Pascoa (1816 ship)

Pascoa was launched at Calcutta in 1816. She was a "country ship", trading around India and between India and China. She was a transport in 1819-20 during the British punitive campaign against the Al Qasimi pirates. She was lost in 1836.

Ship Pascoa under sail, 1 August 1832, China Sea
History
United Kingdom
NamePascoa
BuilderMatthew Smith, Howrah, Calcutta[1]
Launched1816
FateWrecked 1836
General characteristics
Tons burthen735,[2] or 802,[1] (bm)

Career

In late 1819 the government appointed Captain Francis Augustus Collier of HMS Liverpool to command the naval portion of a joint navy-army punitive expedition against the Joasmi (Al Qasimi) pirates at Ras al-Khaimah in the Persian Gulf. The naval force consisted of HMS Liverpool, Eden, and Curlew, several EIC cruisers including HCS Aurora, and a number of gun and mortar boats.[3] Eighteen transports, most of them merchant vessels registered at Bombay, carried troops and supplies. One of the transports was Pascoa,[4] from Calcutta.

See also: Transport vessels for the British campaign against the Al Qasimi pirates (1819-20)

After destroying Ras al-Khaima, the British then spent the rest of December and early January moving up and down the coast destroying forts and vessels. The capture and destruction of the fortifications and ships in the port was a massive blow for the Gulf pirates. British casualties were minimal.

Year Master Owner Source
1819 Edward Touissaint T.de Souza & Co. East-India register and directory (1819), p. 136.
1824 Hugh Cathie Mercer & Co. East-India register and directory (1824), p. 155.
1827 Hugh Cathie Mercer & Co. East-India register and directory (1827), p. 156.
1828 Hugh Cathie East-India register and directory (1828), p. 154.
1829 William Morgan Cursetjee & Co. East-India register and directory (1829), p. 346.

In 1827 Parsi merchants at Bombay purchased Pascoa. Her primary trade was carrying cotton from Bombay and Bengal to China.[5]

Fate

In December 1836 Pascoa struck a rock outside the Romania Islands.[6][lower-alpha 1] She had been sailing from Singapore to China.[7]

She began taking on water but was able to reach Singapore Roads where she sank in shoal water. All her cargo was retrieved, though most of it was damaged; the hull was left in place. In June 1845 Captain Faber used gunpowder to blow the hull to pieces as it had become a hazard to navigation.[6]

Notes
  1. This may be a group of islands and rocks around 1.316994°N 104.299311°E / 1.316994; 104.299311, some seven miles NNW of Pedra Branca.

Citations
  1. Phipps (1840), p. 105.
  2. East-India register and directory (1819), p.136.
  3. United service magazine Part 1, pp. 711–15.
  4. Low (1877), p. 353, fn.
  5. Bulley (2000), p. 188.
  6. Thomson (1852), p. 387.
  7. "China Trade". The Times. No. 16371. London. 23 March 1837. col C, p. 5.

References
  • Bulley, Anne (2000). The Bombay Country Ships, 1790–1833. Routledge. ISBN 978-0700712366.
  • Low, Charles Rathbone (1877). History of the Indian Navy: (1613-1863). R. Bentley and son.
  • 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.
  • Thomson, John Turnbull (1852). "Account of the Horsburgh Light-House". Journal of the Indian Archipelago and Eastern Asia. 6 (y): 376–498.
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