HCS Aurora was a 14-gun

sloop-of-war During the 18th and 19th centuries, a sloop-of-war was a warship of the Royal Navy with a single gun deck that carried up to 18 guns. The rating system of the Royal Navy covered all vessels with 20 or more guns; thus, the term encompassed all u ...

of the

Bombay Marine The Royal Indian Navy (RIN) was the naval force of British India and the Dominion of India. Along with the Presidency armies, later the Indian Army, and from 1932 the Royal Indian Air Force, it was one of the Armed Forces of British India. Fr ...

launched in 1809 at the

Bombay Dockyard Naval Dockyard, Mumbai, abbreviated as ND (Mbi) and previously known as the Bombay Dockyard, is an Indian shipbuilding yard in Mumbai. The superintendent of the dockyard is a naval officer of the rank Rear Admiral, known as the Admiral Superint ...

. Intended to protect

East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company that was founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to Indian Ocean trade, trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (South A ...

(EIC) trade routes in the

Indian Ocean The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or approximately 20% of the water area of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia (continent), ...

from

piracy Piracy is an act of robbery or criminal violence by ship or boat-borne attackers upon another ship or a coastal area, typically with the goal of stealing cargo and valuable goods, or taking hostages. Those who conduct acts of piracy are call ...

, the

French Imperial Navy The French Imperial Navy () was the navy of the First French Empire which existed between 1804 and 1815. It was formed in May 1804 from the navy of the French First Republic, and spent its existence fighting against the Royal Navy in concert with ...

captured ''Aurora'' in the action of 13 September 1810, only to have the British recapture her in early December of that year. ''Aurora'' returned to the service of the Bombay Marine, assisting the

British military The British Armed Forces are the unified military forces responsible for the defence of the United Kingdom, its Overseas Territories and the Crown Dependencies. They also promote the UK's wider interests, support international peacekeeping e ...

in various campaigns in the

East Indies The East Indies (or simply the Indies) is a term used in historical narratives of the Age of Discovery. The ''Indies'' broadly referred to various lands in Eastern world, the East or the Eastern Hemisphere, particularly the islands and mainl ...

and

Persian Gulf The Persian Gulf, sometimes called the Arabian Gulf, is a Mediterranean seas, mediterranean sea in West Asia. The body of water is an extension of the Arabian Sea and the larger Indian Ocean located between Iran and the Arabian Peninsula.Un ...

. The last mention of ''Aurora'' in EIC records was 1828, when she was listed on the rolls of the Bombay Marine on 1 January of that year.

Career

''Aurora'' went into active service shortly after she was launched. Under the command of Lieutenant Conyers, she participated the

Persian Gulf campaign of 1809 The Persian Gulf campaign of 1809 was an operation by the British East India Company and Royal Navy to force the Al Qasimi to cease their attacks on British ships in the Persian Gulf, particularly on the Persian and Arab coasts of the Strait ...

. The

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the naval warfare force of the United Kingdom. It is a component of His Majesty's Naval Service, and its officers hold their commissions from the King of the United Kingdom, King. Although warships were used by Kingdom ...

and the EIC sent a large force to the

to force the

Qawasim Al Qasimi (, spelled sometimes as Al Qassimi or Al Qassemi; plural: Al Qawasem and, archaically, Joasmee) is an Arab dynasty in the Persian Gulf that rules Sharjah and Ras Al Khaimah, today forming two of the seven emirates of the United Arab ...

- a tribal confederation at war with Britain's ally,

Oman Oman, officially the Sultanate of Oman, is a country located on the southeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula in West Asia and the Middle East. It shares land borders with Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Yemen. Oman’s coastline ...

- to cease their attacks on local shipping, particularly on the Persian and Arab coasts of the

Straits of Hormuz The Strait of Hormuz ( ''Tangeh-ye Hormoz'' , ''Maḍīq Hurmuz'') is a strait between the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman. It provides the only sea passage from the Persian Gulf to the open ocean and is one of the world's most strategica ...

. The operation's success was limited as British were unable to permanently suppress the strong fleets of the Qawasim of

Ras Al Khaimah Ras Al Khaimah (; ), often referred to its initials RAK, is the largest city and capital of the Emirate of Ras Al Khaimah in the U.A.E. The city had a population of 191,753 in 2025, and is the sixth-most populous city in UAE after Dubai, Abu ...

and

Sharjah Sharjah (; ', Gulf Arabic: ''aš-Šārja'') is the List of cities in the United Arab Emirates, third-most populous city in the United Arab Emirates, after Dubai and Abu Dhabi. It is the capital of the Emirate of Sharjah and forms part of the D ...

, choosing not to press their landing at

for fear of reinforcements arriving from the interior. As Commodore Wainwright, who led the expedition, commented: "We had to deal with an enemy on whom we had not set sufficient value." ''Aurora'' would return to Ras Al Khaimah in 1819.

Capture and recapture

''Aurora'', under the command of Lieutenant Watkins, left Bombay on 16 August 1810 on a cruise. ''Lloyd's List'' reported that the French frigates ''Iphigenia'' and ''Astree'' had captured ''Aurora'', of 10 guns and 100 men, in October. French records reveal that ''

Iphigénie ''Iphigénie'' is a dramatic tragedy in five acts written in alexandrine verse by the French playwright Jean Racine. It was first performed in the Orangerie in Versailles on August 18, 1674, as part of the fifth of the royal ''Divertissements d ...

'', under Acting Captain Bouvet, and '' Astrée'' captured ''Aurora'', of 16-guns, in the action of 13 September 1810. Both reports agree that her captors took her to

Île de France Ile or ILE may refer to: Ile * Ile, a Puerto Rican singer * Ile District (disambiguation), multiple places * Ilé-Ifẹ̀, an ancient Yoruba city in south-western Nigeria * Interlingue (ISO 639:ile), a planned language * Isoleucine, an amino aci ...

. The French Navy then took ''Aurora'' into service as the corvette ''Aurore''. The British recaptured ''Aurora'', and several other EIC vessels, as a consequence of their successful

invasion of Isle de France The invasion of Isle de France was a complicated but successful British amphibious operation in the Indian Ocean, launched in November 1810 during the Napoleonic Wars. During the operation, a substantial military force was landed by the Royal ...

in November–December 1810. ''Aurora'' then returned to Bombay and the EIC's service. When the French captured British vessels they tried to get sailors, marines, and in the case of EIC ships,

lascars A lascar was a sailor or militiaman from the Indian subcontinent, Southeast Asia, the Arab world, British Somaliland or other lands east of the Cape of Good Hope who was employed on European ships from the 16th century until the mid-20th century ...

, to join the French Navy. Apparently they generally had some success, particularly with Irishmen and lascars. However, in the case of ''Aurora'', her marine detachment of 16 or 17

sepoy ''Sepoy'' () is a term related to ''sipahi'', denoting professional Indian infantrymen, traditionally armed with a musket, in the armies of the Mughal Empire and the Maratha. In the 18th century, the French East India Company and its Euro ...

s, recruited from among the Concanny Purwarries and serving in the Marine Battalion of the Bombay Marine, were steadfast in resisting first blandishments and then harsh treatment. When ''Aurora'' returned to Bombay, the Government promoted each man one grade, gave all the men a medal inscribed on one side in English and the other in

Konkani __NOTOC__ Konkani may refer to: Language * Konkani language is an Indo-Aryan language spoken in the Konkan region of India. * Konkani alphabets, different scripts used to write the language **Konkani in the Roman script, one of the scripts used to ...

, and had the order commending the marines read to every Native regiment in the Bombay army.

Invasion of Java and punitive expeditions

In 1811, the Royal Navy and the EIC combined to launch an invasion of Java. The EIC contributed several warships, including ''Aurora'', under the command of Commander Watkins, and several

East Indiamen East Indiamen were merchant ships that operated under charter or licence for European Trading company, trading companies which traded with the East Indies between the 17th and 19th centuries. The term was commonly used to refer to vessels belon ...

and other transports. In December ''Aurora'' was in Calcutta when the news arrived that a large force of Burmese troops had invaded the area of

Chittagong Chittagong ( ), officially Chattogram, (, ) (, or ) is the second-largest city in Bangladesh. Home to the Port of Chittagong, it is the busiest port in Bangladesh and the Bay of Bengal. The city is also the business capital of Bangladesh. It ...

. Captain Macdonald of ''Aurora'' assembled a force consisting of ''Aurora'' and the EIC's cruisers ''Phoenix'', ''Thetis'', and ''Vestal'', as well as a 900 troops. The troops disembarked at Chittagong on 6 December, at which point the Burmese retreated. In 1812, Palimbang was under British control, with

Sir Stamford Raffles Sir Thomas Stamford Bingley Raffles (5 July 1781 – 5 July 1826) was a British colonial official who served as the governor of the Dutch East Indies between 1811 and 1816 and lieutenant-governor of Bencoolen between 1818 and 1824. Raffles ...

as the governor of

British Java The French and British interregnum in the Dutch East Indies of the Dutch East Indies took place between 1806 and 1816. The French ruled between 1806 and 1811, while the British took over for 1811 to 1816 and transferred its control back to the ...

. The ex-sultan of Palimbang established a stockade a few miles up from the city. From there he intercepted supplies and threatened the new sultan. Major Mears of the Bombay Army and Captain MacDonald of ''Aurora'' sent 200 men in boats to capture the stockade. They were able to do so, though not without the loss of Major Mears. That same year, , , and , and a detachment of 100 men from the 48th Highlanders set out on a punitive expedition against the

Sultanate of Sambas The Sultanate of Sambas () was a traditional Malay state on the Western coast of the island of Borneo, in modern-day Indonesia. History At first governed by governors, Sambas became a kingdom in 1609 with the descendant of Sepudak. She marri ...

, along the Sambas River in western

Borneo Borneo () is the List of islands by area, third-largest island in the world, with an area of , and population of 23,053,723 (2020 national censuses). Situated at the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia, it is one of the Greater Sunda ...

. ''Barracouta'' was unable to force the river defenses and the expedition retreated after she suffered some casualties. From January ''Aurora'' and some gunboats then maintained a blockade until a second punitive expedition arrived in June 1813. While she maintained the blockade, ''Aurora'' recaptured some valuable Chinese junks, and unsuccessfully chased the ship ''Coromandel'', up the river. For the second punitive expedition against Sambas, the Royal Navy contingent consisted of , , , , , and ''Procris'', with Captain Sayer of ''Leda'' as the senior naval officer. The EIC contributed the cruisers ''Malabar'', ''Teignmouth'', and ''Aurora'', seven gunboats, the transport ''Troubridge'', and the

East Indiaman East Indiamen were merchant ships that operated under charter or licence for European trading companies which traded with the East Indies between the 17th and 19th centuries. The term was commonly used to refer to vessels belonging to the Bri ...

. The army contingent consisted of the

14th Regiment of Foot 14 (fourteen) is the natural number following 13 and preceding 15. Mathematics Fourteen is the seventh composite number. Properties 14 is the third distinct semiprime, being the third of the form 2 \times q (where q is a higher prime). ...

, a company each from the Bengal artillery and the HEIC's European Regiment, and the 3rd Bengal Volunteer Battalion. Eventually the British vessels, except the frigates, were able to cross the bar in front of the river and move towards the town of Sambas. Capturing two forts yielded over 70 brass and iron guns of mixed calibers, but the town of itself yielded little booty. The expedition was able to recapture the Portuguese brig ''Coromandel'', which the pirates had captured the year before. British casualties from combat were relatively low, but casualties from fever and disease were high. In early 1814, the British Army officer in charge at Palimbang replaced the current sultan with the previous sultan, who was sent into retirement in the interior. Raffles sent Captain MacDonald and ''Aurora'', to investigate the situation. The previous sultan was deposed and his successor reinstated. In April, the EIC put together a small force consisting of ''Malabar'', under Captain Robert Deane, the overall naval commander, ''Teignmouth'', ''Aurora'', and some gunboats, and an Army contingent under the command of Major-General Miles Nightingale to capture the town of

Makassar Makassar ( ), formerly Ujung Pandang ( ), is the capital of the Indonesian Provinces of Indonesia, province of South Sulawesi. It is the largest city in the region of Eastern Indonesia and the country's fifth-largest urban center after Jakarta, ...

from its current rajah. On 7 June the force captured

, with the rajah fleeing into the countryside. A new rajah was installed, and the force returned to Company waters. ''Aurora'' returned to Calcutta, carrying the Army staff and several officials.

Incident in 1816

The

Maratha Navy The Maratha Navy was the maritime component of the military forces of the Maratha Confederacy, active along the western coast of India from the mid-17th to early 19th century. It was established under the leadership of Chhatrapati Shivaji in ...

, the organised naval force of the

Maratha Empire The Maratha Empire, also referred to as the Maratha Confederacy, was an early modern India, early modern polity in the Indian subcontinent. It comprised the realms of the Peshwa and four major independent List of Maratha dynasties and states, Ma ...

posed a longstanding problem for the EIC. In 1816 ''Aurora'' engaged in combat with a Maratha navy flotilla in the Bay of Bengal. The painting to the right shows ''Aurora'' engaging two grabs and numerous

gallivat The ''gallivat'' (or ''galivat'', or ''gallevat'', or ''gallowet'', or ''gallouet'') was a small, armed boat, with sails and oars, used on the Malabar Coast in the 18th and 19th centuries. The word may derive from Portuguese "galeota" or alternat ...

s. The action immediately preceded the

Third Anglo-Maratha War The Third Anglo-Maratha War (1817–1819) was the final and decisive conflict between the British East India Company and the Maratha Empire, Maratha Confederacy in India. The war left the Company in control of most of India. It began with an in ...

(1817–18), which finally brought the Maratha Empire under EIC control.

Incident in 1817

In January 1817 ''Aurora'' was under the command of Captain Jeakes. She was towing a large "baghalah", which carried treasure from Kuwait and was destined for the Imam of Muscat. As they were sailing down the Gulf, a Qawasim force of 15 "dhows and trankies" attacked them, attempting to capture the baghalah. Jeakes managed to maneuver ''Aurora'' to bring her guns to bear and sink many of the dhows. When ''Aurora'' and the baghalah arrived at Muscat, the Imam presented Captain Jeakes with a valuable sword and an Arabian horse. ''Aurora'' then continued her journey onto Bombay.

Punitive expedition against Ras Al Khaimah

Ras Al Khaimah by Charles Hamilton Smith

In November 1819, the British embarked on an expedition against the Qawasim, led by Major-General William Keir Grant, voyaging to

with a platoon of 3,000 soldiers. The British extended an offer to Said bin Sultan of Muscat in which he would be made ruler of the 'Pirate Coast' if he agreed to assist the British in their expedition. Obligingly, he sent a force of 600 men and two ships. The naval force consisted of , , , and a number of gun and mortar boats. Captain Collier, of ''Liverpool'', led the naval force. The

of the

(EIC) contributed six armed vessels: the 16-gun ''Teignmouth'' under the command of Captain Hall, the EIC senior captain, the 16-gun ''Benares'', the 14-gun , the 14-gun ''Nautilus'', the 12-gun ''Ariel'', and the 12-gun . Later two frigates and 600 men belonging to the Sultan of Muscat joined the expedition, and a further 2,000 troops were to join from the landward side, having travelled from

Muscat Muscat (, ) is the capital and most populous city in Oman. It is the seat of the Governorate of Muscat. According to the National Centre for Statistics and Information (NCSI), the population of the Muscat Governorate in 2022 was 1.72 million. ...

. On the army side, Major General Sir William Keir commanded some 3,000 troops in transports, including the 47th and 65th Regiments of Foot, the 1st Battalion of the 2nd Regiment of Native Infantry, the flank companies of the 1st Battalion of the 3rd Regiment of Native Infantry and of the Marine Battalion, and half a company of Pioneers. In all, 1,645 European and 1,424 Indian soldiers and marines took part in the expedition. Grant Keir and Collier sailed to Ras Al Khaimah on the ''Liverpool'', with the ''Benares'' accompanying them and carried out a reconnaissance on 26 and 27 November. ''Benares'' was then sent to

Qeshm Qeshm (Persian language: قشم) is an arrow-shaped Iranian island in the Strait of Hormuz of the Persian Gulf (), measuring roughly 1,500 square kilometres (576 square miles) in surface area. Separated from the Iranian mainland by the Claren ...

to summon the main fleet, which arrived on 2 December. The force landed the troops two miles south of Ras Al Khaimah town and set up batteries of guns and mortars and the town was bombarded from both land and sea, the ''Aurora'' and ''Nautilus'' entering the creek and commencing a heavy fire on the town. Collier placed Captain Walpole of ''Curlew'' in charge of the gun boats and an armed pinnace to protect the landing, which was, however, unopposed.''United service magazine'' Part 1, pp. 711–15. The main bombardment of the town commenced on 6 December, from landed batteries of 12 pound guns and mortars as well as from sea. On 7 December, two 24-pound cannon from Liverpool were added to the land batteries, dragged along the beach and commencing fire on the 8th December. This heavy bombardment resulted in a request for a truce by that evening, which was ignored. The next morning, the 24-pounders breached the walls of the fort and it was stormed. The rout of Ras Al Khaimah led to only five British casualties as opposed to the 400 to 1,000 casualties reportedly suffered by the Qawasim. Following the fall of Ras Al Khaimah, the ''Aurora'', together with ''Curlew'' and ''Nautilus'', were sent to blockade

Rams In engineering, reliability, availability, maintainability and safety (RAMS)Dhayah, pursued through the date plantations by British marines. Following a three-day bombardment, (and, in particular, under withering heavy fire from two of Liverpool's 24-pounders that had been dragged miles through the stony wadis) Dhayah Fort surrendered on 22 December. Most of the occupants of Dhayah were women and children and workers who had fled the British advance on their date groves – many were from of the Al Tanaij tribe. Of the 400 people who had taken refuge in the fort, only 177 were men of fighting age. The British expeditionary force then blew up the town of Ras Al Khaimah and established a garrison there of 800

s and artillery, before visiting Jazirat Al Hamra, which was found to be deserted. They went on to destroy the fortifications and larger vessels of Umm Al Qawain,

Ajman Ajman ( '; Gulf Arabic: عيمان ''ʿYmān'') is the capital of the emirate of Ajman in the United Arab Emirates. It is the List of cities in the United Arab Emirates, fifth-largest city in UAE after Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Sharjah and Al Ain. Loca ...

, Fasht,

Abu Hail Abu Hail () is a neighbourhood in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE), located in Deira. The locality is largely residential and is bordered by the localities of Al Waheda on the east, Hor Al Anz in the south and Al Baraha on the west. The Abu H ...

, and

Dubai Dubai (Help:IPA/English, /duːˈbaɪ/ Help:Pronunciation respelling key, ''doo-BYE''; Modern Standard Arabic, Modern Standard Arabic: ; Emirati Arabic, Emirati Arabic: , Romanization of Arabic, romanized: Help:IPA/English, /diˈbej/) is the Lis ...

. Ten vessels that had taken shelter in Bahrain were also destroyed. The Royal Navy suffered no casualties during the action. The action was to result in the British signing the

General Maritime Treaty of 1820 The General Maritime Treaty of 1820 was initially signed between the rulers of Abu Dhabi, Sharjah, Ajman, Umm Al Quwain, Ras Al Khaimah and Great Britain in January 1820, with the nearby island state of Bahrain acceding to the treaty in the fol ...

with the coastal rulers, beginning the 150-year British protectorate of the

Trucial States The Trucial States, also known as the Trucial Coast, the Trucial Sheikhdoms, or Trucial Oman, was a group of tribal confederations to the south of the Persian Gulf (southeastern Arabia) whose leaders had signed protective treaties, or truce ...

, which would, on their independence on 2 December 1971, become the

United Arab Emirates The United Arab Emirates (UAE), or simply the Emirates, is a country in West Asia, in the Middle East, at the eastern end of the Arabian Peninsula. It is a Federal monarchy, federal elective monarchy made up of Emirates of the United Arab E ...

Fate

The last readily available online mention of ''Aurora'' notes that she was still listed as serving the Bombay Marine on 1 January 1828.

Notes

Citations

References

* * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Aurora (1809) Ships of the Bombay Marine 1809 ships Captured ships Ships in art