sixth-rate
In the rating system of the Royal Navy used to categorise sailing warships, a sixth-rate was the designation for small warships mounting between 20 and 28 carriage-mounted guns on a single deck, sometimes with smaller guns on the upper works and ...
class
Class or The Class may refer to:
Common uses not otherwise categorized
* Class (biology), a taxonomic rank
* Class (knowledge representation), a collection of individuals or objects
* Class (philosophy), an analytical concept used differentl ...
. The Royal Navy sold her in 1825 and she became the
merchantman
A merchant ship, merchant vessel, trading vessel, or merchantman is a watercraft that transports cargo or carries passengers for hire. This is in contrast to pleasure craft, which are used for personal recreation, and naval ships, which are u ...
''Toward Castle'', and then a whaler. She was lost in 1838 off Baja California while well into her third whaling voyage.
Royal Navy
Captain John Tancock commissioned ''Conway'' on 1 October 1814 and in 1815 sailed her for the West Indies.
On 26 June 1815 ''Panther'', Gegollas, master, came into
Plymouth
Plymouth () is a port city and unitary authority in South West England. It is located on the south coast of Devon, approximately south-west of Exeter and south-west of London. It is bordered by Cornwall to the west and south-west.
Plymouth ...
. ''Conway'', , , , and had detained ''Panther'' as ''Panther'' was sailing from Martinique to
Dunkirk
Dunkirk (french: Dunkerque ; vls, label=French Flemish, Duunkerke; nl, Duinkerke(n) ; , ;) is a commune in the department of Nord in northern France.post captain on 12 December 1816 and replaced Reynolds.
In 4 July 1817 Captain Edward Barnard replaced Hill, on the East Indies station. ''Conway'' was employed protecting British trade in the Persian Gulf and in suppressing the slave trade around ÃŽle de France.''Gentleman's Magazine'' (December 1863), pp.805-6.
On 21 October 1819 ''Conway'' was at the
Cape of Good Hope
The Cape of Good Hope ( af, Kaap die Goeie Hoop ) ;''Kaap'' in isolation: pt, Cabo da Boa Esperança is a rocky headland on the Atlantic coast of the Cape Peninsula in South Africa.
A common misconception is that the Cape of Good Hope is t ...
. A
midshipman
A midshipman is an officer of the lowest rank, in the Royal Navy, United States Navy, and many Commonwealth navies. Commonwealth countries which use the rank include Canada (Naval Cadet), Australia, Bangladesh, Namibia, New Zealand, South Afr ...
and four sailors drowned when their boat swamped while coming alongside ''Feniscowles'', which had been driven ashore and wrecked at Green Point. All on board were rescued. She had been on a voyage from Bengal, India to Mauritius and Liverpool, Lancashire. A later report stated that the second master and two men from ''Conway'' had drowned in going to ''Fenniscowles''s assistance."Ship News." ''Times'' [London, England] 28 Dec. 1819: 3. The Times Digital Archive. Web. 16 July 2018. /ref>
''Conway'' arrived at Plymouth from the East India station in late December. She sailed on to Portsmouth where she was paid off on 20 January 1820.
Between March and July 1820 ''Conway'' underwent refitting for sea duty. She was recommissioned in May under Captain Basil Hall, who sailed for South America on 10 August. She stopped at Tenerife, Rio de Janeiro, and the River Plate.
On 20 August 1820 ''Conway'' sailed from England for the South American station and touched at Tenerife, Rio de Janeiro and the River Plate. Commodore Sir
Thomas Hardy
Thomas Hardy (2 June 1840 – 11 January 1928) was an English novelist and poet. A Victorian realist in the tradition of George Eliot, he was influenced both in his novels and in his poetry by Romanticism, including the poetry of William Word ...
, conmmander-in-chief of the
South America Station
The South America Station was a formation of the Royal Navy which existed from 1808 to 1838 when it was split into the Pacific Station and the South East Coast of America Station.
Following the invasion of Portugal by Napoleon, the Portuguese cou ...
, then ordered Hall to sail to Valparaiso. ''Conway'' arrived at Valparaiso at Christmas.
On 22 January 1821, , Captain Robert Cavendish Spencer, arrived at Valparaiso. ''Conway'' then sailed to
Callao
Callao () is a Peruvian seaside city and Regions of Peru, region on the Pacific Ocean in the Lima metropolitan area. Callao is Peru's chief seaport and home to its main airport, Jorge Chávez International Airport. Callao municipality consists o ...
, arriving there on 31 January.
At the time Lord Cochrane, commander of the insurgent Chilean Navy in the fight for Chile's independence form Spain, was blockading the Spanish-held ports. On 18 February, Captain Hall was at Lima visiting the Viceroy, General de la Serna, and his immediate predecessor, the deposed General
Pezuela
Pezuela is a Barrios of Puerto Rico, barrio in the municipality of Lares, Puerto Rico. Its population in 2010 was 474. The barrio is divided into about 8 sectors. The barrio has been prone to landslides since Hurricane Maria struck in 2017.
Histo ...
. In Hall's absence, when two officers from ''Conway'' came on shore at
Callao
Callao () is a Peruvian seaside city and Regions of Peru, region on the Pacific Ocean in the Lima metropolitan area. Callao is Peru's chief seaport and home to its main airport, Jorge Chávez International Airport. Callao municipality consists o ...
, the Peruvian authorities arrested them on the suspicion that the officers were spies for Cochrane. Hall eventually succeeded in getting his officers released.
''Conway'' sailed from Callao on 23 February and on the 24th Hall met with Cochrane on Cochrane's flagship ''San Martin''. ''Conway'' sailed on to Valparaiso on the 28th, arriving there on 18 March. She sailed on to Santiago for Hall to meet with Hardy, but then returned to Valparaiso where she remained between 5 April and 26 May. While she was there, her officers made surveys. They also observed a comet that remained in sight between 1 April and 8 June; the data they gathered helped Dr. Brinkley, of Dublin, compute its orbit and publish the results in 1822.
On 26 May ''Conway'' sailed along the coast, stopping at Arica on 7 June and Ylo, both of which were almost uninhabited. Between 13 and 20 June, ''Conway'' was at
Mollendo
Mollendo is a town bordering the Pacific Ocean in southern Peru. It is located in the Arequipa Region and is the capital of both the Islay Province and the Mollendo District. Mollendo was the main port in the Peruvian southern coast until Matar ...
. There Hall discovered that the locals used rafts made of inflated seal skins to cross a surf that would have overturned ''Conway''s boats.
''Conway'' returned to Callao on 24 June and on 25 June Hall met with General San Martin, who was aboard a
schooner
A schooner () is a type of sailing vessel defined by its rig: fore-and-aft rigged on all of two or more masts and, in the case of a two-masted schooner, the foremast generally being shorter than the mainmast. A common variant, the topsail schoon ...
in Callao roads. On 5 July, the Spanish Viceroy announced that he would abandon Lima; San Martin entered Lima on 12 July and declared Peruvian independence on 28 July.
Hall and ''Conway'' then visited Concepción and
Arauco, Chile
Arauco is a city and commune ( es, comuna) in Chile, located in Arauco Province in the BÃo BÃo Region. The meaning of Arauco means Chalky Water in Mapudungun. The region was a Moluche aillarehue. The Spanish settlements founded here during th ...
. Arauco had been the base for the pirate
Vicente Benavides
Vicente Benavides Llanos (Quirihue, 1777 – Santiago, Chile, February 23, 1822) was a Chilean soldier who fought in the Chilean War of Independence. He is best known for leading Royalists guerrillas in La Frontera during the last years of th ...
, who had recently fled, taking with him American and British sailors that he had captured when he captured their vessels. ''Conway'' then returned to Valparaiso.
On 14 November ''Conway'' left Valparaiso to visit ports between there and Lima to assist and protect British interests. She stopped at Coquimbo and Copiapó where one of her midshipmen surveyed the harbour. She stayed at Callao from 9 to 17 December. She then sailed from
Mocha Island
Mocha Island ( es, link=no, Isla Mocha ) is a small Chilean island located west of the coast of Arauco Province in the Pacific Ocean. The island is approximately in area, with a small chain of mountains running roughly in north-south direction. ...
north to San Blas, Nayarit. she arrived at San Blas on 28 March 1822, having stopped at
Payta
Paita is a city in northwestern Peru. It is the capital of the Paita Province which is in the Piura Region. It is a leading seaport in the region. Paita is located 1,089 km northwest of the country's capital Lima, and 57 km northwest of ...
Acapulco
Acapulco de Juárez (), commonly called Acapulco ( , also , nah, Acapolco), is a city and major seaport in the state of Guerrero on the Pacific Coast of Mexico, south of Mexico City. Acapulco is located on a deep, semicircular bay and has bee ...
.
On 26 April the merchants in San Blas received the authorization of the Mexican Government, conveyed via the state capital of
Guadalajara
Guadalajara ( , ) is a metropolis in western Mexico and the capital of the list of states of Mexico, state of Jalisco. According to the 2020 census, the city has a population of 1,385,629 people, making it the 7th largest city by population in Me ...
, to send specie to England to pay for goods to be brought back to Mexico. On 6 May, ''Conway'' took on board more than half a million dollars.
''Lloyd's List'' reported 27 September 1822 that a letter from San Blas had stated that ''Conway'' would sail for England on 1 June, carrying specie. ''Conway'' sailed on 15 June. She then sailed nearly to Rio de Janeiro via Cape Horn. ''Conway'' arrived at Rio on 12 September. She arrived at England and was paid off at Chatham in the spring of 1823.
Disposal
''Conway'' was laid up at Chatham in 1823. The "Principal Officers and Commissioners of His Majesty's Navy" first offered "Conway, of 26 guns and 452 tons", lying at Chatham, for sale on 27 January 1825. Apparently either she did not sell or the sale fell through and they offered her again on 13 October. Mr. Edward Cohen purchased her on that day for £2,210.
''Toward Castle''
In 1826 ''Toward Castle'' appeared in '' Lloyd's Register'' and the ''Register of Shipping''. Both showed her master as Jeffrey or Jeffrys, her owner as Smith, and her trade as London–New South Wales. However, ''Lloyd's'' showed her build year as 1808 and the ''Register'' as 1810. In much later volumes ''Lloyd's'' gave the build year as 1813. ''Lloyd's Register'' listed ''Toward Castle'' as sailing to New South Wales, having sailed on 17 August 1825.
The ''Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser'' published the manifest of the "Cargo of the Ship Toward Castle, Robert Jeffery, Master, from London and Hobart Town, Van Diemen's Land, to Sydney, New South Wales". The cargo included 300 sheep, rum, wine, merchandise, four
carronades
A carronade is a short, smoothbore, cast-iron cannon which was used by the Royal Navy. It was first produced by the Carron Company, an ironworks in Falkirk, Scotland, and was used from the mid-18th century to the mid-19th century. Its main fun ...
, and much else besides.
Whaling voyage #1 (1828–1831)
Captain William Darby Brind sailed from England in 1828, bound for New Zealand. ''Toward Castle'' was reported to have been at the Bay of Islands on 9 October, not yet having caught anything. On 25 September 1829, she was again there, with 200 tons of whale oil. In November she was at Tongatapu with 1,650 barrels. She returned to England on 14 July 1831, with 600 casks and 16 tanks of whale oil.British Southern Whale Fishery: Voyages – ''Toward Castle''. /ref>
Whaling voyage #2 (1828–1831)
Captain Brind sailed from England on 11 October 1831, again bound for New Zealand. ''Toward Castle'' sailed via the Cape of Good Hope and Tonga. On 4 March 1833, she was at the Bay of Islands with 1,500 barrels. She was reported at various times as being at Tonga or the Bay. On 17 November 1833 she was at Oahu. She returned to England via
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 ...
, arriving on 9 May 1835 with 2,300 barrels of oil.
Fate
Captain Thomas Emmens (or Emmett, or Howarth, or Bennett), sailed from England on 6 October 1835 on ''Toward Castle''s third whaling voyage. ''Toward Castle'', Captain Emmett, was at
Monterey, California
Monterey (; es, Monterrey; Ohlone: ) is a city located in Monterey County on the southern edge of Monterey Bay on the U.S. state of California's Central Coast. Founded on June 3, 1770, it functioned as the capital of Alta California under bo ...
, in November 1837.
''Toward Castle'' struck a shoal about north of Cedros Island off Baja California, on 7 January 1838. The crew took to the boats. Captain Emmens, his mate, and five men reached the mission at Todos los Santos, more than away. From there they went overland some 50 miles to
La Paz
La Paz (), officially known as Nuestra Señora de La Paz (Spanish pronunciation: ), is the seat of government of the Bolivia, Plurinational State of Bolivia. With an estimated 816,044 residents as of 2020, La Paz is the List of Bolivian cities ...
. ''Dorotea'' carried them from there across the Gulf of California to Mazatlán. Samuel Talbot, the United States Consul at Mazatlán, arranged for two American crew members to be repatriated aboard the American schooner ''Boxer''. Captain Emmens, his mate, and the other three crew members shipped aboard the English bark ''Vesper''. As of 7 February, there had been no news at Mazatlán of the fate of the remainder of ''Toward Castle''s 30 (or 31) man crew. Talbot thought that they had been lost.
Other reports stated that nine men, or 16, had survived, out of a crew of 31."Shipping Intelligence". The Morning Chronicle (21384). London. 28 May 1838. Her cargo of 1,800 barrels of oil were lost. The cause of the wreck was that the location of the island as laid out in her English charts was wrong.