Calcutta (1794 ship)

On 18 May 1797 Calcutta, Captain John Hassey, master, was at Calcutta. She left Bengal on 20 July. She reached Madras on 29 August, and Penang on 17 September. She was back at Madras on 11 December, and Calcutta on 29 January 1798. Bound for England, she was at Kedgeree on 8 December. She sailed from Bengal on 20 January 1799, reached St Helena on 2 April, and arrived at the Downs. Lloyd's List reported that Calcutta, Haggy, master, had arrived at Gravesend on 28 October.[4]

Calcutta was admitted to the Registry of Great Britain on 29 August 1799.[5] She appeared in the 1799 volume of Lloyd's Register (LR).[2]

On 1 November 1799, Calcutta sailed from Deal for India. Before she departed she undergone outfitting at a cost of £3,879 7s 9d.[6] On 20 November she sailed from Portsmouth for Bengal.

On 11 January 1800, Calcutta was at Plymouth. She had been on her way to India from London when she was taken, and retaken.[7]

On 1 December 1799 HMS Aimable and Glenmore encountered the French frigate Sirène, Citoyen Reignaud, captain, and French corvette Bergère, which were sailing to France from Cayenne. Bergère was carrying Victor Hugues as a passenger. The French vessels had with them the East Indiaman Calcutta, which they had captured the same morning; René Lemarant de Kerdaniel was captain of the prize crew on Calcutta. Glenmore recaptured Calcutta while Aimable engaged Sirène and Bergère. A 35-minute action ensued before the two French vessels departed. Sirène had as prisoners Captain Haggy, Calcutta's master, her first and second mates, and 50 of her lascars and seamen. Calcutta arrived in Plymouth on 12 January 1800.[8][9] On 18 January 50 lascars were landed from Calcutta and taken to China House, which served as a hospital. The lascars were sick and suffering from the cold.[10] Kerdaniel spent four months on a hulk in Chatham, before being sent back to France on parole.

As of 1 January 1801, Calcutta of 700 tons, appeared on a list of "ships belonging to Calcutta" with M'Donald, master, Haggey & M'Donald, owners.[11]

After her return to India, the British government used Calcutta as a transport to support General Sir David Baird's expedition to the Red Sea, which in turn had the objective of supporting General Sir Ralph Abercrombie at the battle of Alexandria.

Calcutta does not appear in the list of transport vessels for the British expedition to the Red Sea (1801). Nor does her loss appear in Lloyd's List. However she does appear in a book of dispatches by Arthur Wellesley, the Duke of Wellington. There he lists six vessels that sailed on 31 March 1801 for the expedition. Of the six vessels – Calcutta, Eliza, Gabriel, Minerva, Pearl, and Ruby – all but Calcutta appear in the list of transport vessels.[12]

Calcutta, M'Donald sailed from Bombay to the Red Sea on 10 May 1801.

One source reports that Calcutta was wrecked on 8 September 1801, together with Gabriel, in the 1801 British military expedition to the Red Sea.[1]

Hackman states that Calcutta was wrecked in 1807 on the coast of New Guinea on passage from Botany Bay to Canton, and that her crew was saved.[3] He based this statement on a report in Lloyd's List. The report identified the vessel that was lost as Calcutta, of 760 tons.[13]

What call this account into question is that there is no supporting evidence in ship arrival and departure data for Port Jackson, or listings of Australian shipwrecks. The account probably represents a confusion with another vessel, Sydney, and East Indiaman of 900 tons, built at Java and registered at Calcutta. Sydney was lost on the coast of New Guinea in May 1806 while on her way from Port Jackson to Bengal to bring back rice for the colony.

• Hackman, Rowan (2001). Ships of the East India Company. Gravesend, Kent: World Ship Society. ISBN 0-905617-96-7.
• House of Commons, Parliament, Great Britain (1814). Minutes of the Evidence Taken Before the Select Committee on Petitions Relating to East-India-Built Shipping. H.M. Stationery Office.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
• Mathison, John; Mason, Alexander W., eds. (1802). A new oriental register and East-India directory for 1802: Containing complete lists of the company's servants, civil, military and marine ... together with lists of the Europeans mariners ... London: Black's & Parry.
• Phipps, John (1840). A Collection of Papers Relative to Ship Building in India ...: Also a Register Comprehending All the Ships ... Built in India to the Present Time ... Scott.
• Wellesley, Arthur (1840). The Dispatches of ... the Duke of Wellington, During His Various Campaigns in India: from 1799 to 1805. Compiled from Official and Authentic Documents, by Lieut. Colonel Gurwood. Vol. 1.