Portsea (1807 ship)

Portsea (or Port Sea) was launched at Calcutta in 1807. She was a country ship; that is, she primarily traded east of the Cape of Good Hope. She participated as a transport in the British invasion of Mauritius. She then carried French prisoners of war to France. She also made one voyage to St Helena from Bengal under charter to the British East India Company (EIC). In 1814 a storm dismasted her and she was lengthened, but it is not clear whether before or after the dismasting. She made two voyages as a South Seas whaler between 1828 and 1835. In 1838 she made one voyage transporting convicts to New South Wales. She carried coal to Valparaiso in 1840 and there her owners turned her into a coal hulk. Her final fate is not known.

United Kingdom
Name:	Portsea
Namesake:	Portsea Island
Owner:	1809:Smith & Tory[1] 1815:Nichols 1825:Shepherd & Co. 1828:Sturge[2] 1837:Waddell[3] 1840:Pacific Steam Navigation Company
Builder:	Michael Smith, Howrah, Calcutta[4]
Launched:	1807
Fate:	Coal hulk in 1840; final disposition unknown
General characteristics
Tons burthen:	Originally:315,[4] or 320,[1] or 340[5] (bm) Post-lengthening:425,[4] or 450,[6] or 451[7] (bm)
Armament:	12 × 6&4-pounder guns[5]
Notes:	Lengthened 1814

Career

Invasion of Mauritius

In 1810 Portsea was one of a large number of vessels that the British government chartered as transports to support the invasion.

Main article: Transport vessels for the British invasions of Île Bourbon and Île de France (1810)

The British government chartered some nine of these vessels, Portsea among them, as cartels to carry back to France the French troops that they had captured in these campaigns.[8]

East India Company voyage

Portsea left Spithead with the 1st Battalion soldiers of the 60th Regiment of Foot[9] on board that were transferred from Cowes on 30 May 1811 to the Cape of Good Hope and arrived on 18 September 1811. Her master at the time being Captain H Roberts. She departed 15 October.[10] On her way back from delivering the prisoners, Portsea, Burgh, master, was at the Cape of Good Hope on 15 October 1811. She arrived at Kedgeree on 17 January 1812 and Calcutta on 22 January. She was at Kidderpore on 13 February and Fultah on 20 June, before returning to Kedgeree on 24 June. She then arrived at St Helena on 18 October.[11]

Capture and recapture

On 12 November 1812 Portsea, sailing from Bengal, left St Helena in the company of some whalers, all bound for England.[12] On 31 December the American privateer Thrasher captured her at 42°49′N 27°30′W.[13][Note 1] HMS Helena recaptured Portsea the same day.[15] Portsea arrived in the Thames on 13 January 1813.[13]

Country ship

On 13 September 1814, Lloyd's List reported that Portsea, from London to Bengal, had put into Ceylon totally dismasted.[16] The Register of Shipping for 1815 shows her master as Burgh, and does not indicate that she had yet been lengthened.[5] The need for repairs may have prompted her lengthening in 1814.

Portsea continued to trade in the East Indies and between India and England. Portsea, Nichols, master, arrived at Port Jackson on 24 August 1817 with merchandise from Calcutta. She left for Peru on 7 September.[17] A letter dated St Jago de Chili 12 December 1817, reported that Portsea, Nichols, master, had arrived at Valparaiso from Bengal via Port Jackson with 1200 bales of piece good, valued at 300,000 dollars.[18]

In 1824 she was sold for a Free Trader.

Year	Master	Owner	Trade	Source
1815	Burgh J. Nicholls	White & Co.	London–India	Lloyd's Register (LR)
1820	Nicholls	Nicholls & Co.	Liverpool–Bengal	LR
1825	W. Shepheard	Captain & Co.	London–Calcutta	LR; Shepheard died at Calcutta on 18 June 1825.[19]

Whaler

Portsea made two voyages as a whaler between 1828 and 1835.

First whaling voyage (1828-1831): On 5 March 1828 Captain Bews (or Bowes, or Buze) sailed for the Pacific Ocean. She was reported to have been at Atooi on 18 April 1829, at Oahu on 7 November, on the Japan grounds in April 1830, on 9 September she was in the Eastern Pacific, and at Honolulu on 29 November. She returned to England in 1831 with 322 tons of whale oil.[2]

Second whaling voyage (1828-1831): Captain Bews sailed from England on 28 October 1831, bound for the Galápagos Islands. She was at the Galapagos in April 1832, at Honolulu on 10 November 1833, at Te Puna on 9 February 1835, and the Bay of Islands on 3 March. She returned to England on 20 August with 580 casks and 5 tanks of whale oil.[2]

Convict voyage

By 1837 Portsea had returned to trading between London and Bombay. Lloyd's Register for 1837 reports that she underwent small repairs in 1837, and gives the name of her master as Woodward and that of her owner as Waddell.[3]

On 8 August 1838, Portsea, Captain Samuel John Lowe, sailed from Plymouth with convicts, bound for New South Wales. She arrived there on 18 December.[7] She had embarked 240 male convicts and she landed 239, one having died on the voyage.[20]

Coal hulk

Lloyd's Register for 1839 showed Portsea with Woodward, master, J. Somes, owner, and homeport of London.

In 1840 the newly-formed Pacific Steam Navigation Company (PSNC) purchased Portsea to carry coal to Valparaiso to establish a refueling depot there for its steam ships.[21] The PSNC purchased the 485 tons of coal that Portsea carried from the Cwm Vale Colliery, Llanely. Captain Samuel Thomas Yetts agreed a freight of 11s per ton, for a total freight bill of £266 15s.[22]

In October 1840 when she was off Cape Horn on her way to Chile a fire developed in her hold. The crew was able to stop the fire by throwing the burning coal overboard and putting water on the remaining coal. She then sailed on to Valparaiso.[23][24][24]

Portsea discharged her remaining cargo at Valparaiso. There she provided coal for a British vessel that had just arrived, but the coal proved of poor quality, at least for steam ships.[24] In the case of The Pacific steam Navigation Company vs. Lewis, the PSNC argued that the coal they had received was not suitable for steam engines and the seller had stated.[22]

After the coal was unloaded, it was discovered that several of her hold beams and stanchions were burned through, and the ceiling charred in many places.[23] The PSNC had Portsea's topmasts and yards removed. She then became a coal hulk. Her final fate is currently obscure.[21]

Appendix

Lloyd's List did not carry her sale to the Pacific Steam Navigation Company or her last voyage.

Year	Master	Owner	Trade	Source & notes
1840	Woodward		London	LR; homeport London
1844			London	LR; homeport London

Portsea was last listed in Lloyd's Register in 1844.

Notes, citations and references

Notes

1. Thrasher, Captain R. Evans, of 14 guns and 110 men, was 19 days out of Gloucester, Massachusetts, and had not yet captured anything. She would capture one more vessel before HMS Magicienne would capture her on 18 January 1813.[14]

Citations

1. Reports... (1809), p. 241. sfnp error: no target: CITEREFReports...1809 (help)
2. University of Hull - British Southern Whale Fishery - Voyages: Portsea.
3. Lloyd's Register (1837), Seq.№P389.
4. Phipps (1840), p. 102.
5. Register of Shipping (1815), Seq.№475.
6. Hackman (2001), p. 305.
7. Bateson (1959), pp. 304-305.
8. Lloyd's List №4547.
9. Regimental Chronicle A regimental chronicle and list of officers of the 60th, or the King's Royal Rifle Corps, formerly the 62nd, or the Royal American Regiment of Foot by Wallace, Nesbit Willoughby, 1839-1931 p49
10. African Court Calendar of 1812, p. 87
11. British Library: Portsea.
12. Lloyd's List №4736.
13. Lloyd's List №4737.
14. Emmons (1853), p. 194.
15. "No. 16779". The London Gazette. 21 September 1813. p. 1903.
16. Lloyd's List.
17. "Arrival of Vessels at Port Jackson, and their Departure". Australian Town and Country Journal, Saturday 3 January 1891, p.17. Retrieved 28 April 2012.
18. The Boston Weekly Messenger: A Journal of Politics, Agriculture ..., Vol. 7, p.99.
19. Quarterly oriental magazine: review and register, Vol. 3, Issues 5-6, p.cxxvii.
20. Bateson (1959), p. 336.
21. Ships In & Around Valparaiso Between 1840-1918. Accessed 26 February 2018
22. Meeson et al. (1852), Vol. 16, pp.782-95.
23. The Nautical Magazine and Naval Chronicle for 1869, p.257.
24. Duncan (1975), pp. 275-6.

References

• Bateson, Charles (1959). The Convict Ships, 1787-1868. Brown, Son & Ferguson. OCLC 3778075.
• Duncan, Roland E. (1975). "Chilean coal and British steamers: the origins of a South American industry". Mariner's Mirror. 61: 271–281.
• Emmons, George Foster (1853). The navy of the United States, from the commencement, 1775 to 1853; with a brief history of each vessel’s service and fate ... Comp. by Lieut. George F. Emmons ... under the authority of the Navy Dept. To which is added a list of private armed vessels, fitted out under the American flag ... also a list of the revenue and coast survey vessels, and principal ocean steamers, belonging to citizens of the United States in 1850. Washington: Gideon & Co.
• Hackman, Rowan (2001). Ships of the East India Company. Gravesend, Kent: World Ship Society. ISBN 0-905617-96-7.
• Meeson, Roger, William Newland Welsby, John Innes Clark Hare, Horace Binney Wallace (1852) Reports of Cases Argued and Determined in the Courts of Exchequer and Exchequer Chamber: From Hiliary Term, 6 Will. IV, to [Easter Term, 10 Vict.] ... Both Inclusive. [1836-1847] With Tables of the Cases and Principal Matters, Vol.16. (T. & J. W. Johnson).
• 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.
• Reports and Papers on the Impolicy of Employing Indian Built Ships in the Trade of the East-India Company, and of Admitting Them to British Registry: With Observation on Its Injurious Consequences to the Landed and Shipping Interests, and to the Numerous Branches of Trade Dependent on the Building and Equipment of British-built Ships. (1809). (Blacks and Parry).