HMS Assistance (1850)

HMS Assistance was an Arctic discovery barque of the Royal Navy, and the sixth vessel to carry the name. She began in 1834 as the India-built merchant vessel Acorn. Her name was changed to Baboo. Under that name she transported coolies between Mauritius and India, and immigrants to South Australia. The Royal Navy purchased her in 1850 and named her HMS Assistance. Assistance participated in two Arctic expeditions before her crew abandoned her in the ice in 1854.

For other ships with the same name, see HMS Assistance.

HMS Assistance in the Ice, by Thomas Sewell Robins, 1853
History
United Kingdom
Name: Acorn
Namesake: Acorn
Owner: T.Kincaid (1840–1850)
Builder: J. Thomas, Howrah, Calcutta[1]
Launched: 1834,[1] or 1835
Renamed: Baboo
Fate: Sold to the Royal Navy in 1850
United Kingdom
Name: HMS Assistance
Acquired: March 1850
Fate: Abandoned in the ice on 25 August 1854
General characteristics
Type: Teak-built barque
Tons burthen: 423,[2] or 420[3] (bm)
Length:
  • Overall:117 ft 4 in (35.8 m)
  • Keel: 115 ft 7 in (35.2 m)
Beam: 28 ft 5 in (8.7 m)
Depth of hold: 13 ft 7 in (4.14 m)
Propulsion: Sails
Sail plan: Barque rigged
Complement: 58
Armament: Two guns
Notes: Teak-built[2]

Career

Merchant Navy

Assistance was built out of teak in 1835, at Howrah, Calcutta, and was launched as the merchant vessel Acorn. She was renamed Baboo at some point prior to 1837.[1] Later, she moved her homeport to Greenock.

On 23 August 1837, Baboo carried 106 male and six female coolies from Calcutta to Mauritius.[4][5] She also made one voyage repatriating coolies from Mauritius to India. She had embarked 240 coolies, of whom six men died on the way to Madras, and eleven between Madras and Calcutta.[6]

Baboo first appeared in Lloyd's Register in 1839 with Forrester, master, T. Kincaid, owner, Greenock, homeport, and trade Liverpool–South Australia.[2]

Baboo made two voyages to South Australia carrying immigrants. The first took her from Liverpool on 23 November 1839, to Port Adelaide, where she arrived on 9 March 1840. Emanuel Underwood, a passenger on board Baboo, brought with him a small vessel in frame, together with her equipment. He assembled her at Port Adelaide and named her Governor Gawler after the colony's governor.

On 14 May 1847, Baboo ran aground and was severely damaged in the River Thames at Limehouse, consequent to an argument as to whether she should be towed by tugs Lion or Newcastle. Baboo was on a voyage from London to Sydney. She was refloated and put back to London.[7][8] She had here damages repaired that year.[9]

On Baboo's second voyage to South Australia, she left Deptford on 23 August 1848, and arrived at Port Adelaide on 4 December.[10]

Royal Navy

In March 1850, the Royal Navy purchased Baboo from Kincade. Wigrams of Blackwall fitted her for Arctic service at a cost of £8,520.[11][12][13]

Assistance and Pioneer breaking out of winter quarters, 1854

She joined Horatio Thomas Austin's 1850 attempt to find Sir John Franklin's ill-fated Northwest Passage expedition. Austin commanded Resolute, while Captain Erasmus Ommanney commanded Assistance. In the summer of 1850, Assistance anchored at Cape York and took on an Inuit guide by the name of Qalasirssuaq.

Despite extensive search, the expedition failed to find conclusive evidence of the fate of Franklin and his men, and returned to Britain in 1851. They took their Inuit guide with them and he settled in England where he took the name Erasmus Augustine Kallihirua.

The Navy retained Assistance for future Arctic service, and in 1852 she sailed with Edward Belcher's expedition. She became trapped in ice off Bathurst Island, and was eventually abandoned there together with her steam tender Pioneer on 25 August 1854.[14]

Citations
  1. Phipps (1840), p. 114.
  2. LR (1839), Supple. pages "B".
  3. Colledge & Warlow (2006), p. 26.
  4. Asiatic Journal and Monthly Register for British and Foreign India (December 1838), p.274.
  5. Committee Report (1839), p. 224.
  6. Majumdar (1994), p. 535.
  7. "Ship News". The Times (19551). London. 17 May 1847. col E, p. 8.
  8. "Law Intelligence". Daily News (858). London. 24 February 1849.
  9. LR (1850), Seq.№3.
  10. South Australian Maritime Museum: Baboo - accessed 15 May 2019.
  11. Winfield (2014), p. 284.
  12. "Naval Intelligence." Times, 20 February 1850, p.6. The Times Digital Archive. Accessed 15 May 2019.
  13. "Capt Horatio T. Austin". Portsmouth, Hampshire: Hampshire Telegraph and Naval Chronicle. p. 4. Retrieved 22 May 2020 – via newspapers.com.
  14. "HMS Assistance at William Loney website". Retrieved 3 May 2009.

References
  • Colledge, J. J.; Warlow, Ben (2006) [1969]. Ships of the Royal Navy: The Complete Record of all Fighting Ships of the Royal Navy (Rev. ed.). London: Chatham Publishing. ISBN 978-1-86176-281-8.
  • Majumdar, B. P. (1994). Exportation of Indian Labours. Calcutta: Punthi Pustak. ISBN 9788185094762.
  • Phipps, J. (1840). A collection of papers, relative to ship building in India. Calcutta: Scott and Co. OCLC 40361482.
  • Report of the Committee Appointed by the Supreme Government of India, to Enquire Into the Abuses Alleged to Exist ... Calcutta: G. H. Huttmann. 1839. OCLC 1064550185.
  • Winfield, Rif (2014). British Warships in the Age of Sail 1817–1863: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates. Seaforth Publishing. ISBN 978-1-84832-169-4.
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