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HINDOSTAN (54) Purchased in 1795.
Burnt in 1804.

  • She was originally the East Indiaman BORN.
  • 1799 Capt. MULOCK.
    Cork. She sailed with a convoy to the Mediterranean on 14 February 1800 and returned to Portsmouth on 12 September.
    At the beginning of 1801 she was shown in the list of line-of-battle ships which were fully manned and ready to compose a North Sea fleet.
    By midsummer she was on passage to the Cape.
    In February 1803 she was still at the Cape with LANCASTER, JUPITER and PENGUIN.
  • 1803 Capt. John Le GROS.
    on passage from Cape in the spring.
    In 1804 she was being used as a storeship. She arrived in Portsmouth from the Downs on 4 January and sailed again with THISBE on 6 February with a large fleet of ships for Gibraltar and Malta.
    The convoy arrived at Plymouth on the 8th. and the two men of war anchored in Cawsand Bay.
    Sixteen of the merchant ships anchored in the Catwater and the rest in the Sound.
    At noon on the 12th., the wind being fine and fair at E. N.E., and apparently steady, the THISBE made the signal to un-moor; those in the Sound were soon under weigh and were joined by the ships from the Catwater and, under the care care of HINDOSTAN and THISBE, were abreast of Penlet Point before quarter to six.
  • HINDOSTAN had about 300 people on board, including passengers, women and children, and her cargo contained every item a British squadron could need. She arrived at Gibraltar in March and immediately sailed again with the PHOEBE frigate to join Lord NELSON off Toulon.
    On 30 March HINDOSTAN became separated fro her consort during a gale and on 2 April, with no ships in sight and about 40 miles from land, smoke was seen issuing from the fore-hatchway.
    The fire engine was set to work, and water poured down in torrents, but it had little effect so the hatches and ports were secured and everything done to prevent the circulation of air.
    As a precaution the boats were hoisted out but the marines were kept under arms to prevent the people rushing in to them.
    After fighting the fire for about 7 hours they at last made land in the Bay of Roses but, when they were still 15 miles off, the flames suddenly shot out of the fore and main hatchways as high as the lower yards.
    Some of the men jumped overboard to the boats and two were drowned and many of those on deck were being suffocated by the smoke The tarpaulins were kept over the hatches and more water poured down which subdued the flames a little, but by the time she was beached, about a mile from the shore, she was on fire along her whole length with flames bursting from the ports.
    Local Spanish vessels were too afraid to approach her but, using her own boats, HINDOSTAN's people managed to get away the women, the children and the sick first.
    The captain and the rest of the crew scarcely had time to follow them ashore when HINDOSTAN blew up.
    The total number of men lost was probably no more than three.
  • On 9 June a court martial honourably acquitted Capt. Le GROS and gave him great credit for smothering the fire at such a distance from the shore, which gave the crew a chance to escape with their lives.
    Lord NELSON remarked that the preservation of the crew seemed little short of a miracle.


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