HMS Buffalo (1813)

1936 model of Buffalo
History
United Kingdom
Name:	HMS Buffalo
Builder:	James Bonner & James Horsburgh, Sulkea
Launched:	4 January 1813 as Hindostan
Acquired:	22 October 1813 by Royal Navy
Refit:	4 January 1814, as a storeship 19 April 1833, as a convict ship 1836, as an emigrant ship
Fate:	Wrecked in Mercury Bay, 28 July 1840.
General characteristics
Class and type:	sixth-rate storeship
Tons burthen:	589, or 670 (bm)
Length:	120 ft (37 m) (o/a) 98 ft 8 7⁄8 in (30.1 m) (keel)
Beam:	33 ft 6 in (10.21 m)
Depth of hold:	15 ft 8 in (4.78 m)
Propulsion:	Sail
Sail plan:	Full rigged ship
Complement:	Original: 3 officers and 55 crew Later: 9 officers and 88 crew
Armament:	As built: 16 × 24-pounder carronades + 2 × 9-pounder guns After 1833 convict ship refit: 6 × 18-pounder carronades + 2 × 6-pounder long guns
Notes:	Water buffalo figurehead

HMS Buffalo was a storeship of the Royal Navy, originally built and launched at Calcutta in 1813 as the merchant vessel Hindostan. The Admiralty purchased her that year after she arrived in Britain. She later transported convicts and immigrants to Australia, before being wrecked in 1840.

Hindostan was built of teak by James Bonner and James Horsburgh, of Firth, in 1813 at Sulkea, on the Hoogly near Calcutta. The Calcutta Gazette, reporting on her launch, described her as a merchantman built to carry grain rice.

On 13 October 1813, after a six-month maiden voyage, Hindostan arrived in Blackwall, London. She had left Bengal on 18 February, passed the Point de Galle on 13 March, stopped at St Helena on 9 June, and arrived at The Downs on 10 August.

The Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty purchased her on 22 October. David Webster (representing the builders), brokered the sale price of £18,000 for Hindostan. The Navy Board renamed her HMS Buffalo, designated her a sixth rate, and employed her as a storeship.

The Admiralty also purchased the similar Severn, a 550 tons (bm) ship (renamed HMS Camel), for the Royal Navy. Horsburgh part-financed the building of both Severn and Hindostan in the partnership of Horsburgh & Colman.

Buffalo was commissioned in November 1813 under Mr. Richard Anderson, Master, and became a ship of many uses and refits. Anderson was still her master between 1814 and 1815 when she was stationed at the Army Depot at Bermuda. Then in January 1816 Mr. W. Hudson became master.

Buffalo was at Deptford in 1822, 1827, and 1831. She was fitted as a timber carrier to carry spars from New Zealand in 1831. However, she apparently was in the Quarantine Service at Stangate in 1832.

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Wikipedia