HMS Weymouth (1804)

HMS Weymouth was a 44-gun fifth rate of the Royal Navy. She was previously the East Indiaman Wellesley, built in Calcutta in 1797. She was purchased in May 1804, and fitted out between May and August that year at the yards of Perry & Co, at Rotherhithe. Further fitting was carried out at Woolwich Dockyard in November.

Weymouth was commissioned under the first commander, Captain Alexander Fraser, in August 1804. The following month Captain John Draper was in command, and sailed her to India in early 1805. She returned to Britain in 1806 and was then fitted as a storeship at Woolwich, recommissioning in September 1807 under Commander Martin White. White made two voyages to the Mediterranean, after which she was operating in the North Sea by 1809. She passed under a succession of masters over the next few years, visiting Malta in 1817, and the Cape Colony in 1820. On the latter voyage, under Master Richard Turner, she transported eleven parties of British 1820 Settlers from Portsmouth to Algoa Bay. She left Portsmouth on 7 January 1820, arrived in Table Bay on 25 April 1820 and in Algoa Bay on 15 May 1820.

She was then laid up in ordinary at Deptford in November 1821. Between February and October 1828 she was fitted at as a convict ship and sailed to Bermuda. Weymouth was finally sold there for £300 on 2 July 1865 and was broken up.

Legacy
At Fairbairn College, Cape Town one of the sports fields is named after HMS Weymouth.