Name Lapwing Tons burthen 120 [(bm) | Namesake Lapwing Sail plan Snow | |
Operator British East India Company | ||
Lapwing was a packet ship that made two round-trips to India for the British East India Company (EAC). Currently, both her origin and her fate are obscure.
EIC voyages
Captain Henry Gardiner left The Downs on 6 June 1769, bound for Bengal and Madras. Lapwing left Kolkatta on 24 August 1770 and on 12 October was at Madras. She reached the Cape on 16 December and St Helena on 6 January 1771, and arrived back at The Downs on 16 April.
Lapwing stopped at Falmouth before reaching The Downs and Captain Gardiner came overland to London. He brought the news that although Madras was quiet, a threat of war hung over Bengal. The Mogul emperor (Shah Alam II) had allied with the Marathas, and Sujah Dowla (the Nawab of Bengal), would require British assistance.
Captain Gardiner sailed from Portsmouth on 2 September 1771, bound for Bengal. Lapwing reached False Bay on 25 November, and arrived at Calcutta on 23 April 1772. Homeward bound she was at Ingeli, a point on the west side of the Hooghli Estuary on 17 November. She left Bengal on 20 September and Madras on 14 October. She reached the Cape on 26 January 1773, St Helena on 16 February, and Ascension Island on 22 February. She arrived at Falmouth on 15 April, and returned to The Downs on 1 May.
When Lapwing reached Falmouth her purser left her and travelled overland to India House in London. There he reported her arrival at Falmouth, and that Captain Gardiner was no longer with her. (He had sought employment with the Bengal Pilot Service.) The purser also reported that a terrible famine had descended on Bengal, killing an enormous number of people. Bad weather had destroyed the "fruits of the earth", and the country ships that normally brought provisions had not arrived.
The famine was the Great Bengal famine of 1770, which killed an estimated 10 million people (a quarter of the population), in the area. It was caused due to the widespread forced cultivation of opium (forced upon local farmers by the EIC as part of its strategy to export it to China) in place of local food crops, resulting in a shortage of grain.