Cornwallis (ship)

Some two to four vessels with the name Cornwallis, for Charles Cornwallis, 1st Marquess Cornwallis, have an association with British East India Company (EIC).

• Cornwallis (1787 ship), a snow of 170 tons (bm), was launched at Bombay Dockyard in 1787 to serve the Bengal Pilot Service. A French privateer captured her in 1796.
• Cornwallis, of 719 tons (bm), was built in 1788 at Surat for Lennox & Co. under the name Britannia. However she was renamed to Cornwallis before her completion. She may have served the EIC between 1797 and 1803 under the command of Captain Robert Robertson.^[1] Lloyd's Register shows this Cornwallis trading between India and London, and under Robertson's command, between 1800 and 1802. In 1802 command changed to R. Elderton. He sailed her between London and India until 1809.
• Cornwallis, of 653 tons (bm) was a merchant ship built of teak in Damam, India, in 1790.^[2] This vessel was still trading cotton to China as late as 1827.^[3] She made two voyages for the EIC:

EIC voyage #1 (1810) — Cornwallis sailed from Bombay on 17 June 1810. She reached St Helena on 3 September and arrived at Long Reach on 16 November.^[2]

EIC voyage #2 (1817-18) — Captain Thomas Brown sailed from Calcutta on 25 March 1817. Cornwallis was at Diamond Harbour on 10 May, Madras on 10 July, and the Cape on 27 October. She arrived at Spithead on 17 January 1818.^[2]

This vessel was still trading cotton to China as late as 1827.^[4]

• Cornwallis, was a French vessel launched in 1802, that the British captured in 1803. Sold as a prize, her new owners named her Cornwallis. She traded with the West Indies, Spain, Antwerp, West Africa, the Cape of Good Hope, and Singapore. She was last listed in 1834.
• Cornwallis, of 717 ³⁵⁄₉₄ tons (bm), 129'9" in length and 36'4" in beam, was launched on 30 December 1812 by James Scott & John Hunter, Fort Gloucester, Calcutta, for Forbes & Co.^[5] She was lost in 1822.^[6] She sailed from Calcutta on or about 20 January 1822, bound for Mauritius. She was "spoken to" on or about 18 February, southward of the Line, but not seen again.^[7]

See also

• HMS Cornwallis
• Earl Cornwallis (1783 ship)
• Marquis Cornwallis (ship)

Citations and references

Citations

References

• British Library. British India Office wills & probate, L/AG/34/29/34, ff.57-59. Administration of Estate of John Edwin Dawes containing sworn deposition regarding probable fate of Cornwallis (and thus Dawes).
• Bulley, Anne (2000). The Bombay country ships, 1790-1833. London: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-7007-1236-6. 
• Hackman, Rowan (2001) Ships of the East India Company. (Gravesend, Kent: World Ship Society). ISBN 0-905617-96-7
• Phipps, John, (of the Master Attendant's Office, Calcutta), (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).