Harpooner (1830 ship)

Whaler Harpooner (c.1830); Science Museum, London; unknown artist
History
United Kingdom
Name	Harpooner
Owner	1830: Green, Wigram's & Green 1849 (31 October): Samuel Henry Wright, London 1849: Lewis Morice
Builder	Green, Wigram's & Green, Blackwall Yard
Launched	26 July 1830
Fate	Wrecked August 1856
General characteristics [1]
Tons burthen	398,[2] or 405, or 40520⁄94 (bm)
Length	114 ft 6 in (34.9 m)
Beam	27 ft 11 in (8.5 m)
Sail plan	Barque
Complement	32

Harpooner was a barque launched in London in 1830 by Green, Wigram's & Green, at Blackwall. Between 1830 and 1848 she made four voyages to the British southern whale fishery as a whaler. Her voyages resulted in two precedent-setting court cases. The Hudson's Bay Company chartered her from 1848 to 1850 to carry labourers for the settlement on Vancouver Island. In August 1856, she was sailing from Amoy to Ningbo, China when she struck a sunken rock near Ningbo, and was damaged. She was consequently condemned.