Princess Royal (1786 Indiaman)

For other ships of the same name, see Princess Royal (East Indiaman) and French ship Duguay-Trouin.
Career (East India Company)
Name: Princess Royal
Owner: Alexander Hume
Builder: Wells
Launched: 1786
Fate: Captured 1793
Career (France)
Name: Duguay Trouin
Namesake: René Duguay-Trouin
Acquired: By capture September 1793 and purchase
Captured: May 1794
Career (United Kingdom)
Name: Princess Royal
Acquired: By capture and purchase 1794
Fate: Unknown. Disappears from records in 1798
General characteristics [1]
Type:East Indiaman
Tons burthen:805 (bm)
Length:143 ft 7 1⁄2 in (43.8 m) (overall); 116 ft 0 1⁄2 in (35.4 m) (keel)
Beam:36 ft 1 1⁄2 in (11.0 m)
Depth of hold:14 ft 9 in (4.5 m)
Complement:1793:99[2]

Duguay Trouin: 403

1798:95[2]
Armament:1793:26 x 9 & 4-pounder guns[2]

Duguay Trouin: 26 x 12-pounder + 2 x 9-pounder + 4 x 6-pounder guns[3][Note 1]

1798:12 x 9-pounder guns[2]

Princess Royal, launched in 1786, was an East Indiaman. She made two complete trips to India for the British East India Company (EIC) and was on her third trip, this one to China, when French privateers or warships captured her on 27 September 1793. The French Navy took her into service in the Indian Ocean as a 34-gun frigate under the name Duguay Truin. The Royal Navy recaptured her and she returned to British merchant service. In 1797 she performed one more voyage for the EIC. She received a letter of marque in July 1798 but then disappears from readily available records.

EIC

Captain James Horncastle commanded Princess Royal on all three of her voyages, including the her last.[1]

EIC voyage #1

Horncastle left the Downs on 6 January 1787, bound for Madras, Bengal, and Bombay. Capt James Horncastle. Princess Royal reached the Cape on 3 April, and arrived at Madras on 6 June. From there she sailed to Calcutta, arriving at Diamond Harbour on 18 June. For her return trip, she passed Saugor on 16 November, and reached Bombay on 12 February 1788. She reached St Helena on 12 June and arrived at the Downs on 22 August.[1] During this voyage Horncastle and Princess Royal reportedly fought an action in the Straits of Malacca,[6] though it is not clear against whom.

EIC voyage #2

Horncastle left the Downs on 26 April 1790, bound for Bombay. Princess Royal reached Johanna on 12 August and arrived at Bombay on 3 September. From there she sailed to Tellicherry, which she reached on 7 October, Anjengo (27 October), and Tellicherry again (14 November), before returning to Bombay on 30 November. For her return trip she reached Tellicherry on 7 January 1791, the Cape on 3 March, and St Helena on 22 March. She arrived at the Downs on 13 May.[1]

EIC voyage #3 and capture

Horncastle left the Downs on 5 April 1793, bound for St Helena and China. The French Revolutionary Wars had begun two months earlier so Horncastle received a letter of marque dated 28 February 1793.[2] This would permit him to engage in offensive action against the French should the opportunity present itself. Princess Royal reached St Helena on 11 July.[1] Unfortunately, on 29 September three French warships captured her off Anger (or Anjere) Point while she was still on her way to China.

H. Couperus, the Dutch governor of Malacca, wrote a letter on 15 December 1793 to the English captains there that a letter from Batavia dated 29 September reported that three French warships had attacked and captured Princess Royal. The letter further reported that the French ships mounted about 120 guns between them. Captain Bampton, of Hormazeer, arrived with a cargo of sugar from Batavia that he picked up after delivering a cargo to Botany Bay. He reported that he had seen three French ships at Batavia, two of 50 guns and one of 44 guns. Another report, this by Captain Simpson of Carron, stated that three French warships were cruising off the coast of Canton. He described them as a 64-gun, a 44-gun, and a 20-gun vessel; they had a large number of troops aboard and were believed responsible for Princess Royal‍ '​s capture.[7]

A later account reports that the three privateers were the 36-gun Doumouriez, 32-gun La Liberté, and 28-gun Egalité. Horncastle fought for an hour before striking. Princess Royal had two men killed and three wounded.[8]

Her captors took Princess Royal to Île de France. There she was sold; reportedly, "Prize-taking has become so lucrative on Mauritius that bidding for the fast-sailing Princess Royal was fierce and she sold for 2,400,000 livres."[7][Note 2] Lloyd's List reported that she was in Mauritius being fitted out as a privateer.[9] The French Navy requisitioned her and renamed her Duguay Trouin.[3]

French naval service

On 25 January 1794, Duguay Truin was in the Sunda Strait as part of a French naval squadron from Île de France, that also included the frigates Prudente and Cybèle, and the brig Vulcain, all four vessels under the overall command of Captain Jean-Marie Renaud. There they engaged a squadron of EIC ships consisting of the East Indiamen William Pitt, Houghton, Nonsuch, and Vengeur, the Bombay Marine (EIC) 14-gun brig Nautilus, and two recently captured French privateers, all under the overall command of Commodore Charles Mitchell. (The two privateers were the corvettes Vengeur and Résolu. On 17 January they had attacked the EIC factory at Bencoolen, where the East Indiaman Pigot had repelled them. Mitchell's squadron encountered the two on 22 January and captured them.)

For an hour the two squadrons continued a general exchange of fire at long-range, before Mitchell turned William Pitt, Houghton and Nonsuch towards the French at 09:30, the latter two both managing to hit Cybèle with destructive broadsides. Firing continued for another 18 minutes as Renaud withdrew, eventually anchoring off the island of Pulau Baby. Neither commander was keen to continue the action, Mitchell fearing that his undermanned ships would not be able to properly engage the better armed French vessels. Casualties among the French squadron are not known, but the only loss on the British ships was on Nonsuch, which had a man killed in combat with Cybèle.[10]

In need of reinforcement and resupply, Mitchell drew his squadron back to Batavia and was there joined by the 36 gun Dutch frigate Amazone under Captain Kerwal and an armed merchant ship. Mitchell's ships then cruised the Sunda Strait for another two weeks without discovering any enemy vessels, before concluding the operation on 8 February and returning to the Indian Ocean via Bencoolen.[10]

Renaud used Mitchell's retreat to withdraw also into the Indian Ocean via Bencoolen. His squadron reached the British trading post on 9 February, where Pigot was still undergoing repairs. The French vessels' arrival took Pigot by surprise and they captured her. As the merchant ship was manoeuvred out of the bay, Renaud demanded the surrender of the small Fort Marlborough nearby and was informed that the fort was well armed and that the arrival of Mitchell's squadron was expected at any moment. Unwilling to reengage with Mitchell, Renaud withdrew immediately without assaulting the fort.[10] The French squadron subsequently returned to Île de France.

Recapture

Main article: Action of 5 May 1794

HMS Orpheus, Captain Newcome, captured Duguay Trouin on 5 May 1794. In the action, Orpheus had a midshipman killed, and nine men wounded. French casualties amounted to 21 men killed and 60 wounded. Many of the French crew were ill and Newcome believed that they would not survive the voyage to Madras. Instead, he sailed to Mahé, Seychelles, where he arrived on 16 May. It was a French possession but it made no resistance when he arrived. Newcome landed a number of prisoners, and wrote to Governor Malartic, at Port-Louis, Mauritius, asking him to release British equal in number and rank to those Newcome had landed at Mahé. Some 140 French prisoners also took advantage of the opportunity and escaped. Newcome left Mahé on 1 June and arrived at Madras on 18 June, together with Duguay Trouin, and the Deux Andres, a slaver from Mozambique with 408 slaves on board, that the British had captured in the meantime.[4]

Merchantman

On 2 August 1794, it was announced that friends of Captain Reid, of Madras, had purchased Duguay Trouin and appointed him her captain.[11] John Reid had left Princess Royal by 4 May 1797. (He shipped on board the country ship Pearl for Bussora and may have died later that year.)[12]

Princess Royal made one more voyage for the EIC. Captain John Wedgbrough left Bombay on 9 August 1797. Princess Royal reached the Cape on 16 October and St Helena on 3 December. She arrived at the Downs on 31 January 1798.[13] Wedgbrough received a letter of marque on 14 July 1798.[2]

Notes, citations and references

Notes

  1. ↑ Captain Newcome of HMS Orpheus, see text, reported that Duguay Truin carried twenty-six 18-pounder guns.[4] James believed that her main guns were 12-pounders, arguing that that was what she carried as an East Indiaman, and that her gunports were not fitted for 18-pounders.[5]
  2. ↑ One assumes that the amount included her cargo. Even if the currency was the French colonial livre (1.5Fcl/1French livre), this is quite a sum.

Citations

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 National Archives - Accessed 29 December 2014.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 Letter of Marque, 1793-1815; p.83
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Winfield and Roberts (2015 forthcoming), Chap. 4.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 The London Gazette: no. 13738. p. 17. 6 January 1795.
  5. ↑ James (1837), Vol. 1, pp.226-7.
  6. ↑ Hardy (1835), p.160.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Houghton, Roger - A Peoples' History 1793 – 1844 from the newspapers: Prize-taking, - accessed 29 December 2014.
  8. ↑ Biden (1830), pp203-4.
  9. ↑ Lloyd's List, no.2589, - accessed 30 December 2014.
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 James (1837), Vol. 1, p. 199.
  11. ↑ Houghton, Roger - A Peoples' History 1793 – 1844 from the newspapers: Asia 1796 - 1809, Part 2, - accessed 29 December 2014.
  12. ↑ Jackson (1799), pp.1, 104, & 108.
  13. ↑ National Archives - Accessed 29 December 2014.

References