Fortitude (1780 EIC Ship)

''Fortitude'' was a merchant vessel built in 1780 on the River Thames. A French frigate captured her in 1782 while she was on the return leg of her maiden voyage to India as an East Indiaman for the British East India Company (EIC). However, the British recaptured her in October 1782. The EIC purchased her and sent her back to England. There, in 1785, George Macartney Macauley purchased her and renamed her ''Pitt''. She then performed five voyages for the British East India Company (EIC) between 1786 and 1798. In between, she made one journey transporting convicts from England to New South Wales. She was broken up in 1801.

''Fortitude'' (Maiden voyage 1781)

Captain Charles Gregorie (or Gregory) acquired a letter of marque on 19 January 1781. He left Portsmouth on 13 March 1781 bound for Madras and Bengal. ''Fortitude'' was part of a convoy of Indiamen and transports under the escort of a British squadron under Commodore George Johnstone, who was sailing to capture the Cape Colony.

On 16 April the French attacked the British squadron and convoy at the battle of Porto Praya, off São Tiago. The French captured ''Fortitude'', but as her captors towed her out to sea, her crew and the troops of the 92nd Regiment of Foot she was transporting, re-captured her; she rejoined the British convoy a few days later.

''Fortitude'' reached Madras on 17 August and arrived at Kedgeree on 28 September. She passed Saugor on 10 November and arrived at Madras on 10 December. Homeward-bound, she passed Kedgeree on 16 February 1782 and reached "Cockelee" on 8 May.

The captured ''Fortitude'' on 23 June. When the French captured her they freed some eight men from '' Artésien'', who had been part of the French prize crew at the battle of Porto Praya. ''Fine'' brought ''Fortitude'' to Cuddalore, where Suffren's squadron was anchored, arriving there on 29 June. The French listed her as an 800-tonne, 22-gun fluyt. In early July 1782, during the run-up of the Battle of Negapatam, Suffren sent ''Fortitude'' and ''Yarmouth'' (a 24-gun British storeship that ''Fine'' had also captured) to Île de France (Mauritius). On 1 August, he sent her to Bago to purchase rigging parts, under Captain Geslin. After the battle, ''Fortitude'' had to cede her mainmast to , which herself had ceded hers to .

The French then sold ''Fortitude'' to Portuguese merchants at Calcutta. The EIC purchased her in October at Madras for Rs.35,000, and used her to convey General Stuart and his staff back to England.

Part of ''Fortitude''s cargo had been intended for China. At Madras there was also cargo destined for China that had belonged to and to . (''Earl of Hertford'' had foundered at Madras on 15 October 1782.) , , and ''Montague'' carried the cargo to Canton.

''Fortitude'' arrived back in the River Thames on 21 January 1785. George Macaulay purchased her on 29 October 1785 and renamed her ''Pitt''.

EIC voyages 1 & 2

EIC voyage 1 (1786–87)

Captain George Cowper sailed from the Downs on 28 March 1786, bound for China. ''Pitt'' arrived at Whampoa on 30 August. Homeward bound, she crossed the Second Bar, which is about 20 miles downriver from Whampoa, on 20 January 1787. She sailed via the Sunda Strait, where she saw , which too was returning to England from China.

''Pitt'' reached St Helena on 26 May. She arrived at the Downs on 6 August. Cowper died almost immediately thereafter.

EIC voyage 2 (1788–89)

Cowper's replacement, Captain Edward Manning, left the Downs on 26 December 1788, bound for St Helena, Benkulen, and China. ''Pitt'' reached St Helena on 29 March 1789 and Benkulen on 14 July, and arrived at Whampoa on 30 November. She crossed the Second Bar on 19 February 1790, reached St Helena on 11 June, and arrived at the Downs on 7 August.

Convict transport (1791-92)

Under Manning's command, ''Pitt'' sailed from Yarmouth Roads, England on 17 July 1791, with 352 male and 58 female convicts. She also carried Lieutenant-Governor Francis Grose and a company of the New South Wales Corps, as well as wives and children of the passengers and convicts. During the roughly two weeks after she left St Jago, a fever broke out that killed seven seamen, 13 soldiers, four soldiers' wives, five soldiers' children, 16 convicts, and two convicts' children. Manning had to free some convicts so that they could help man the vessel. ''Pitt'' arrived at Rio de Janeiro on 1 October, and stayed there more than three weeks, leaving on 25 October. While she was there, four convicts took advantage of their freedom to escape; another convict escaped and a soldier deserted when ''Pitt'' stopped at the Cape. ''Pitt'' arrived at Port Jackson, New South Wales on 14 February 1792. Twenty male and nine female convicts died during the voyage. Total deaths, not including children, numbered 49. Five male convicts escaped during the voyage,''Free Settler or Felon? The Convict Ship Pitt 1792'' - accessed 7 December 2014.
/ref> four in Rio and one at the Cape. At the Cape, the Dutch authorities later recaptured the escapee from ''Pitt'', the convicted forger and future Australian artist Thomas Watling, and put him aboard ''Royal Admiral''. (''Pitt'', ''Royal Admiral'', and , the three convict transports that arrived in Australia in 1792, are often referred to as the Fourth Fleet.)

''Pitt'' brought with her what would be . ''Francis'' was a 41-ton (bm) colonial schooner that was partially constructed at the Deptford Dockyard, England, and loaded aboard ''Pitt'' in frame.

''Pitt'' departed Port Jackson in March 1792 for England, via Batavia and Bengal. In sailing north from Port Jackson, Manning sailed through the Solomon Islands into New Georgia Sound

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