''Wasp'' was launched at Hull in 1809. She traded as a
West Indiaman and in 1812 she was lengthened, which increased her burthen to 319 tons. This does not appear in the issues of ''
Lloyd's Register'' that are the basis for the table below, but does appear in a different volume of a ''Register of Shipping''. After the commencement of the
War of 1812 she sailed under a
letter of marque that too recorded her burthen as 319 tons.
*Letter of marque: Edward Archer
[
*Letter of marque: John Crabtree][
''Wasp'' and Crabtree arrived at St Thomas on 10 January 1814. Crabtree reported that the day before he had encountered an American privateer west of Saba but that it had sailed away when he gave chase, fearing that ''Wasp'' was a warship. On 11 January, the British merchantman ''Hibernia'', of 22 men and six guns, Lennon, master, too encountered the privateer. The privateer was , of 14 guns and 125 men, Boyle, master. After an intense 9-hour ]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 ...
that left one man killed on ''Hibernia'', and 11 wounded, ''Hibernia'' succeeded in driving ''Comet'' off. ''Comet'' had three men killed and eight men wounded.
On 12 October 1817 ''Wasp'', John Ware, master, and Thomas Staniforth and Thomas Blunt, owners, received a license at Gibraltar from the British East India Company. The license authorized ''Wasp'' to trade with India. Then on 29 December 1818 they received a license again, but this time at Malta. Each license only cost £5.[ ''Wasp'' left Calcutta on 5 April 1818, bound for Gibraltar and Malta.][''Asiatic Journal and Monthly Register for British and Foreign India'' (November 1818), p.535.]
In 1820 ''Wasp'' changed owners and thereafter made one voyage as a whaler.[British Southern Whale Fishery Database – voyages: ''Wasp''.] The outcome and duration are currently obscure. ''Wasp'' is no longer listed after 1827.
The data in the table below are from ''Lloyd's Register
''. The information is only as accurate as owners bothered to keep it updated.
Citations
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wasp (1809 ship)
1809 ships
Whaling ships
Age of Sail merchant ships
Merchant ships of the United Kingdom