ASCENSION 1609

[aukepalmhof]

ASCENSION: When and where built and first owners till so far not found, but before she was a ship of the “first voyage to the East Indies” was she used in the Levant trade.

She was a ship of 260 tons builder measure, armed with 24 guns and a crew of 82 men.

The ASCENSION was one of a fleet of four ships the other three were RED DRAGON flagship 960 ton (bm), HECTOR 300 ton (bm) and SUSAN 240 tons (bm), under the overall command of Captain James Lancaster in the first fleet of the British East India Company to the East Indies.
13 February 1601 the fleet sailed from Woolwich, arrived on 9 September at the Table Bay.
05 June 1602 arrived at Achun on the northern end of Sumatra.
10 November 1602 the ASCENSION was dispatched to England fully loaded arriving home in June 1603.
Onboard was 210.000 lbs pepper, 11.000 lbs of cloves, 6.030 lbs. cinnamon and 4.080 lbs. gumlac.

She was also a ship in the “second voyage to the East Indies”; when a fleet composed of the same ships of the first voyage which after repair were used again. The fleet was under overall command of Captain Henry Middleton.
ASCENSION was under command of Capt. Roger Stiles or Styles.
01 April 1604 the fleet set sail from the Downs.
17 July arrived at Table Bay with onboard 60 men sick of the scurvy.
20 August after the men had recuperated set sail from Table Bay and arrived in December at the road of Bantam. Not sufficient cargo was available there and she sailed to Banda where she arrived on 20 February 1605.
21 July left Banda again for Bantam, sailed from Bantam on 06 October bound for the U.K.
06 May 1606 arrived in the Downs.

Then she took part in the fourth voyage to the East Indies for the British East India Company, under command of Captain Alexander Sharpeigh,
She sailed out together with the UNION under command of Richard Rowles a new ship of 400 tons (bm).
Sharpeigh was also the commander of the two ships.
14 March 1608 the two ships sailed from Woolwich and after some delays at the Downs and Plymouth, she set sail early next month for the Cape of Good Hope.
Made a call at the Canary Islands and Cape Verde for freshwater and provision.
14 July both ships came at anchor in the Table Bay.
At this place a pinnace was built, which was launched under the name of THE GOOD HOPE.
19 September the three ships sailed from the Table Bay, but the next day during bad weather the ASCENSION lost sight of the other two ships.
The ASCENSION on a course that would carry her around Madagascar but due to the wind direction of that time of the year, she was carried to the Mozambique Channel.
25 November she came at anchor on the main island of the Comoro group, where she gathered refreshments and firewood, after a few days the ASCENSION left with course for Zanzibar, after making a call at Pemba some distance to the northwards of Zanzibar where the natives were not so friendly after a few days a crew member was kidnapped and handed over to the Portuguese an other killed and one wounded, they left this place but at midnight the same day under full sail she grounded on a sandbank.
She was lucky that she could be refloated without damage.

To make headway against the N.E. monsoon they proceeded slowly to the north, the course was changed to east-south-east to find more favorable winds.
19 January 1609 they sighted a cluster of islands which are now known as Seychelles, at that time the group was uninhabited, and after dropping anchor in a pond where freshwater, fish, fowl and fruits were plentiful.
Early February the ASCENSION left from this place and arrived 30 March in a bay on the western side of Socotra Island, Yemen.
07 April the ASCENSION came at anchor at Aden in front of the fortress, the first British ship which visited this place, at that time Aden was in de hands of the Turks.
26 May they left Aden bound for Mocha where they thought to find a better market, but there also was little demand for his commodities, and at the end of July they made preparations to leave.
26 July together with the pinnace THE GOOD HOPE which they found in Mocha she sailed away, 08 March they sighted again Socotra, but during a gale, both ships lost contact again.
30 August the ASCENSION reached the coast of India near Mahuwa, where provisions were bought.
The locals advised Sharpeigh to take a pilot to pass along the shoals and who did know the currents in the Gulf of Cambay, but his sailing master refused this.

02 September 1609 they set sail bound for Surat the course set was dangerous near to the banks, and not long after she left she grounded hard on a sandbank, she lost her rudder, the sails were furled and a anchor dropt.
With the rising tide she floated off but without a rudder and surrounded by shoals they decided to stay till repairs could be carried out.

When the anchor broke she drifted again on the shoals and she started leaking, and all hope of saving her was given up.
The crew abandoned the ASCENSION in two boats, the weather was good and they sailed into the Ambika River where they were met by friendly natives who piloted them upriver to Gandevi.
From there they traveled to Surat where they were met by British East India company personnel.

It was not a lucky expedition by the British East India Company; also THE GOOD HOPE and UNION were both lost.

Seychelles 2009 R7 sg972MS, scott? 1976 20c sg 355 scott?

Various websites. Ships of the East India Company by Rowan Hackman