The Historical Background
Sweden and the City of Gothenburg

2. Drottning Ulrica Eleonora

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Queen Ulrica Eleonora

Formerly English East Indiaman "The Heatcot," 250 lasts, 103 crew members. The adventures surrounding the purchase are described by Kristof Glamann in "En Ostindisk Rejse eller Thomas Thomson på Galejen. Bidrag till den svenske Ostindiska Kompaniets tidligaste historie//Sjöhistorisk årsbok 1953-54."

Voyages under the first charter:

February 9, 1733 - February 13, 1735. To Porto Novo and Bengal under Admiral Captain Petter von Utfall, a councilman from Gothenburg, then 47 years old. Superintendents: Charles Barrington, Charles Irvine, John Widdrington, Thomas Thomson, Pastan Giers. All were originally English but had become Swedish citizens. Barrington had previously served with the English East India Company, stationed at Fort St George in present-day Madras, where he possibly received a transfer order to Sumatra due to his own business affairs. He was the largest shareholder in this voyage with 83,640 daler smt and was to establish a factory in Porto Novo, where they arrived on September 2. Personnel and supplies were deposited, and on September 28, the ship continued to Bengal with Charles Irvine, who had invested around 6,000 daler smt in the journey, as the Premier Supracargo.

Most of the crew was new. The old crew was left behind at the factory, which was, however, attacked on October 28 by 600 men of English, French, and native troops. All goods, silver, weapons, and documents were confiscated by the English governor G.M. Pitt at Fort St. George. Barrington, who, as it turned out, was wanted dead or alive by the English, had, before the attack, managed to escape with six men to safety.

The ship was followed and obstructed by the English and the Dutch for the rest of the journey.

On June 1, the heavily damaged ship, with a sick and exhausted crew, was finally piloted into the harbor in Mauritius, where they stayed for seven months. In February, they anchored back in Vargö hole in the Western Swedish Archipelago.

Claims for damages were later filed against the English, which were largely paid out after a protracted dispute. When everything was settled and the cargo purchased in Bengal and Mauritius was sold, the voyage yielded a profit of 102,485 daler smt, and the investors received a dividend of 46.5% on the invested capital. Thomas Thomson kept a journal and a letter book for this voyage, which is reproduced in edited form in the Maritime Yearbook 1953/54 (see above). Furthermore, regarding travel descriptions, two parts of a logbook are preserved, kept by the 1st mate Georg Snow and the 2nd mate Dyrick Aget, from August 21, 1733, to June 1, 1734.

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