HMS Porpoise (1798)

For other ships with the same name, see HMS Porpoise and HMS Diligent.

History

United Kingdom
Name:	HMS Porpoise
Ordered:	24 November 1797 (established)
Builder:	Hill & Mellish, Limehouse
Launched:	16 May 1798
Renamed:	HMS Diligent (5 January 1799)
Fate:	Sold 1802
General characteristics ^[1]
Tons burthen:	324 (bm)
Length:	96 ft 2 in (29.3 m) (overall) 76 ft 10 in (23.4 m) (keel)
Beam:	28 ft 2 in (8.6 m)
Depth of hold:	12 ft 0 in (3.7 m)
Complement:	33
Armament:	10 × 6-pounder guns 12-pounder carronades later replaced some or all of the guns

HMS Porpoise was built as a storeship to a commercial design by John Henslow (Surveyor of the Navy), launched in 1798 and purchased by the Royal Navy. The Navy commissioned her in July 1798 under Lieutenant Walter Scott. The ship was to carry a collection of trees and plants to Australia for Sir Joseph Banks and they were tended on board by George Suttor. A "garden cabin" 6 by 12 feet was built on the quarterdeck of the ship. After several abortive attempts to reach Australia the ship was condemned as unseaworthy, and the garden was transferred to the new HMS Porpoise.

The Navy renamed her Diligent in 1799 and sold her in 1802 at the end of the French Revolutionary Wars.^[1]

Citations

1 2 Winfield (2008), p.397.

References

Winfield, Rif (2008). British Warships in the Age of Sail 1793–1817: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates. Seaforth. ISBN 1861762461.
"Porpoise Sloop's Quarterdeck, showing the manner in which the Garden Cabbin was fitted with Boxes, agreeable to Sir Joseph Banks's desire for the reception of Plants to be sent to Port Jackson". State Library of New South Wales. Retrieved 31 December 2015.

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