Name Mornington Fate Burnt 1815 Launched 1792 | Owner Thomas Patrickson Complement 120 | |
Namesake Possibly Richard Wellesley, 1st Marquess Wellesley Tons burthen 668, or 700, or 770 (bm) | ||
Mornington was a British merchant vessel built at Calcutta, of teak, by J. Gilmore & Co. for Fairlie and Co. She made three voyages under charter to the British East India Company (EIC). On the third French privateers twice captured her and Royal Navy vessels twice recaptured her. A fire destroyed her in 1815.
Contents
Career
Under the command of Captain James Carnegy (or Carnageie), Mornington left Calcutta on 30 December 1799. She was at Saugor on 23 January 1800, reached St Helena on 8 June, and arrived at The Downs on 9 September.
On 3 December 1800 Mornington sailed from England for Bombay and Bengal.
Captain George Kelso was in the Hugli River on 19 May 1801. On 23 June Mornington was at Kedgeree, and on 19 July Saugor. By 30 October she had reached the Cape of Good Hope, and by 20 November she was at St Helena. She arrived at The Downs on 19 January 1802. The "United Company of Merchants of England trading to the East Indies" offered 28,966 bags of rice for sale on 25 March. The rice had come in on Travers, Melville Castle, Skelton Castle, and Mornington.
Captain Kelso sailed for Madras on 16 May 1804. She left Bengal on 5 July in company with the country ship Anna, and the Maria, Northampton, and Princess Mary. The French privateer Nicholas Surcouf in Caroline captured Mornington on 14 August 1804. However, HMS Phaeton recaptured Mornington, before Captain Fallonard of the brig Île de France recaptured Mornington. Fallonard took Mornington, of 600 tons and six guns, into P0ort Nord-Ouest. The British recaptured Mornington yet again. Mornington was reported at St Helena on 6 October, and completed her voyage on 18 December 1804.
Captain George Kelso received a letter of marque for Mornington on 22 February 1805. Lloyd's Register of 1808 carries the Mornington, of 750 tons, built nine years earlier in Calcutta. It gives her master as "Kelso", and her owners as Fairlie & Co.
Mornington was reported at St Helena on 23 September 1810. Captain David Dunlop, of Mornington, was reported to have died at Calcutta on 22 September 1809. From then on Mornington appears in lists of vessels based at Calcutta.
Fate
Mornington sailed for Bengal on 24 June 1815. She burnt off Nursapore (Narsapuram: 16°26′N 81°41.49′E) in October 1815.