Several ships have been named ''Mentor'': * was launched in Philadelphia in 1758 under another name. For some time her name was ''British King''. By the time she first appeared in ''

Lloyd's Register Lloyd's Register Group Limited (LR) is a technical and professional services organisation and a maritime classification society, wholly owned by the Lloyd’s Register Foundation, a UK charity dedicated to research and education in science and ...

'' (''LR'') in 1776 her name had become ''Mentor''. From 1776 to 1790 she was a Greenland whaler, though she also spent time trading generally, and as a transport. In 1791 she commenced a voyage to the Southern Whale Fishery but received damage en route and was condemned at the River Plate. * was launched in 1778 at Chester as a West Indiaman. She captured three vessels, including a valuable

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 ...

belonging to the

French East India Company The French East India Company (french: Compagnie française pour le commerce des Indes orientales) was a colonial commercial enterprise, founded on 1 September 1664 to compete with the English (later British) and Dutch trading companies in the ...

. She had an inconclusive

single ship action A single-ship action is a naval engagement fought between two warships of opposing sides, excluding submarine engagements; called so because there is a single ship on each side. The following is a list of notable single-ship actions. Single-shi ...

with a French warship in 1779. She was wrecked in 1782. * was launched in New England. From 1784 she sailed from Great Britain, trading between London and New York or Quebec. From 1789 she made three complete voyages as a whaler in the British Southern Whale Fishery. The French Navy captured her in early 1795 as she was returning from her fourth whaling voyage. * was the former , launched in 1749. The British

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 ...

sold ''Wasp'' in 1781 and she became the mercantile ''Polly'', which traded with Africa. In 1784 ''Polly'' became the

slave ship Slave ships were large cargo ships specially built or converted from the 17th to the 19th century for transporting slaves. Such ships were also known as "Guineamen" because the trade involved human trafficking to and from the Guinea coast ...

''Mentor''. ''Mentor'' made eight voyages carrying enslaved people from The Gambia to the West Indies. French privateers captured her in late 1795 as she was on her way from West Africa to the West Indies on her ninth voyage. * was a

snow Snow comprises individual ice crystals that grow while suspended in the atmosphere—usually within clouds—and then fall, accumulating on the ground where they undergo further changes. It consists of frozen crystalline water throughout ...

launched in 1792 at Wemyss that the Admiralty hired from 1793 to 1801 for service as a

hired armed vessel During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries the Royal Navy made use of a considerable number of hired armed vessels. These were generally smaller vessels, often cutters and luggers, that the Navy used for duties ranging from carrying and pa ...

. The Navy released her from her contract at the end of 1801 after the signing of the

Treaty of Amiens The Treaty of Amiens (french: la paix d'Amiens, ) temporarily ended hostilities between France and the United Kingdom at the end of the War of the Second Coalition The War of the Second Coalition (1798/9 – 1801/2, depending on perio ...

. She then returned to mercantile service, sailing first to Hamburg and then Oporto. She became a coaster on England's east coast, or a Baltic trader. She was last listed in 1832. * was a Spanish prize captured in 1799. She made one voyage transporting enslaved people and foundered on her way back to Liverpool after delivering her captives. * ''Mentor'', a brig that sank while carrying antiquities that

Lord Elgin Earl of Elgin is a title in the Peerage of Scotland, created in 1633 for Thomas Bruce, 3rd Lord Kinloss. He was later created Baron Bruce, of Whorlton in the County of York, in the Peerage of England on 30 July 1641. The Earl of Elgin is the h ...

had bought. * , of 179 tons burthen, was a brigantine (later brig), built by Thomas Walmsley in North Shields. She was lost in February 1832 in the North Sea.

See also