HMS Indian (1805)

HMS Indian was a Bermuda-built sloop launched in 1805. She captured several small privateers while on the West Indies and Halifax stations before the Royal Navy sold her in 1817. Her main claim to fame, however, is that she was the first command of future Rear-Admiral Charles Austen, who was also the brother of the famed novelist Jane Austen. After the Navy sold her she became a whaler for Samuel Enderby & Sons. She apparently sailed for them until the mid-1830s; she then sailed for other owners until mid-1847, for a total of nine whaling voyages since leaving naval service.

Design and construction

Indian was one of six Bermuda-class sloops built in Bermuda, of Bermudian cedar. Bermuda was originally settled as part of the Colony of Virginia and elevated to an Imperial fortress by the independence of those continental colonies which were to form the United States of America, becoming the headquarters, main base and dockyard of the North America Station (later the North America and West Indies Station and then the America and West Indies Station) 'til 1956. As Bermudian vessels, especially the Bermuda sloop, were highly esteemed, and Bermuda's industry was devoted to other than shipbuilding and seafaring, The Royal Navy, which established a permanent base in Bermuda in 1795, soon began buying up Bermudian vessels from trade and ordering new vessels from Bermudian builders. The Bermuda class was modified from the Dasher-class, which had been built in Bermuda in the 1790s.

Naval career

Lieutenant Charles John Austen received an appointment to Indian on 10 April 1804.