HMS Adventure (1771)

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
For other ships with the same name, see Marquis of Rockingham (ship), HMS Adventure, and Adventure (ship).

Resolution and Adventure with fishing craft in Matavai Bay by William Hodges, painted 1776, shows the two ships at anchor in Tahiti.
History
Great Britain
NameMarquis of Rockingham
OwnerCaptain William Hammond, of Hull
BuilderThomas Fishburn, Whitby
Launched1769,[1] or 1770[2]
FateSold to Royal Navy, November 1771
Great Britain
NameHMS Raleigh
OperatorRoyal Navy
Acquired27 November 1771
RenamedHMS Adventure (25 December 1771)[3]
FateSold to original owner in May 1783
Great Britain
NameAdventure
OwnerCaptain William Hammond, of Hull
AcquiredMay 1783 by purchase
FateSunk in the
Saint Lawrence River
in May 1811
General characteristics [2]
Tons burthen33641⁄94 (bm)
Length
  • 99 ft 3 in (30.3 m) (overall)
  • 76 ft 9+1⁄2 in (23.4 m) (keel)
Beam28 ft 4 in (8.6 m)
Depth of hold13 ft (4.0 m)
PropulsionSail
Sail planBarque
RangeLimited only by water and provisions
Complement80
Armament
  • Royal Navy:10 x 4-pounder guns + 8 x ½-pounder swivel guns
  • 1811:6 × 6-pounder guns

HMS Adventure was a

store ship
until 1779. The navy sold her in 1783 and she resumed a civilian career, but retaining the name Adventure. She was lost in May 1811.

Career

She began her career as the

collier Marquis of Rockingham, launched at Whitby
in 1770.

Soon after his return from his first voyage in 1771, Commander Cook was commissioned by the

Terra Australis Incognita
. He arranged for the Navy to purchase two ships, the second and smaller of which was Marquis of Rockingham.

The Navy purchased her in 1771 and first named her Raleigh or Rayleigh, and then Adventure. The Navy commissioned her under Joseph Shank.[1]

Cook was given the command of Resolution, with Commander Tobias Furneaux accompanying him in Adventure, having replaced Shank. Furneaux was an experienced explorer, having served on Samuel Wallis's circumnavigation in Dolphin in 1766–1768.

Resolution and Adventure left

Queen Charlotte Sound (New Zealand)
, charted by Cook in 1770.

On the way to the rendezvous, Adventure surveyed the southern and eastern coasts of

Banks Strait
.

Adventure arrived at Queen Charlotte Sound on 7 May 1773 and Resolution followed on 17 May. From June to October the two ships explored the southern Pacific, reaching

Friendly Islands
the ships returned to New Zealand but were separated by a storm on 22 October. This time the rendezvous at Queen Charlotte Sound was missed — Resolution departed on 26 November, four days before Adventure arrived. Cook had left a message buried in the sand setting out his plan to explore the South Pacific and return to New Zealand. Furneaux decided to return home and buried a reply to that effect.

Before he could leave, a fight broke out between Adventure's crew and the local Māori people, in which ten crewmen and two Māoris were killed. This was reportedly prompted by an unknowing breach of tapu by a sailor, who placed a tin can that had held food on a chief's head.[4] Alternatively, it may have been due to a barter gone wrong at Grass Cove on 17 Dec. 1773, and Kahura taking revenge (utu).[5] Adventure set out for home on 22 December 1773 via Cape Horn, She returned to England on 14 July 1774 and entered the double dock in the Royal Dockyard at Deptford where between March and May 1775 she was converted into a store ship for Halifax, Canada.[1][2]

Lieutenant John Hallum recommissioned Adventure in March 1775. He sailed for North America on 26 June 1775. In November 1777 Lieutenant Hugh Tolken replaced Hallum at Boston. Between January and March 1779 she underwent refitting at Deptford Dockyard.[2]

Henry Trubshaw Bell, coxswain of HMS Robust was appointed as bosun on 30 August 1779, at Halifax. The log for 5 September 1779 shows that "this day 8 men deserted the ship. Ditto took two of them again by information and confined them in irons".

Adventure set sail from Halifax on 26 October 1779, in company with the ships Keppel, Royal Briton and Dunmore. She sailed mainly in fresh or hard gales for most of the 36 days it took to reach Spithead, which is situated at the eastern part of the channel between Hampshire, England, and the Isle of Wight at Portsmouth. The voyage was not without its tensions. The log records that on 6 December 1779, the Captain "punished William Pritt with two dozen lashes for striking the boatswain and carpenter". Adventure arrived at Sheerness in December 1779,[2] and was paid off on 13 January 1780. She underwent fitting as a fireship, but was never employed in that role.[1]

Adventure was laid up at Sheerness until the Navy sold her on 7 May 1783 for £900,[2] apparently to her original owners.

Merchantman

In 1784 an Adventure, of 350 tons (bm), British-built, entered Lloyd's Register (LR). Her trade was London-Davis Strait, signalling that she was a whaler in the northern whale fishery.

Year Master Owner Trade Source & notes
1784 J.M'Leod J.Montgomerie London-Davis Strait LR; good repair 1784
1787 J.M'Leod
John Burn 		J.Montgomery London-Davis Strait LR; good repair 1784
1790 John Burn
Stevenson 		J.Montgomery London-Greenland LR; good repair 1784, repairs 1787 & 1790

She was last listed in 1794.

Adventure reappeared in Lloyd's Register (LR) in 1800 with H. Lisk, master, T.Brown, owner, and trade London transport.[6]

Year Master Owner Trade Source & notes
1801 H.Lesk T.Brown London transport LR; good repairs 1795 & repairs 1797
1806 Appleton T.Brown Hull–Memel LR;repairs 1795, good repairs 1798, & small repairs 1803
1811 J.Shaw
Snowden 		Appleton Hull–St Johns LR; repairs 1803; good repairs 1795, 1798, & 1810

Fate

On 24 May 1811, Adventure, Snowden, master, was sailing between

Saint Lawrence River. All her crew were saved.[7]

Citations

  1. ^ a b c d "NMM, vessel ID 379435" (PDF). Warship Histories, vol v. National Maritime Museum. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2 August 2011. Retrieved 30 July 2011.
  2. ^ a b c d e f Winfield (2007), p. 355.
  3. ^ Colledge & Warlow (2006), p. 174.
  4. ^ Clarke (1903), p. 27.
  5. ^ Salmond (2010), pp. 387–389, 405–406.
  6. ^ LR (1800), "A" supple. pages.
  7. hdl:2027/mdp.39015005721405
    . Retrieved 27 January 2021.

References

External links

This article includes data released under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported UK: England & Wales Licence, by the

Warship Histories
project.

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