''General Eliott'' (or ''General Elliott'') was launched in 1782 as the

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 ...

''Fletcher'', but was renamed before completion to honour General Elliott's defence of Gibraltar. Under the ownership of Robert Preston (later 6th Baronet), she made six voyages 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) and one voyage as a transport for a naval expedition. She then became a West Indiaman until she was sold for breaking up in 1802.

Career

EIC voyage #1 (1783–1784)

Captain Robert Drummond sailed from Portsmouth on 17 March 1783, 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- ...

. ''General Eliott'' reached

Johanna Johanna is a feminine name, a variant form of Joanna that originated in Latin in the Middle Ages, including an -h- by analogy with the Latin masculine name Johannes. The original Greek form ''Iōanna'' lacks a medial /h/ because in Greek /h/ cou ...

on 28 June and arrived at Bombay on 19 July. She visited

Tellicherry Thalassery (), formerly Tellicherry, is a municipality, Commercial City on the Malabar Coast in Kannur district, in the state of Kerala, India, bordered by the districts of Mahé (Pondicherry), Kozhikode, Wayanad, Kasaragod and Kodagu (Karna ...

on 24 September, Anjengo on 4 October, and Tellicherry again on 26 October, and returned to Bombay on 10 November. She then visited Goa on 29 November, and returned to Bombay on 16 December. Homeward bound, she was at Goa on 21 January 1784, Tellicherry on 6 February, and

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 May, and she arrived back at The Downs on 18 July.

EIC voyage #2 (1785–1786)

Captain Drummond sailed from Portsmouth on 28 March 1785. ''General Eliott'' 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 29 August. Homeward bound, she crossed the Second Bar on 27 December, reached St Helena on 25 March 1786, and arrived at The Downs on 27 May.

EIC voyage #3 (1787–1788)

Captain Robert Preston sailed from The Downs on 1 April 1787, bound for Bombay. ''General Eliott'' reached

Madeira ) , anthem = ( en, "Anthem of the Autonomous Region of Madeira") , song_type = Regional anthem , image_map=EU-Portugal_with_Madeira_circled.svg , map_alt=Location of Madeira , map_caption=Location of Madeira , subdivision_type=Sovereign st ...

on 19 April and arrived at Bombay on 28 July. Homeward bound, she was at St Helena on 2 March 1788, and arrived at The Downs on 10 May.

EIC voyage #4 (1788–1790)

Captain Robert Drummond sailed from The Downs on 19 December 1788, bound for Bombay and China. ''General Eliott'' was at

Simon's Bay Simon's Town ( af, Simonstad), sometimes spelled Simonstown, is a town in the Western Cape, South Africa and is home to Naval Base Simon's Town, the South African Navy's largest base. It is located on the shores of False Bay, on the eastern sid ...

on 13 March 1789, reached Bombay on 16 May, and arrived at Whampoa on 27 September. Homeward bound, she crossed the Second Bar on 8 January 1790, reached St Helena on 13 April, and arrived at The Downs on 19 June.

EIC voyage #5 (1792–1793)

Captain Drummond sailed from The Downs on 6 April 1792, bound for Bombay. ''General Eliott'' arrived at Bombay on 28 July. She visited

Surat Surat is a city in the western Indian state of Gujarat. The word Surat literally means ''face'' in Gujarati and Hindi. Located on the banks of the river Tapti near its confluence with the Arabian Sea, it used to be a large seaport. It is now ...

on 14 November, returned to Bombay on 30 November, returned to Surat on 5 February 1793, and returned to Bombay on 15 February. Homeward bound, she was at Tellicherry on 9 March and

Calicut Kozhikode (), also known in English as Calicut, is a city along the Malabar Coast in the state of Kerala in India. It has a corporation limit population of 609,224 and a metropolitan population of more than 2 million, making it the second la ...

on 27 March. She reached St Helena on 14 June, and arrived at The Downs on 21 August.

EIC voyage #6 (1794–1795)

War with France had commenced on 1 February 1793 and Captain Robert Drummond acquired a letter of marque on 17 August 1793. However, Captain Adam Drummond acquired one on 23 December 1793. The British government held ''General Elliot'' at Portsmouth, together with a number of other Indiamen in anticipation of using them as transports for an attack on Île de France (Mauritius). It gave up the plan and released the vessels in May 1794. It paid £1,346 12 s 8 d for having delayed her departure by 71 days. ''General Eliott'' sailed from Portsmouth on 2 May 1794, bound for Bengal. She arrived at Diamond Harbour on 11 September. Homeward bound, she was at Saugor on 28 November, reached St Helena on 18 May 1795, and arrived at The Downs on 22 July.

West Indies expedition (1795–1796)

''General Eliott'' had no sooner returned to England when she joined Admiral

Hugh Cloberry Christian Sir Hugh Cloberry Christian KB (1747 – 23 November 1798) was an officer of the Royal Navy who saw service during the American War of Independence, and the French Revolutionary Wars. Details of his early life are obscure, but he appears to ha ...

's expedition to the West Indies. The Government chartered ''General Eliott'' and a number of other EIC vessels, as transports. Captain Joshua Langhorne acquired a letter of marque on 30 October 1795. The expedition sailed on 6 October, 16 November, and 9 December, but weather forced the vessels to put back. At some point ''General Eliott'' and sustained so much damage in gales that they had to come into harbour to refit. The fleet finally successfully sailed on 20 March to invade

St Lucia Saint Lucia ( acf, Sent Lisi, french: Sainte-Lucie) is an island country of the West Indies in the eastern Caribbean. The island was previously called Iouanalao and later Hewanorra, names given by the native Arawaks and Caribs, two Amerindia ...

, with troops under Lieutenant-General

Sir Ralph Abercromby Lieutenant General Sir Ralph Abercromby (7 October 173428 March 1801) was a British soldier and politician. He rose to the rank of lieutenant-general in the British Army, was appointed Governor of Trinidad, served as Commander-in-Chief, Ire ...

. St Lucia surrendered to the British on 25 May. The British went on to capture Saint Vincent and

Grenada Grenada ( ; Grenadian Creole French: ) is an island country in the West Indies in the Caribbean Sea at the southern end of the Grenadines island chain. Grenada consists of the island of Grenada itself, two smaller islands, Carriacou and Pe ...

West Indiaman

''General Eliott'' was sold into the West Indies trade in 1796. On 25 February 1798 her officers and crew (some 70 persons in all), abandoned her on the Goodwin Sands as she was returning from Jamaica. A Danish vessel took them aboard. Although she was taking on water, and had lost her rudder, cables, and anchors, she continued to float. Boats came from shore and salvaged her. Estimates were that the salvors would earn £10,000 pounds for their efforts. The

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...

frigate A frigate () is a type of warship. In different eras, the roles and capabilities of ships classified as frigates have varied somewhat. The name frigate in the 17th to early 18th centuries was given to any full-rigged ship built for speed and ...

and

ship of the line A ship of the line was a type of naval warship constructed during the Age of Sail from the 17th century to the mid-19th century. The ship of the line was designed for the naval tactic known as the line of battle, which depended on the two colu ...

towed ''General Elliot'' in to

Great Yarmouth Great Yarmouth (), often called Yarmouth, is a seaside town and unparished area in, and the main administrative centre of, the Borough of Great Yarmouth in Norfolk, England; it straddles the River Yare and is located east of Norwich. A pop ...

Norfolk Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the No ...

.''Lloyd's List'' №2984.
/ref>

Fate

''General Eliott'' was sold in 1802 for breaking up.

Citations

References

* {{1798 shipwrecks 1782 ships Ships built in Rotherhithe Merchant ships of the United Kingdom Ships of the British East India Company Maritime incidents in 1798 Shipwrecks in the North Sea