- Chilean ship Lautaro (1818)
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The East Indiaman "Windham" sets sails from Cape TownCareer (Great Britain) 
Name: HEICS Windham Owner: Sir Robert Wigram, 1st Baronet, later Joseph Andrews Operator: Honourable East India Company Route: England-India Builder: Perry, Wells & Green Launched: 3. November 1800 Fate: sold to Chile Career (Chile) 
Name: Lautaro Namesake: Lautaro Cost: $180,000 Acquired: 5 April 1818 Commissioned: April 1818 Out of service: 27 September 1828 Honours and
awards:Capture of Reina María Isabel, Perla and San Miguel Fate: beached in Valparaíso General characteristics Type: East Indiaman Tons burthen: 878 (bm) Length: 118ft 10in Beam: 36ft 2in Draft: 14ft 11in Propulsion: sail Crew: - East Indiaman: 100
- Chilean Navy: 288
Armament: - East Indiaman: 26 x 18 and 6-pounder guns
- Chilean Navy: 42 guns
The Lautaro was initially the British East Indiaman Windham of 850 tons[1] built in Perry, Wells & Green shipyards for the East India Company (HEIC) and launched 1800.[2] She made seven voyages to the India and China for the HEIC. In 1809-10, the French captured her twice, and the British recaptured her twice. The Chilean Navy bought her in 1818 and she then served in the Chilean Navy, taking part in several actions. From 1824 she was a training ship before she was broken up in 1828.
Contents
East India Company
Windham sailed seven times the route England and India between 31 March 1801 and 25 June 1817. Because she sailed during wartime, she sailed under a letter of marque, which gave her the right to take enemy vessels as prizes should the opportunity arise. Her first letter of marque was dated 14 January 1801 and gave the name of her captain as Thomas Grantham.[3] With the outbreak of the Napoleonic Wars in mid-1803, Grantham received a new letter of marque dated 2 July 1803. She received a third letter on 26 January 1805 that named John Stewart as her captain. Stewart sailed her on her third, fourth and fifth voyages.
It was on Windham's fifth voyage, during the Mauritius campaign of 1809–1811, that the French Navy captured her in the Action of 18 November 1809. The British frigate HMS Magicienne under Captain Lucius Curtis recaptured her on 29 December.
She was seized for a second time in the Action of 3 July 1810. HMS Sirius recaptured Windham at the Battle of Grand Port on 21 August 1810. She and another recaptured Indiaman, the Ceylon, arrived back in Britain in April 1811. Ceylon brought with her a cargo from Île Bourbon and Windham with one from Île de France.[4]
Her captain for her sixth and last voyage was Joseph Andrews. Because this voyage took place after the end of the Napoleonic Wars she did not have a letter of marque. She left the Downs on 21 April 1816 and reached Penang on and then Malacca on 7 September. She reached Whampoa on 11 October. She left China, crossing the Second Bar on 10 January 1817, reached St Helena on 18 March, and the Downs on 23 May.
The HEIC then her to her Joseph Andrews. José Antonio Álvarez Condarco, agent of the Chilean government in London, arranged the purchase of the ship.[Note 1]
Chilean career
Windham arrived to Valparaíso on 5 March 1818 and the government paid $180,000 for the ship. She was refitted with 44[5] guns and renamed Lautaro, and given a crew of Chilean and foreign seamen. A month later she went to sea under the command of George O'Brien, a former British Navy officer.
On 26-27. April 1818 she fought against Esmeralda (1791) and the brigantine Pezuela and broke the blockade of Valparaíso.
On 28. October she captured the Spanish frigate Reina María Isabel (later Chilean frigate O'Higgins (1816) ), Perla and San Miguel.
She participated in the Freedom Expedition to Perú and up 1821 she was under Captain Paul Delano. She was also in the blockade of Chiloé.
1824 worked as "Academia Náutica" (Navigation Academy) of the Chilean Navy.
On 27 September 1828 she couldn't be auctioned and was scrapped.
Notes
- ^ The British government generally stipulated that buyers of frigates or larger warships that the Admiralty was selling undertake to break them up within 12 months of the date of purchase or forfeit the bonds they had posted. When the Chileans wanted to create larger warships they had to make do with Indiamen such as Windham. They were permitted to buy the Cruizer-class brig-sloop Hecate.
References
- ^ Carlos Lopez Urrutia, Historia de la Marina de Chile, Editorial Andres Bello, page 31 and 420, url
- ^ Gerardo Etcheverry, Principales naves de guerra a vela hispanoamericanas, retrieved on 25. January 2011
- ^ National Archives.[1] - accessed 11 June 2011
- ^ The Annual register of world events: a review of the year (1812), Vol. 52, p.265.
- ^ Latin America's Wars: The age of the caudillo, 1791-1899 Von Robert L. Scheina, page 62, url
See also
- Chilean Navy
- List of ships of the Chilean Navy
Categories:- First Chilean Navy Squadron
- Ships of the British East India Company
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