HMS Howe was originally a teak-built Indian mercantile vessel, the Kaikusroo, which Admiral Edward Pellew bought in 1805 to serve as a 40-gun frigate. In 1806 the Admiralty fitted her out as a 24-gun storeship and renamed her HMS Dromedary. She made numerous trips, including one notable one to Australia when she brought out Lachlan Macquarie

Lachlan Macquarie

Major-General Lachlan Macquarie CB , was a British military officer and colonial administrator. He served as the last autocratic Governor of New South Wales, Australia from 1810 to 1821 and had a leading role in the social, economic and architectural development of the colony...

 and his family to replace William Bligh

William Bligh

Vice Admiral William Bligh FRS RN was an officer of the British Royal Navy and a colonial administrator. A notorious mutiny occurred during his command of HMAV Bounty in 1789; Bligh and his loyal men made a remarkable voyage to Timor, after being set adrift in the Bounty's launch by the mutineers...

 as governor of New South Wales

New South Wales

New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...

. Later, she became a prison hulk in Bermuda. Her most recent contribution, however, is as the source of a rich archaeological site.

East India Company service

Built in 1799 in Bombay, Kaikusroo was a so-called Bombay “country ship”. As such she engaged in trading voyages on the Malabar Coast and to the Malacca Straits.Her name is also given as Sha(w) Kai Kusseroo, Shah Kai Kusroo, Shaw Kai Kuperoo, Shah Kaikisroo, or Kaikusroo. Parkinson (1954) gives her name as Shah Kaikuseroo. Bulley (2000) gives her name variously as Shaw Kai Kusroo, Kaikusroo and Shah Kaikusroo.

Between 1801 and 1802 she served under charter from the East India Company to the British Government as a transport ship in the British military expedition from India to Egypt and the Red Sea. Captain Thomas Hardie was appointed Commodore of the fleet of country ships.

During the period of the charter her owner was the Parsi

Parsi

Parsi or Parsee refers to a member of the larger of the two Zoroastrian communities in South Asia, the other being the Irani community....

 shipbuilder Sorabjee Mucherjee. His guarantor was the Bombay merchant, Charles Forbes (as Kaikusroos agent); her captain was Colin Mackenzie. At the time of her charter, Kaikusroo was valued at Rupees 275,000.

Royal Navy service

Admiral Pellew purchased Kaikusroo from Sorabjee Mucherjee in Bombay in April 1805 for £43,000. His aim was to use her as a 40-gun frigate. At some point in 1805 she may have been under the command of E. Ratsey (acting). Pellew commissioned her as the Howe under Captain George Cockburn and she sailed from India in May with Marquis Wellesley

Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington

Field Marshal Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, KG, GCB, GCH, PC, FRS , was an Irish-born British soldier and statesman, and one of the leading military and political figures of the 19th century...

 and his suite embarked. Howe and Wellesley, coincidentally, stopped at Saint Helena

Saint Helena

Saint Helena , named after St Helena of Constantinople, is an island of volcanic origin in the South Atlantic Ocean. It is part of the British overseas territory of Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha which also includes Ascension Island and the islands of Tristan da Cunha...

 and stayed in the same building to which Napoleon I of France

Napoleon I of France

Napoleon Bonaparte was a French military and political leader during the latter stages of the French Revolution.As Napoleon I, he was Emperor of the French from 1804 to 1815...

 would later be exiled. Howe arrived at Portsmouth on 7 January 1806. She then moved to the Downs en route to Woolwich Dockyard.

There, on 24 February, the Admiralty ordered her converted into a storeship of 24 guns. By March 1806 Howe was embarking stores and she sailed from Portsmouth 14 May under Captain Edward Killwick for the Cape of Good Hope

Cape of Good Hope

The Cape of Good Hope is a rocky headland on the Atlantic coast of the Cape Peninsula, South Africa.There is a misconception that the Cape of Good Hope is the southern tip of Africa, because it was once believed to be the dividing point between the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. In fact, the...

. While she was away the Admiralty recommissioned her on 6 August 1806 and renamed her Dromedary.In January 1806 the Admiralty had commissioned the construction of a new 100-gun First Rate

First-rate

First rate was the designation used by the Royal Navy for its largest ships of the line. While the size and establishment of guns and men changed over the 250 years that the rating system held sway, from the early years of the eighteenth century the first rates comprised those ships mounting 100...

. This would be HMS Howe

HMS Howe (1815)

HMS Howe was a 120-gun first rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 28 March 1815 at Chatham.Howe was broken up in 1854....

. The Admiralty may have ordered the name change on Howe/Dromedary when it assigned the name Howe to the new vessel. However, the order to rename her Dromedary seems to have taken a long while to take full effect.

In September 1806 William Marsden (Secretary to the Admiralty) was referring to the stores shipped out in the Dromedary. However, there is a report to the Admiralty, dated 19 November 1806, from Mr Howitson, the Naval Storekeeper at the Cape of Good Hope, in which he states that “… the Howe Storeship, now called the Dromedary, is ordered to proceed to Buenos Aires.” However, Steel’s Navy List of December 1806 still lists her as the Howe storeship. Furthermore, when she returned to England in July 1807, local newspapers report the arrival of Howe at Portsmouth 28 July - “from the Plate”, and in the Downs in August - “from Montevideo”. Thereafter the name Howe disappears and she finally becomes Dromedary - almost a year after the order to change the name.

She was ordered to sail from the Cape of Good Hope to Buenos Aires

Buenos Aires

Buenos Aires is the capital and largest city of Argentina, and the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after São Paulo. It is located on the western shore of the estuary of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent...

 where she met up with Sir Home Popham’s forces on 28 September. On 3 February 1807 took part in the Battle of Montevideo

Battle of Montevideo (1807)

The Battle of Montevideo was a battle between the British and Spanish Empires during the Napoleonic Wars, in which British forces captured the city of Montevideo. It formed part of the British invasions of the River Plate.-The Prelude:...

 where she had four men lightly wounded.
At some point, perhaps on her return to Britain, William Scott took command of Dromedary. After her return to Britain Dromedary then embarked on a number of cruises, taking naval stores wherever the Admiralty sent her. In 1808 she was in the West Indies.

Bringing a Governor to New South Wales

In 1809 Dromedary, under the command of its master, Samuel Pritchard, carried Lachlan and Elizabeth Macquarie to New South Wales. Macquarie was to take over as governor from William Bligh. To enforce the change should the New South Wales Corps

New South Wales Corps

The New South Wales Corps was formed in England in 1789 as a permanent regiment to relieve the marines who had accompanied the First Fleet to Australia. The regiment, led by Major Francis Grose, consisted of three companies...

 oppose it, Macquarie brought with him the 1st Battalion of the 73rd Regiment of Foot

73rd Regiment of Foot

The 73rd Regiment of Foot also known as MacLeod's Highlanders after its founder John Mackenzie, Lord MacLeod, was an infantry regiment of the British Army.- History :- First raising :...

, his own regiment.

When the Macquaries boarded the Dromedary, lying off the Isle of Wight on 19 May 1809, they found the vessel critically overcrowded, with insufficient provisions for the voyage, and conditions so cramped that additional wooden berths or cradles had been erected to try to accommodate all the passengers. On board, in addition to the crew of 102 sailors, there were 15 officers, 451 rank and file, 90 women and 87 children. Pritchard took with him his wife, two year-old son, and their servant “Black Tom”.

Macquarie immediately transferred 39 men from Dromedary to . Hindostan was a former East Indiaman now in service with the Royal Navy as a transport. She would accompany Dromedary on the trip while also carrying troops. Macquarie sent ashore two officers, 50 privates and 41 women and children who were instructed to follow in the next available convict transport. The Dromedary sailed on 22 May.

On 29 May, while Dromedary was in company with Hindostan, Hindostan recaptured the Swedish ship Gustavus.

Dromedary arrived at Port Jackson

Port Jackson

Port Jackson, containing Sydney Harbour, is the natural harbour of Sydney, Australia. It is known for its beauty, and in particular, as the location of the Sydney Opera House and Sydney Harbour Bridge...

 on 28 December 1809. Macquarie assumed the governorship on New Year’s Day, 1810. In May Dromedary and Hindostan sailed for Britain. They took with them some 22 officers and 345 men of the New South Wales Corps, renamed to the 102nd Regiment of Foot

102nd Regiment of Foot

The 102nd Regiment of Foot was an infantry regiment, originally raised by the British East India Company and absorbed by the British Army in 1862...

, as well as 105 women and 98 children. On the voyage, Col. William Paterson

William Paterson (explorer)

Colonel William Paterson, FRS was a Scottish soldier, explorer, Lieutenant governor and botanist best known for leading early settlement in Tasmania. This botanist is denoted by the author abbreviation Paterson when citing a botanical name.-Early years:A native of Montrose, Scotland, Paterson was...

, the former Lieut. Governor of New South Wales, died off Cape Horn. Dromedary arrived at Spithead on 25 October.

Convict ship

In 1819 Dromedary was fitted out as a convict ship. On 12 September under Captain Richard Skinner she sailed for Australia with 370 convicts. After delivering the convicts she was to proceed to New Zealand and Norfolk Island to procure timber for the home Dockyards. She arrived in Van Diemen’s Land

Tasmania

Tasmania is an Australian island and state. It is south of the continent, separated by Bass Strait. The state includes the island of Tasmania—the 26th largest island in the world—and the surrounding islands. The state has a population of 507,626 , of whom almost half reside in the greater Hobart...

 on 10 January 1820, after a voyage of 121 days. She landed 347 convicts at Hobart

Hobart

Hobart is the state capital and most populous city of the Australian island state of Tasmania. Founded in 1804 as a penal colony,Hobart is Australia's second oldest capital city after Sydney. In 2009, the city had a greater area population of approximately 212,019. A resident of Hobart is known as...

, and another 22 at Sydney. She also carried a detachment of the 84th Regiment of Foot

84th Regiment of Foot

84th Regiment of Foot refers to one of three infantry regiments that served in the British Empire:* 84th Regiment of Foot , served entirely in India, no successors...

, and some passengers.
From 20 February to 25 November Dromedary was in New Zealand collecting wood for the Navy to see if it would be useful for spars. At the same time Coromandel

HMS Malabar (1804)

HMS Malabar was a 56-gun fourth rate of the Royal Navy. She had previously been the East Indiaman Cuvera, which the Navy bought in 1804. The Navy converted her to a storeship in 1806. After being renamed HMS Coromandel she became a convict ship and made a trip carrying convicts to New South Wales...

 was also in New Zealand waters gathering timber. Dromedary loaded her spars at Whangaroa

Whangaroa

Whangaroa is a locality on the harbour of the same name in Northland, New Zealand.Whangaroa is 8km north-west from Kaeo and 45km north from Okaihau. The harbour is almost landlocked and is popular both as a fishing spot in its own right and as a base for deep-sea fishing.The harbour was the scene...

 and Coromandel loaded at the river Thames. It would take almost a year to complete loading. Dromedary unloaded her timber at Chatham in June 1821.

On Dromedarys return to England she was refitted at Woolwich 1822-23 and then in 1825 with Richard Skinner as Master she sailed for Bermuda with 100 convicts. She arrived in 1826 where the convicts were put to hard labor building the Dockyard.

Prison hulk

In 1826 Dromedary became a prison hulk

British prison hulks

Prison hulks were decommissioned ships that authorities used as floating prisons in the 18th and 19th centuries. They were especially popular in England. The term "prison hulk" is not synonymous with the related term, convict ship...

for 400 newly arriving convicts. She then spent some 37 years at one spot close to the quarries and construction sites where the convicts labored. In 1851, after the convicts had built a bridge to Bows Island and a new barracks there, 600 convicts moved from the hulks Coromandel and Dromedary to the island. For the next 12 years Dromedary served as a kitchen for the working prisoners and those who guarded them.

Postscript

Dromedary sat at the same spot for 37 years with the result that where she lay became a midden. In 1982 the Bermudian government gave permission for divers to conduct an underwater archaeological dig at the Dromedary anchorage site.

The dig recovered what is arguably the largest collection of 19th-century material directly associated with convict life on the hulks. The archaeologists recovered thousands of artifacts: whale oil lamps, pewter mugs, engraved spoons, clay pipes, bottles, buttons, seals, coins, trinkets, charms, rings, beads, gaming pieces, religious items, knife handles and gaming boards. Plotting of the location of the artifacts enabled archaeologists to link items either to the guards or to the convicts. Clearly, the hulks housed an economy in which convicts carved bone, shell, metal and stone to produce items that they sold to guards, visiting sailors and settlers for tobacco, alcohol, food and money.