''Hartwell'' was a 3-decker ship of the

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

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 South ...

(EIC) launched in 1787. On her maiden voyage she ran aground and sank off the Cape Verde Islands off West Africa.

Career

Caleb Crookenden and Co. of

West Itchenor West Itchenor is a village and civil parish, on the Manhood Peninsula, in the Chichester District of West Sussex, England. It lies north of the B2179 Chichester to West Wittering road 4.5 miles (7.3 km) southwest of Chichester. The vill ...

West Sussex West Sussex is a county in South East England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the shire districts of Adur, Arun, Chichester, Horsham, and Mid Sussex, and the boroughs of Crawley and Worthing. Covering an ...

, launched ''Hartwell'' in February 1787, for Captain John Fiott. He claimed she was the largest ship of her kind in the service of the EIC. Captain Edward Fiott sailed ''Hartwell'' from The Downs on 25 April 1787, bound for China. She was on her maiden voyage, loaded with goods including of silver. After severe Atlantic gales, on 20 May, a mutiny broke out when the crew refused to extinguish lights. Fiott arrested and confined three men, but with half the crew still refusing to obey orders, he changed course and headed for the Cape Verde islands, where he intended to hand over the mutineers to the authorities. However, on 24 May ''Hartwell'' ran onto a reef three leagues north-east of the island of Boa Vista. Although she broke up and sank, all the crew were saved. The basis of the mutiny was the crew's attempt to seize the treasure ''Hartwell'' was carrying. Captain Fiott's indecisiveness aggravated the situation. The EIC conducted an enquiry that led the EIC on 22 June 1787 to dismiss him from its service. One of the midshipmen aboard was

John Bellingham John Bellingham (176918 May 1812) was an English merchant and perpetrator of the 1812 murder of Spencer Perceval, the only British prime minister to be assassinated. Early life Bellingham's early life is largely unknown, and most post-assass ...

, later notorious as the assassin of British Prime Minister

Spencer Perceval Spencer Perceval (1 November 1762 – 11 May 1812) was a British statesman and barrister who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from October 1809 until his assassination in May 1812. Perceval is the only British prime minister to ...

Salvage

Between 1788 and 1791, under an East India Company contract, the Braithwaite brothers reportedly recovered 97,650 silver dollars from the wreck. Between 1994 and 1996 the South African company Afrimar recovered more coins and artefacts, and from 1996 the Portuguese company Arqueonautas Worldwide S.A surveyed and recovered yet more artefacts from the wreck.

Citations and references

Citations References * {{DEFAULTSORT:Hartwell (1787 ship) 1787 ships Ships built in England Maritime incidents in 1787 Naval mutinies Shipwrecks of Africa 18th century in Cape Verde Ships of the British East India Company