Fortitude (1780 EIC ship)
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Pitt, near Dover returning from China 1787; National Maritime Museum, Greewich, and based on a painting by Dominic Serres, National Maritime Museum, Greewich
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| History | |
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.svg){kind=small} Great Britain
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| Name: | Fortitude |
| Owner: | Jeffery Jackson |
| Builder: | Wells, Deptford |
| Launched: | 1780 |
| Captured: | 23 June 1782 |
.svg){kind=small} France
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| Acquired: | 1782 by capture |
| Fate: | Sold |
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Great Britain
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| Name: | Fortitude |
| Owner: | East India Company |
| Acquired: | By purchase |
| Fate: | Sold 1785 |
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Great Britain
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| Namesake: | William Pitt the Elder |
| Owner: |
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| Acquired: | 29 October 1785 by purchase |
| Renamed: | Pitt (1785) |
| Fate: | Sold 1798 |
 United Kingdom
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| Name: | Pitt |
| Owner: | Wildman & Co. |
| Acquired: | 1798 by purchase |
| Fate: | 1801 sold for breaking up |
| General characteristics | |
| Tons burthen: | 775, or 775 68⁄94 (bm) |
| Length: |
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| Beam: | 36 ft 1 1⁄2 in (11.0 m) |
| Depth of hold: | 14 ft 9 1⁄2 in (4.5 m) |
| Complement: | 70-80 |
| Armament: |
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Fortitude was a merchant vessel built in 1780 on the River Thames. A French frigate captured her in 1782 while she was on the return leg of her maiden voyage to India as an East Indiaman for the British East India Company (EIC). However, the British recaptured her in October 1782. The EIC purchased her and sent her back to England. There, in 1785, George Macartney Macauley purchased her and renamed her Pitt. She then performed five voyages for the British East India Company (EIC) between 1786 and 1798. In between, she made one journey transporting convicts from England to New South Wales. She was broken up in 1801.
Captain Charles Gregorie (or Gregory) left Portsmouth on 13 March 1781 bound for Madras and Bengal.Fortitude was part of a convoy of Indiamen and transports under the escort of a British squadron under Commodore George Johnstone, who was sailing to capture the Cape Colony.
On 16 April the French attacked the British squadron and convoy at the battle of Porto Praya, off São Tiago. The French captured Fortitude, but as her captors towed her out to sea, her crew and the troops of the 92nd Regiment of Foot she was transporting, re-captured her; she rejoined the British convoy a few days later.
Fortitude reached Madras on 17 August and arrived at Kedgeree on 28 September. She passed Saugor on 10 November and arrived at Madras on 10 December. Homeward-bound, she passed Kedgeree on 16 February 1782 and reached "Cockelee" on 8 May.
The French frigate Fine captured Fortitude on 23 June. When the French captured her they freed some eight men from Artésien, who had been part of the French prize crew at the battle of Porto Praya.
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Wikipedia