Anne (1799 ship)

History
Spain
Name:	Nostra Senora da Luzet Santa Anna
Launched:	1790s
Captured:	1799
History
United Kingdom
Name:	Anne or Ann
Owner:	Princep and Saunders
General characteristics
Tons burthen:	384 (bm)
Complement:	42
Armament:	12 guns

Anne, also known as Ann, was an 18th century Spanish sailing ship that the British had captured in 1799. The British Navy Board engaged her to transport convicts from Cork in Ireland to the penal colony of New South Wales in Australia for one voyage from 1800 to 1801. During this voyage she was possibly present, although she did not participate, in a notable action against a squadron of three French frigates. She then made one voyage for the British East India Company (EIC).

Origins

Anne was Spanish-built in the 1790s., She was originally named Nostra Senora da Luzet Santa Anna, or Luz St Anne or Luz St Anna.^[1][2] The armed transports Dover and Cecilia captured Nostra Senora da Luzet Santa Anna in 1799, during the French Revolutionary Wars.^[3] The Admiralty then sold her.^[1]

Voyage to Australia

On 9 April 1799, the Navy Board engaged the renamed Anne and licensed her in London for a single voyage transporting convicts. Her master was James Stewart.^[1] For security she was provided with 12 ship's guns and manned by a crew of 42, including additional seamen to act as guards. The British War Office declined a request for a detachment of Marines, citing the burden created by the ongoing war with France.^[1]

Under the command of James Stewart, on 26 June 1800 Anne sailed from Cork carrying 147 male and 24 female convicts.^[4]

A little over a month later, on 29 July, Stewart and Anne's crew suppressed a mutiny. After consulting with his officers, Stewart had the ringleader of the uprising shot, and another man subjected to 250 lashes. In the affray one convict was killed and some others were wounded. Later, a Vice-Admiralty Court would try Stewart and the Chief Mate, and honourably acquit them.^[5]

Anne was one of the vessels in the convoy at the action on 4 August when HMS Belliqueux and the East Indiaman Exeter captured the French frigates Concorde and Médée. A squadron of three French frigates had attacked the convoy of East Indiamen that Anne was accompanying, only to suffer an embarrasing defeat.^[6]

Anne arrived at Rio de Janeiro on 22 August.^[5] Lloyd's List reported in January 1801 that the Botany Bay ship Ann had been at Rio de Janeiro, having sailed in company with several ships of the East India Company.^[7]

From Rio Anne sailed to the Cape of Good Hope. At Cape Town she embarked eight more sailors and soldiers.^[5]

Anne arrived at Port Jackson on 21 February 1801 with 127 male and 24 female convicts.^[5] In all, 20 male convicts had died on 240-day voyage.

Anne left Port Jackson on 9 July supposedly bound for China.^[8]

East India Company

Ann [sic] made one voyage for the EIC. Under Captain James Stewart's command she was at Calcutta 19 November 1801. On 1 January 1802 she passed Saugor and reached St Helena on 20 April. She arrived at Gravesend on 25 June.^[9]

The National Archives reports that she made a second voyage for the EIC some years later.^[9] However records of British letters of marque show this Ann as a ship of 627 tons burthen (bm).^[10] Actually, the vessel appears to be the Ann that transported convicts in 1809-10, and for her return trip carried cargo for the EIC from Calcutta to Britain (1810-11).

Citations

References

• Bartlett, Thomas (2003). 1798. Dublin: Four Courts. p. 768. ISBN 1-85182-430-8. 
• Bateson, Charles (1959). The Convict Ships. Brown, Son & Ferguson. OCLC 3778075. 
• Moore, Tony (2010). Death or Liberty. Sydney: Murdoch. p. 432. ISBN 978-1-74196-140-9.