Blenden Hall
Blenden Hall or Blendon Hall was launched in 1811 at Bridlington. A French frigate captured her in 1813, but then abandoned her. After her recovery she returned to trade. She was wrecked in 1821 at Inaccessible Island in a notable incident. Career. "Blenden Hall" first appears in "Lloyd's Register" in 1811 with J. Farrier, master. In 1813 her master changed from Farrier to J. Barr. Her owner changed from Andersen to Shedden. On 27 November 1813 "Blenden Hall", bound for Bermuda with naval stores, and four other merchant vessels, left Portsmouth in a convoy under escort by  . Due to a heavy storm, the five merchantmen lost contact with the convoy and its escort. On 5 December the French frigate "Clorinde" captured all five merchant vessels, in the Atlantic Ocean (). The French took off the crews of four vessels and scuttled three. They kept "Lusitania" as a cartel and put all their captives aboard her. In their haste, they failed to sink "Blenden Hall". They then permitted "Lusitania" to sail to a British port. On 12 December the Falmouth packet "Eliza", homebound to England from Malta, found "Blenden Hall" drifting. "Eliza" put a 10-man prize crew aboard  and both set off for Falmouth. Bad weather intervened and the two separated. On 16 December came on the scene and under a dubious pretext put her own prize crew aboard "Blenden Hall" as well. On 18 December brought "Blenden Hall" into Plymouth. There, "Blenden Hall" was reunited with her crew, which had arrived that same day. "Challenger" sued for salvage on "Blenden Hall", but the Admiralty Court pointed out that "Eliza"s crew had not required "Challenger"s help and dismissed the case. Barr resumed his voyage. On 1 March she was off St Micahel's in company with "Venelia", Parget , master, and a convoy under the escort of . "Blenden Hall" arrived at Jamaica on 8 June 1814 from London and Bermuda. In 1814 Captain Anthony Greig purchased "Blenden Hall". At that time she received a license from the British East India Company to sail east of the Cape of Good Hope. Loss. On 18 May 1821 Greig sailed "Blenden Hall" for Bombay; she left at the same time as , which arrived there on 5 October. On the way "Blendan Hall" encountered the merchant ship , which was on her way to Madras. The weather being dead calm, Greig spent a day  on "Daphne" and had a "Most excellent dinner". "Blendan Hall" was reported to have been at Cape Verde on 8 June. As of 1 December she had not arrived at Bombay and there had been no further word of her. The reason for the lack of news was that on 22 July the weather was foggy and "Blenden Hall" had drifted on to the rocks at Inaccessible Island. Two seamen drowned trying to swim to shore. However all the rest of the crew and passengers on "Blenden Hall" made it to shore safely. Once there, they were marooned for four  months. They subsisted on celery, penguins, albatroses, birds' eggs, and seal meat. On 19 October six men sailed for Tristan da Cunha on a boat or raft that the survivors had constructed; this party was never heard from again. The survivors constructed a second boat that with three men aboard reached Tristan da Cunha on 8 November. Two boats set out from the island and rescued the remainder of the survivors. After two more months the British snow "Nerina" called at Tristan da Cunha. On 8 January 1822 she left the island with the survivors (a sailor and a woman  servant stayed behind); she deposited them at Cape Town on 20 January. Post script. "Blenden Hall"s second mate was Thomas Lyell Smyers, and her surgeon was his brother George. Thomas Smyers became a merchant in Albany, Western Australia, and owner and master of . Notes, citations and references. Notes Citations References