Tarleton (1789 ship)

Tarleton (or Tarlton) was launched in 1789 at Liverpool for Tarleton & Co., a Liverpool firm that had been in the slave trade for three generations. She traded with the West Indies and made one voyage as a slaver. The French captured her after she had landed her slaves. She returned to English hands c.1803 and sailed as a merchantman for some years thereafter. She appears to have been wrecked in April 1818.

For other ships with the same name, see List of ships named Tarleton.
History
United Kingdom
Name: Tarleton
Builder: Liverpool
Launched: 1789
Fate: Captured 1797
France
Acquired: 1797 by capture
Fate: Sold 1803?
United Kingdom
Name: Tarleton
Acquired: c.1803 probably by purchase
Fate: Probably wrecked 1818; last listed 1818 (LR) & 1824 (RS);
General characteristics
Tons burthen: 286,[1] or 298,[2] or 299,[3] or 300[4](bm)
Propulsion: Sail
Complement:
Armament:
  • 1793:22 × 12, 9, & 4-pounder guns[1]
  • 1794:18 × 12&9-pounder guns[1]
  • 1805:10 × 4&3-pounder guns[3]
  • 1814:10 × 9-pounder guns[4]

Career

Tarleton's master was J. Gilbody.[5]

On 5 August she was on her way from Grenada to Liverpool when a lightning strike damaged her, forcing her to go to St Thomas for repairs.[6]

Privateer

Tarleton and Samuel Gilbody received a letter of marque on 31 May 1793.[1] The size of the crew and the number of guns suggests that Tarletton would operate as a privateer.

On 16 July Tarleton was in company with the privateer Eliza, of Liverpool, Canny, master, at 32°30′N 18°40′W. They had with them a French privateer of eight guns and 70 (or 72) men that they had captured a few days earlier.[7] This was Guerrier, of Bayonne.[8] Guerrier was 21 days out of Bayonne and had taken nothing.[9]

On 27 January 1794 Tarleton and Gilbody received a new letter of marque. Now she carried slightly fewer guns, and she had a crew of 36 men, half the size of her earlier crew,[1] suggesting that she had stopped privateering.

Slave ship

In 1796 her master changed to Thomas Cannell, her primary owner to Daniel Backhouse (secondary remained Tarleton), and she became a slaver, making one voyage from the Bight of Benin and Gulf of Guinea islands to Jamaica. She sailed from Liverpool on 2 June 1796, and arrived at Kingston, Jamaica, on 10 July 1797. She had embarked 448 slaves and she disembarked 423, or a loss rate of 5.6%. She also lost 6 of her 35 crew on the voyage.[10]

Capture

The French captured Tarleton in 1797 after she had landed her slaves, but before she was able to return to Liverpool.[11][10]

British merchantman

Tarleton reappears in Lloyd's Register in 1804 with Stoddard, master, Phynn & Co., owner, and trade London–Demerara. She had also undergone a thorough repair.[2] There is no evidence that Tarleton was a prize and the timing suggests that she may have been purchased during the Peace of Amiens.

Year Master Owner Trade Source & Notes
1805 Stodhart Clark London–Demerara Register of Shipping (RS)[3]
1810 R. Conner
Harmann		 Stitt & Co. London–Jamaica
London–Charleston		 Lloyd's Register (LR); damage repaired 1808 and thorough repair 1809
1814 J. Payne Mercer Liverpool–Africa RS; almost rebuilt 1813[4]
1820 R.P. Jackson R.P. Jackson Liverpool–The Brazils RS

Fate

Tarleton, of Liverpool, Jefferson, master, was reported to have been at 6°N 22°W on 31 May 1817.[12] Lloyd's List reported that a gale had driven Tarleton, Jefferson, master on shore at the Cape of Good Hope. She had come from Rio de Janeiro. It was not clear how badly damaged she was.[13] She was consequently condemned on the beach. Her cargo, with the exception of some trifling accidents, was saved.[14]

There is no other Tarleton in Lloyd's Register or the Register of Shipping than the Tarleton of this article. Tarleton is last listed in Lloyd's Register in 1818. The Register of Shipping last listed her in 1824, but noted that she had been last surveyed in 1817.

Citations and references

Citations

  1. Letter of Marque, p.88 - accessed 25 July 2017.
  2. Lloyd's Register (1804), "T" Supple. pages, Seq.№T64.
  3. Register of Shipping (1805), Seq.№T11.
  4. Register of Shipping "T" Supple.
  5. Lloyd's Register, Seq. №T360.
  6. Lloyd's List ₦2126.
  7. Lloyd's List №5232.
  8. Williams (1897), p.316.
  9. "Ship News", Times (London, England), 16 August 1793; pg. 3; Issue 2754.
  10. Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database; Tarleton, Cannell.
  11. Wilkins (2000), p.75.
  12. Lloyd's List №5196.
  13. Lloyd's List №5296.
  14. "The Marine List". Lloyd's List (5297). 14 July 1818.

References

  • Wilkins, Frances (2000) 2,000 Manx Mariners: An Eighteenth Century Survey. (Wyre Forest Press). ISBN 978-1897725146
  • Williams, Gomer (1897; since republished) History of the Liverpool Privateers and Letters of Marque: With an Account of the Liverpool Slave Trade. (W. Heinemann).
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