HMS Calcutta ( 1795 ) HMS " Calcutta " was an East Indiaman converted to a Royal Navy 56 - gun fourth rate . This ship of the line served for a time as an armed transport . She also transported convicts to Australia in a voyage that became a circumnavigation of the world . The French 74 - gun " Magnanime " captured " Calcutta " in 1805 . In 1809 , after she ran aground during the Battle of the Basque Roads and her crew had abandoned her , a British boarding party burned her . East Indiaman . Originally " Calcutta " was the 1176 - ton ( bm ) East Indiaman " Warley " , built at John Perry ' s Blackwall Yard in 1788 , the first vessel of the name that Perry built for the East India Company . She made two trading voyages to the Far East ( 1789 – 90 and 1792 – 94 ) . " Warley < nowiki > ' < / nowiki > s " captain for her two voyages was Charles Wilson . Her letter of marque was issued on 7 September 1793 . On her second voyage , in July 1793 , " Triton " , " Warley " , and " Royal Charlotte " participated in the capture of Pondicherry by maintaining a blockade of the port , together with . The Indiamen then sailed for China in early September . On their way to China , the same East Indiamen participated in an action in the Straits of Malacca . They came upon a French frigate , with some six or seven of her prizes , replenishing her water casks ashore . The three British vessels immediately gave chase . The frigate fled towards the Sunda Strait . The Indiamen were able to catch up with a number of the prizes , and after a few cannon shots , were able to retake them . The British restored the prizes to their crews and took the French prize crews as prisoners of war . Had they not carried letters of marque , such behaviour might well have qualified as piracy . When " Warley " was at Whampoa that December she joined other East Indiamen there , among which were several that on their return to Britain the Admiralty would purchase : " Royal Charlotte " , " Ceres " , " Earl of Abergavenny " , and " Hindostan " . The British Government had chartered " Hindostan " to take Lord Macartney to China in an unsuccessful attempt to open diplomatic and commercial relations with the Chinese empire . Cruiser and armed transport . In early 1795 , the Royal Navy purchased the first " Warley " and had her original builders , Perry & Co . , refit her as a 56 - gun fourth rate , under the name " Calcutta " , at a cost of £10 , 300 . She was one of nine large merchantmen that the Navy Board purchased that year for conversion to convoy escorts . Captain William Bligh was her first commander , assigned to her to supervise her conversion . He took command on 16 April 1795 and commissioned her in May . In October 1795 , the crew of the 74 - gun HMS " Defiance " ( then commanded by Captain Sir George Horne ) mutinied . Bligh , in " Calcutta " , was ordered to embark 200 troops and take them alongside " Defiance " so that they might board her and regain control . The threat of the soldiers ended the mutiny for the time being , though the crew of the " Defiance " mutinied again in 1797 and 1798 . Bligh continued to command " Calcutta " until she was paid off in February 1796 and transferred to the Transport Board . In order for her to fulfill her new role , the Transport Board had the guns on her lower deck removed . As a result she no longer needed as large a crew and her complement fell to 160 officers and men . " Calcutta " served in the transport role under Lieutenants Robert Arnold ( June 1796 – August 1797 ) , Edward Jekyll Canes ( August 1797 – January 1798 ) , Richard Pouldon ( or Poulden , or Polden ; January 1798 – December 1799 ) . and John Anderson ( December 1799 – May 1802 ) . Under Poulden " Calcutta " was at the capture of Minorca in December 1798 . On 11 November she was part of a squadron that unsuccessfully chased four Spanish frigates , though two days later recaptured the sloop , which the Spaniards had captured on the 11th . Lieutenant John Anderson ( December 1799 – May 1802 ) replaced Pouldon . On 6 June 1800 he sailed " Calcutta " to Gibraltar , carrying the Banffshire Fencibles . Convict transport . Between May 1802 and February 1803 , the Navy had " Calcutta " fitted out as a transport for convicts being sent to Britain ' s penal colonies in Australia . She received new armament in the form of sixteen 24 - pounder carronade s on her upper deck and two six - pounder guns on the forecastle . Captain Daniel Woodriff recommissioned her in November 1802 and sailed her from Spithead on 28 April 1803 , accompanied by the " Ocean " , to establish a settlement at Port Phillip . " Calcutta " carried a crew of 150 , together with 308 male convicts , along with civil officers , marines , and some wives and children . She reached Rio De Janeiro on 19 July , and the Dutch colony at the Cape of Good Hope on 16 August . While " Calcutta " was at the Cape , a vessel arrived with news that Britain was now at war with the Batavian Republic . The colony ' s Dutch commodore sent a representative aboard " Calcutta " to demand her surrender and that of her contents . While the representative waited , Woodriff spent two hours preparing her for battle . He then showed the representative her sailors and marines at their guns , and told the Dutchman to inform the commodore that " " if he wants this ship he must come and take her if he can " " . To speed up the preparations , William Gammon , the master ' s mate , had asked the convicts if any would volunteer to fight and work the ship . All volunteered . The commodore gave Woodriff 24 hours to leave , saying that he " " did not wish to capture such a large number of thieves " " . On 12 October , she reached her destination . However , David Collins , the commander of the expedition , found that the poor soil and shortage of fresh water made the area unsuitable for a colony . Collins wanted to move the colony to the Derwent River on the south coast of Tasmania ( then Van Diemens Land ) to the site of current - day Hobart . Woodriff refused the use of " Calcutta " , arguing that the " Ocean " was large enough to transport the colony , and that he was under orders to pick up naval supplies for transport to England . In December Woodriff sailed to Sydney where he took on a cargo of lumber . At midnight on 4 March , Woodriff landed 150 of his crew and marines to assist the New South Wales Corps and the Loyal Association , a local militia , in suppressing a convict uprising in support of the Castle Hill convict rebellion , a revolt by some 260 Irish convicts against Governor King . Afterward , the commander of the marine detachment on " Calcutta " , Charles Menzies , offered his services to the governor as superintendent of a new settlement at Coal Harbour , an offer Governor King accepted . Another " Calcutta " officer , Lieut . John Houston , accepted an appointment as acting Lieutenant Governor of Norfolk Island while Major Joseph Foveaux was on leave . " Calcutta " left on 17 March 1804 , doubled Cape Horn and reached Rio on 22 May . In reaching Rio , she had thus circumnavigated the world in ten months three days . She arrived at Spithead on 23 July . Ship of the line . In September 1804 the Admiralty again fitted out " Calcutta " for duty as a cruiser , re - arming her as a 56 - gun fourth rate . Capture . On 3 August 1805 , " Calcutta " , still under the command of Captain Woodriff , left St Helena as escort of a motley convoy to England . The convoy consisted of the East India company ' s " extra - ship " " Indus " , from Madras , the southern whaler " African " from Desolation , the whaler " Fox " from the Mozambique channel , the whaler " Grand Sachem " from the Peruvian coast and bound to Milford , the Prussian ship " Wilhelmina " , which " Calcutta " had detained on her way out to St Helena , and the large Swedish ship " Carolina " , which was sailing from China and asked to join . On 14 September , the brig " Brothers " , of London , from Tobago , joined the convoy . She had gotten separated from her convoy in a gale . Unfortunately , she was leaky and a very slow sailer . On 25 September 1805 , the convoy was in the Channel south of the Isles of Scilly when lookouts spotted a number of unknown vessels in the distance . " Calcutta " moved to position herself between the convoy and the unknown flotilla . Next morning it became clear that the unknown vessels were probably French so " Calcutta " signalled the convoy to make sail without her and moved to intercept the French vessels . She sailed towards the nearest vessel , which turned out to be the 40 - gun frigate " Armide " . The engagement was desultory but " Calcutta " succeeded in luring the French southward and away from the convoy . As a result , the French detached the brig " Sylph " which captured only the slow - sailing " Brothers " . However , eventually the rest of the French squadron started to arrive . It turned out this was Allemand ' s squadron , which included the 74 - gun " Magnanime " . Woodriff brought " Calcutta " alongside " Magnanime " , but after a battle of some three - quarters of an hour was forced to strike . The French had shot high , bringing down " Calcutta " s rigging , disabling her . Because they fired high , " Calcutta " suffered only six dead and six wounded out of a crew of 350 . The French brought " Calcutta " into French service . Woodriff was imprisoned at Verdun and appealed to Talleyrand for release , without success until in early 1807 the French sent him to Saint Malo . There the French government provided him a vessel under cartel to take him to England . The British government immediately reciprocated by releasing a French officer of equal rank . The court - martial on , on 1 January 1808 , for Woodriff and his officers acquitted all , praising the captain for his gallantry and skilful manoeuvring , which had allowed the convoy to escape . French service . On 12 April 1809 , " Calcutta " was part of the squadron of La Rochelle under captain Jean Baptiste Lafon . During the Battle of the Basque Roads , " Calcutta " ran aground on the shoals of Les Palles , as did most of the other French ships . Under fire from " Imperieuse " under Captain Lord Cochrane , " Calcuttas " crew panicked and abandoned ship without orders . A midshipman with a small party from " Imperieuse " took over " Calcutta " , but then set her afire to prevent her re - capture , causing her to explode . A court - martial held Lafon responsible for the loss of his ship , and deemed his behaviour to have been cowardly . In a five to four vote , the court sentenced him to death ; a firing squad executed him on the deck of the " Océan " on 9 September . Other information . The National Library of Australia has three oil paintings by Thomas Whitcombe of the battle between " Calcutta " and " Magnanime " and " Armide " .