''Earl Talbot'' was launched in 1797 as an

East Indiaman East Indiaman was a general name for any sailing ship operating under charter or licence to any of the East India trading companies of the major European trading powers of the 17th through the 19th centuries. The term is used to refer to vesse ...

for the British

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

(EIC). She made one complete voyage to

Madras Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of th ...

and China between 1797 and 1798. She was lost in October 1800 on her second voyage for the EIC. She had been the follow on replacement of an earlier vessel commissioned by the EIC from the Blackwall yard, Mr. Perry; which had been requisitioned on the stocks by the Admiralty in 1796, and launched on 23 July 1796 as . EIC Voyage #1 (1797-1798): Captain Jeremiah Dawkins received a letter of marque on 28 January 1797. (He had been captain of the predecessor , which had been sold in 1793 for breaking up.) He sailed from Portsmouth on 18 March, bound for Madras and China. ''Earl Talbot'' reached Madras on 18 March. Dawkins died on 10 July. His replacement was his First Mate, John Dale. The British government briefly hired her to use her as transport for an attack on Manila. A peace treaty with Spain forestalled the attack and the government released her after she had spent some 59 days waiting (for which it paid £1598 in

demurrage The term "demurrage" from Old French ''demeurage'', from ''demeurer'' – to linger, tarry – originated in vessel chartering and referred to the period when the charterer remained in possession of the vessel after the period normally allowed ...

). ''Earl Talbot'' reached Penang on 5 September, and Malacca on 15 October, and arrived at

Whampoa anchorage Pazhou is a subdistrict of Haizhu in southeastern Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, in China. , formerly Whampoa Island, has a total area of and is the site of Pazhou Pagoda. Its eastern bay was formerly the chief anchorage for ships parti ...

on 19 December. Homeward bound, ''Earl Talbot'' crossed the Second Bar on 1 March 1798, reached

St Helena Saint Helena () is a British overseas territory located in the South Atlantic Ocean. It is a remote volcanic tropical island west of the coast of south-western Africa, and east of Rio de Janeiro in South America. It is one of three constitu ...

on 5 August, and arrived in the Downs on 18 October. EIC Voyage #2 (1800-loss): Captain John Hamilton Dempster received a letter of marque on 11 December 1799. He sailed from Portsmouth on 7 January 1800, bound for

Bombay Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the second- ...

and China. She left Bombay on 17 August. On 2 October she and several other Indiamen were sighted at the

Anambas Islands Anambas Islands Regency ( id, Kabupaten Kepulauan Anambas) is a small archipelago of Indonesia, located northeast of Batam Island in the North Natuna Sea between the Malaysian mainland to the west and the island of Borneo to the east. Geographi ...

.''Lloyd's List'' №4142.
/ref> Later that month ''Earl Talbot'' struck on the

Perates The Perates or Peratae ( el, Περατής, "to pass through"; πέρας, "to penetrate") were a Gnostic sect from the 2nd century AD. The ''Philosophumena'' of Hippolytus is our only real source of information on their origin and beliefs. The ...

, in the South China Sea some 300 miles to the southeast of Hong Kong, during a gale. She foundered with the loss of all her passengers and crew, who numbered some 150 persons. was sailing from China to Bombay when she sighted the wreckage. ''Houghton'' reported the loss at Bombay. The EIC sent and from Bombay to search for the cause of ''Earl Talbot''s loss and to pick up any possible survivors. However, both disappeared without a trace and were presumed to have foundered at sea. The EIC put the value of the cargo it had lost on ''Earl Talbot'' at £2,603.

Notes

Citations

References

* * * * * *Hood, Jean (2003) ''Marked for misfortune : an epic tale of shipwreck, human endeavour and rescue in the age of sail''. (London: Conway Maritime). * *

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Earl Talbot (1797 EIC ship) 1797 ships Ships built in England Ships of the British East India Company Maritime incidents in 1800 Ships lost with all hands Shipwrecks in the South China Sea