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 in 1819. She spent the last 25 years of her career as a receiving ship for convicts in Bermuda before being broken up in 1853.

East Indiaman
Malabar was originally built as the East Indiaman Cuvera at Calcutta in 1798. She was a teak-built two-decker. Cuvera made one round trip to England in 1799 under Captain John Lowe and sailed under a letter of marque dated 6 December 1799. Cuvera arrived at Calcutta on 19 November 1798. She passed Saugor on 28 January 1799, left Bengal on 10 February, and reached St Helena on 10 May. She finished her journey to Britain in August. The East India Company then chartered her out as a troopship in India in 1801-1802.

Royal Navy
The Admiralty purchased Cuvera from the East India Company on 30 May 1804 and renamed her Malabar. Barnard & Co., of Deptford fitted her out in June to July 1804 before the Deptford Dockyard completed the work in December. She was commissioned in July 1804 under Captain George Byng.

In 1805 she sailed for the West Indies under Captain Robert Hall. On 2 January 1806 she and the brig-sloop HMS Wolf (1804), (or Wolfe), Captain George Charles Mackenzie, captured the French privateer schooners Regulateur and Napoleon in Port Azarades, Cuba. The port was protected by a double reef of rocks so Hall sent the master of Malabar in a boat to find a passage. Once a passage was found, rather than go in to capture the vessels, Wolfe came in, but stopped about a quarter of a mile away. She then engaged the privateers for almost two hours until their crews abandoned their ships, landed and escaped into the woods. Then Wolfe and Malabar sent in their boats to take possession.

Regulator was armed with a brass 18-pounder and four 6-pounder guns, and had a crew of 80 men. Napoleon was armed with a long 9-pounder gun, two 12-pounder carronades and two 4-pounder guns, and had a crew of 66 men. The British captured only four men, one of whom was mortally wounded. Malabar lost one man drowned when Regulator sank while being towed out past the reefs; two prisoners also died at this time. Wolf lost two men killed and four wounded. Later accounts give the name of the ship that sank as Brutus.

Malabar sailed under Captain George Scott in March 1806 and then James Aycough in July. From November 1806 to January 1807 Malabar was in Woolwich being fitted as a 20-gun storeship. In November 1806 she was commissioned under Captain John Temple, and after fitting out sailed for the North Sea.

At a court martial on board Gladiator at Portsmouth on 1 June 1807, Lieutenant Pennyman Stevenson of Malabar was found guilty of neglect of duty and dismissed from the Navy. Malabar sailed for the River Plate later that month.

Malabar was commissioned in May 1808 under J. Henzell (Master). After again fitting out as a storeship in July–August 1808, she was commissioned under F. Bradshaw (master) and served in the Mediterranean from 1809 to 1815.

HMS Coromandel
On 3 July 1815 Malabar was renamed Coromandel. She was again fitted between July and September 1818.

Then between August and October 1819 she and Dromedary were fitted as a convict transports for a voyage to New South Wales. Coromandel also had a raft port cut into her side at Plymouth to enable her to take on lumber. This port would leak on her way out.

Under the command of Captain James Downie, she arrived in Hobart on 12 March 1820 with 300 convicts, as well as detachments of the 46th and the 84th Regiment of Foot. She left half of her complement of prisoners and soldiers in Hobart Town and the remainder sailed on to Sydney, arriving on 5 April. At Sydney both Dromedary and Coromandel were fitted out to carry lumber. They then went their separate ways to New Zealand, Dromedary to Whangaroa and Coromandel to the river Thames.

In New Zealand, Coromandel acquirde timber spars for the Royal Navy and undertook coastal survey work. She gave her name to the town Coromandel on the harbour where she stopped to purchase kauri wood for spars, and to the Coromandel Peninsula on which the town sits. Coromandel returned to Sydney in June 1821 and departed again for Britain on 25 July 1821.

Prison hulk
Coromandel was laid up at Portsmouth in December 1821. She was converted to a receiving ship in June–July 1827. Thereafter she served as a prison hulk in Bermuda from 1828 until 1853. Coromandel was broken up in 1853 by Admiralty Order.