HMS Aurora (1766)

HMS Aurora was a 32-gun fifth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy.[1][2] The ship was built in Chatham Dockyard and launched on 13 January 1766.[3] She was later purchased and transferred to the East India Company in 1768.[1]

For other ships with the same name, see HMS Aurora.

John Monkton was recorded as serving on her prior to September 1769 but was transferred to another ship before her final voyage.[4]

Disappearance

In September 1769, she sailed from England for the East Indies, intending to stop at Anjouan island and Bombay. After calling at the Cape of Good Hope for provisions in December 1769, she disappeared in the Indian Ocean around January 1770, presumably sunk by fire, storm or wrecked off Madagascar.[1] It was later reported that some large anchors and cannons, likely of British manufacture were found close to Star Bank off Madagascar and these may have been from the ship.[1]

Among those notable members of the crew who disappeared with her was Robert Pitcairn from which the Pitcairn Islands take their name.[5] William Falconer, a noted poet and marine dictionary writer, was also among those lost at sea. He was assigned as the ship's purser.[1]

References
  1. van den Boogaerde, Pierre (2011), Shipwrecks of Madagascar, Strategic Book Publishing, pp. 96–97, ISBN 9781612043395
  2. "HMS Aurora (+1770)". Wrecksite. Retrieved 10 February 2022.
  3. Winfield, Rif (2007). British Warships in the Age of Sail 1714–1792: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates. Seaforth Publishing. p. 371. ISBN 978-1-84415-700-6.
  4. The Gentleman's Magazine, p. 558–559
  5. Baigent, Elizabeth (2004). "Robert Pitcairn". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/22317. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
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