HMS ''Hindostan'' (variously ''Hindustan'' or ''Hindoostan'') was a 50-gun

two-decker A two-decker is a sail warship which carried her guns on two fully armed decks. Usually additional guns were carried on the upper works (forecastle and quarterdeck), but this was not a continuous battery and thus not counted as a full gun deck ...

fourth rate In 1603 all English warships with a compliment of fewer than 160 men were known as 'small ships'. In 1625/26 to establish pay rates for officers a six tier naval ship rating system was introduced.Winfield 2009 These small ships were divided i ...

of 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 ...

. She was originally a

teak Teak (''Tectona grandis'') is a tropical hardwood tree species in the family Lamiaceae. It is a large, deciduous tree that occurs in mixed hardwood forests. ''Tectona grandis'' has small, fragrant white flowers arranged in dense clusters (panicl ...

-built

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 ...

named ''Admiral Rainier'' launched at Calcutta in 1799 that the Royal Navy brought into service in May 1804. Before the Royal Navy purchased her, ''Admiral Rainier'' made two trips to England 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), as an "extra ship", i.e., under charter. Perhaps her best known voyage was her trip to Australia in 1809 when she and ''Dromedary'' brought Governor

Lachlan Macquarie Major-general (United Kingdom), Major General Lachlan Macquarie, Companion of the Order of the Bath, CB (; gd, Lachann MacGuaire; 31 January 1762 – 1 July 1824) was a British Army officer and colonial administrator from Scotland. Macquarie se ...

to replace Governor

William Bligh Vice-Admiral William Bligh (9 September 1754 – 7 December 1817) was an officer of the Royal Navy and a colonial administrator. The mutiny on the HMS ''Bounty'' occurred in 1789 when the ship was under his command; after being set adrift i ...

after the

Rum Rebellion The Rum Rebellion of 1808 was a ''coup d'état'' in the then-British penal colony of New South Wales, staged by the New South Wales Corps in order to depose Governor William Bligh. Australia's first and only military coup, the name derives fr ...

. In later years she became a

store ship Combat stores ships, or storeships, were originally a designation given to ships in the Age of Sail and immediately afterward that navies used to stow Materiel, supplies and other goods for naval warfare, naval purposes. Today, the United States ...

, and in 1819 was renamed ''Dolphin''. She was hulked in 1824 to serve as a

prison ship A prison ship, often more accurately described as a prison hulk, is a current or former seagoing vessel that has been modified to become a place of substantive detention for convicts, prisoners of war or civilian internees. While many nat ...

, and renamed ''Justitia'' in 1831. She was finally sold in 1855.

Merchantman

Hudson, Bacon & Co. built ''Admiral Rainier'' in Calcutta for their own account and launched her in 1799. The EIC immediately chartered her for a voyage from

Calcutta Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, the official name until 2001) is the Capital city, capital of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal, on the eastern ba ...

to England. Captain William Lay left Calcutta on 28 December 1799, reached St Helena on 15 June 1800 and Falmouth on 2 September, and arrived at Deptford on 5 October. ''Admiral Rainier'' was admitted to the Registry of Great Britain on 5 January 1801. Lay received a Letter of Marque on 9 January. He then sailed her back to India, apparently not under contract with the EIC. Lay sailed ''Admiral Rainier'' to England for a second time, again under charter to the EIC, leaving Calcutta on 1 January 1803. She passed Kedgeree on 1 February, reached St Helena on 16 July, and arrived at Gravesend on 27 September. On 30 May 1804 the Admiralty purchased her and renamed her ''Hindostan''. An earlier ''Hindostan'' had just been lost in April in a fire at sea.

Naval Service

Captain Mark Robinson commissioned her in July, and then Captain Alexander Fraser took command in August. He sailed her for the East Indies in early 1805. There, together with , she fought the inconclusive

Action of 21 April 1806 The action of 21 April 1806 was a minor engagement between a French frigate and British forces off South Africa during the Napoleonic Wars. The Île Bonaparte and Île de France constituted French outposts in the Indian Ocean, from which priva ...

against ''Canonnière''. ''Tremendous'' carried the brunt of the action but suffered no casualties. The French lost seven men killed and 25 wounded. Captain Bendall Littehalles recommissioned ''Hindostan'' in December 1806. A year later she was repaired at Woolwich in January 1807. Then in February Captain Thomas Bowen took command. On 28 June she sailed as a convoy escort to the Mediterranean, returning towards the end of the year. On 11 November, the Admiralty ordered her to be converted to a storeship and her guns were reduced from 54 to 22, primarily by the removal of the guns on her lower deck. Commander Lewis Hole took command in December. In April 1808 her captain was Commander Fitzowen Skinner and she was with a squadron operating off Lisbon.

Australia

In November 1808 ''Hindostan'' was recommissioned as a troopship under Commander John Pasco. On 29 March 1809, ''Hindostan'' and ''Dromedary'' recaptured ''Gustavus'', of Charlestown. Pasco sailed ''Hindostan'' to New South Wales on 3 May 1809. ''Hindostan'' and ''Dromedary'' brought with them Governor

and the 1st Battalion of Macquarie's own regiment, the 73rd Regiment of Foot. Macquarie's first task was to restore orderly, lawful government and discipline in the colony following the Rum Rebellion against Governor

. The 73rd Foot was there to replace the

New South Wales Corps The New South Wales Corps (sometimes called The Rum Corps) was formed in England in 1789 as a permanent regiment of the British Army to relieve the New South Wales Marine Corps, who had accompanied the First Fleet to Australia, in fortifying th ...

. The vessels arrived on 28 December. ''Hindostan'' and ''Dromedary'' departed from Sydney on 12 May 1810. They took with them a contingent of the 102nd Regiment of Foot (

), as well as Governor Bligh and his family.

Late career and fate

''Hindostan'' was converted to a storeship in 1811 under Duncan Weir. ''Hindostan'' shared with , , , and ''Tuscan'' in the American ''droits'' for ''Phoenix'', ''Margaret'', ''Allegany'' and ''Tyger'', captured on 8 August 1812 at Gibraltar on the arrival of the news of the outbreak of the

War of 1812 The War of 1812 (18 June 1812 – 17 February 1815) was fought by the United States of America and its indigenous allies against the United Kingdom and its allies in British North America, with limited participation by Spain in Florida. It bega ...

. ''Hindostan'' was in the Mediterranean in 1815, and then reverted to being a storeship in Woolwhich. On 22 September 1819 she was renamed ''Dolphin''. ''Dolphin'' was hulked at Woolwich in March 1824 to serve as a

. On 16 October 1829, she sprang a leak and sank at

Chatham Chatham may refer to: Places and jurisdictions Canada * Chatham Islands (British Columbia) * Chatham Sound, British Columbia * Chatham, New Brunswick, a former town, now a neighbourhood of Miramichi * Chatham (electoral district), New Brunswic ...

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

, with the loss of three lives, but she was refloated, repaired, and returned to service. She was renamed ''Justitia'' in 1831, the Royal Navy having sold an earlier ''Justitia'' in 1830. ''Justitia'' was finally sold on 24 October 1855.

Notes

Citations

References

* * *House of Commons, Parliament, Great Britain (1814), ''Minutes of the Evidence Taken Before the Select Committee on Petitions Relating to East-India-Built Shipping''. (H.M. Stationery Office) * *

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Hindostan (1804) Ships of the line of the Royal Navy Ships of the British East India Company Military history of New South Wales 1790s ships British ships built in India Age of Sail merchant ships Merchant ships of the United Kingdom Maritime incidents in October 1829