, in October 1808, near Valparaíso, the Spanish privateer Cantabria captured Vulture.[13]

Notes, citations, and references

Notes
  1. ↑ NC means "Short guns of the new construction".[3]
  2. ↑ Lively was a French ship launched in 1787 but captured in 1796. She was now working as a South Seas whaler under the command of Captain Magnus Smith and under ownership of David Bennett.[7]
Citations
  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Letter of Marque, 1793-1815; p.91.
  2. ↑ Lloyd's Register (various years)
  3. ↑ Lloyd's Register
  4. ↑ Lloyd's Register
  5. ↑ Stackpole (1972), p.242.
  6. 1 2 3 Clayton (2014), p.241-2.
  7. ↑ Clayton (2014), pp.160-1.
  8. 1 2 The Times, 12 October 1804.
  9. ↑ National Archives: Prince of Wales (8) - accessed 31 July 2015.
  10. ↑ Delano (1817), pp.296-7.
  11. ↑ Delano (1817, pp.296-8.
  12. ↑ "Arrival of Vessels at Port Jackson, and their Departure". Australian Town and Country Journal, Saturday 3 January 1891, p.17. Retrieved 18 August 2015.
  13. ↑ Lloyd's List, no. 4335 - accessed 15 August 2015.
References
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