Earl of Mornington (East Indiaman)
Earl of Mornington was an East India Company packet built in 1799 by Perry, Wells & Green of Blackwell. (It is not clear for which Earl of Mornington she was named, but it was probably Richard Wellesley.) She originally carried 14 guns. She performed one voyages for the East India Company, sailing from England to India and returning.
In 1804 the Admiralty purchased her for the Royal Navy, rearming her with 16 18-pounder carronades, and named her "HMS Drake".
On 25 April 1804, she arrived off the Suriname river after a three-week voyage from Barbados, together with Commodore Sir Samuel Hood's squadron comprising HMS Centaur, HMS Pandour, HMS Serapis, Alligator, HMS Hippomenes, the 10-gun schooner Unique, and transports carrying 2000 troops. The Dutch governor initially rejected the surrender terms but after the British troops captured several batteries the Dutch surrendered on 5 May.
She was broken up at Sheerness in 1808.
References
- Colledge, J.J. Ships of the Royal Navy: The Complete Record of All Fighting Ships of the Royal Navy From the Fifteenth Century to the Present. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1987. ISBN 0-87021-652-X.
- Winfield, Rif. British Warships in the Age of Sail, 1793-1817: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates. Seaforth Publishing, 2nd edition, 2008. ISBN 978-1-84415-717-4.
