HMS Hindostan (1795)

The East Indiaman Hindostan, by Thomas Luny, National Maritime Museum
History
United Kingdom
Name:	Hindostan
Owner:	Robert Williams, M.P., managing owner
Builder:	William Barnard of Deptford
Launched:	3 November 1789
Fate:	Sold to the Royal Navy in 1795
United Kingdom
Name:	HMS Hindostan
Acquired:	1795 by purchase
Fate:	Lost following fire, Rosas Bay, Spain, 2 April 1804
General characteristics
Class and type:	Fourth rate Storeship from December 1797
Tons burthen:	1248  75⁄94 (bm)
Length:	160 ft 3 in (48.8 m) (overall) 132 ft 0 1⁄2 in (40.2 m)
Beam:	42 ft 2 in (12.9 m)
Depth of hold:	17 ft 1 in (5.2 m)
Sail plan:	Full-rigged ship
Armament:	As fourth rate Lower deck: 28 x 18-pounder guns Upper deck: 26 x 32-pounder carronades Fc: 2 x 18-pounder carronades As storeship: lower deck guns removed

HMS Hindostan (later variously Hindustan) was a 56-gun fourth-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy. She was originally the East Indiaman Hindostan, launched in 1789, that the Admiralty bought in 1795. She is known for two events, her voyage to China between 1792 and 1794 when she carried Lord George Macartney on a special embassy to China, and her loss in a fire at sea in 1804.

She was launched by William Barnard of Deptford on 3 November 1789 as Hindostan. From 17 January 1790 to 29 June 1791, under Captain William Mackintosh, she made one round trip for the East India Company to China.

She left the Downs on 17 January 1790 and was at Madeira by 31 January. She reached Madras on 2 June. From there she sailed to Penang (arriving 10 August), and Whampoa, where she arrived on 11 September. For the return trip she crossed the Second Bar on 7 January 1791, reached Cape Town on 9 April, St Helena on 28 April, and anchored in the Downs on 27 June.

The British Government then chartered her to take Lord Macartney to China in an unsuccessful attempt to open diplomatic and commercial relations with the Chinese empire. The voyage lasted from 1 October 1792 to 30 September 1794. The Hindostan traveled in the company of the 64-gun HMS Lion under Captain Sir Erasmus Gower, and the brig Jackall.

Hindostan left Torbay on 1 October 1792, arrived at Madeira nine days later, and Tenerife 11 days after that. She next stopped at São Tiago on 2 November, Rio de Janeiro on 30 November, and Tristan de Cunha on 3 December. On 1 February 1793 she was at St Paul's Island, by 5 March at Batavia, by 16 May at Condore, by 26 May Cochin China, by 2 July Chusan, by 25 July she was off Teinchin, but then returned to Chusan on 2 September. She arrived at Whampoa on 11 December.