Frederick (1805 Ship)

''Frederick'' was an American-built ship that the British captured from the French c.1805. Lumley & Co. purchased her in prize and employed her as a slave-ship for two voyages. After the abolition of the British slave trade in 1807 she briefly became a merchantman, and then in 1810 a whaler. She made several voyages to the Southern Whale Fishery. On one of these voyages, in 1812, a French privateer captured ''Frederick'' but the British Royal Navy captured the privateer, and recaptured ''Frederick''. She is last listed in 1822.

Slaver

''Frederick'' enters ''Lloyd's Register'' in the Supplemental pages in 1805 with M'Donald, master, Thomas Lumley, owner, and trade London-Africa.''Lloyd's Register'' (1805), Seq. №74.
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Captain James MacDonald received a letter of marque on 3 September 1805. He then sailed ''Frederick'' on two enslaving voyages. On 16 September 1805 he sailed to the Gold Coast to acquire captives. On 16 March 1806 ''Frederick'' sailed from Africa. While she had been gathering her captives she was attacked from shore. She delivered her slaves to British Guiana, where she arrived on 16 May; she arrived with 249 and she disembarked 245.

Captain MacDonald had traded 853 firearms for 343 slaves, or almost 2.5 guns per captive. Accepting 343 as the number of captives acquired, and 245 as the number disembarked, gives a mortality rate for the voyage of 29%.

On his return to London, M'Donald reported that some 25 Guineamen had been captured on the Coast, together with .

The next year he sailed to the Bight of Benin, leaving London on 1 January 1807. ''Frederick'' acquired captives at Lagos/ Onim. After ''Frederick'' left Lagos she stopped at Príncipe. From there she delivered the captives to Kingston, Jamaica, where she arrived on 29 July, with 242 captives; she disembarked 238. She left Kingston on 18 November, and arrived back at London on 4 February 1808.

After the abolition of the slave trade, ''Frederick'' began trading with the . Then in late 1809, Lumley sold her to W. Wilson. Her trade changed from London- Curacoa to London-South Seas fisheries, and her master changed from M'Donald to A. Bodie.

Whaler

Daniel and William Bennett then purchased ''Frederick''.

Captain Alexander Bodie received a letter of marque on 28 April 1810. He sailed ''Frederick'' from Britain on 26 May. She arrived at Port Jackson on 21 October, with merchandise, having called in at Rio de Janeiro on the way.

''Frederick'' then left Port Jackson 30 November for the "sperm fishery".''Historical...'' (1916), Vol. 7, p.429. The fishing grounds were off the Derwent River of Van Diemen's Land.

''Frederick'', E. Bunker, master, returned to Port Jackson on 20 August 1811 from the fishery, with 55 tons of sperm oil for the London market.''Historical...'' (1916), Vol. 7, pp.433-4. She left for the fishery again on 9 October, in ballast and again under Alexander Bodie's command.

On 27 September 1812, ''Frederick'' left St Helena with the whalers ''Admiral Berkley'' and , under escort by , returning from the Indian Ocean. ''Frederick'' separated from the other three ships on 27 October, off Ascension. On 31 October the convoy encountered the USS ''President'' and the USS ''Congress'' at . The United States frigates gave chase. ''Congress'' captured ''Argo'', but ''Galatea'' escaped and arrived at Portsmouth.

However, ''Frederick'' next encountered the French 14-gun privateer ''Sans Souci'', J. Rossi (or Rosse), master, from Saint-Malo, which captured ''Frederick''. Some nine days later, on 10 December, and captured ''Sans Souci'', which had most of ''Frederick''s crew aboard. On 19 December recaptured ''Frederick''. ''San Souci'' arrived at Plymouth on 20 December. ''Lloyd's List'' described her as being of 16 guns and having a crew of 70. It further reported that ''Adndromache'' and ''Briton'' had chased ''Sans Souci'' for 12 hours before catching her. ''Sans Souci'' had only captured ''Frederick'' after an hour-long engagement in which ''Frederick'' lost her mate killed, and had "Body" and three or four other crew severely wounded. ''Lloyd's List'' reported that ''Rolla'' had recaptured ''Frederick'', "late Bodie," on 11 December at , and that she had arrived at Lisbon on 22 December with damage to her masts and sails, and in a leaky state. The ''Register of Shipping'' (1813) had the notation "CAPTURED" by ''Frederick''s name. ''Rolla'' shared the salvage money for ''Frederick'' with and .

''Frederick'' returned to Britain on 22 June 1813 with 450 casks of oil. One record has her captain as "Hammond", and her owner as William and Daniel Bennett. However, ''Lloyd's Register'' for both 1813 and 1814 has her master as A. Brodie, changing to J. or Wm. Allen, but her owner as W. Wilson.

From 1815 on both ''Lloyd's Register'' and the ''Register of Shipping'' have the same entry for ''Frederick'' through 1822: J. Allen, master, William & Daniel Bennett, owners, and trade London-South Seas fisheries.

The last detailed report of a whaling voyage has ''Frederick'' leaving Britain on 30 September 1816 and returning on 11 November 1817.British Southern Whale Fishery Database – voyages: ''Frederick''.
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Fate

''Frederick'' was broken up in 1821,Stanbury ''et al.'' (2015), App. 7. and is no longer listed after 1822.

Notes

Citations

References

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*''Historical Records of New South Wales: Series 1 - Governors' Dispatches to and from England, January, 1809 to June, 1813''. (1916). Vol. 7.
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*Stanbury, Myra, Kandy-Jane Henderson, Bernard Derrien, Nicolas Bigourdan, & Evelyne Le Touze (2015) "Chapter 18: Epilogue" nline In: Stanbury, Myra. ''The Mermaid Atoll Shipwreck: A Mysterious Early 19th-century Loss''. (Fremantle, WA: Australian National Centre of Excellence for Maritime Archaeology and the Australasian Institute for Maritime Archaeology): 235-290

ited 20 Aug 18

{{DEFAULTSORT:Frederick (1805 ship)
1805 ships
Captured ships
London slave ships
Whaling ships
Age of Sail merchant ships
Merchant ships of the United Kingdom