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Lot Essay
Built by John Perry in what was described as the "most capacious private dockyard in the Kingdom and probably the World" on the Thames at Blackwall, the East Indiaman Alnwick Castle was launched on 13th November 1801. Allocated the yard number 114 when laid down the previous year, she was almost certainly seen on the stocks by George III and Prime Minister William Pitt [the Younger] when the two men visited Blackwall in 1800 to recognise the yard's hugely valuable contribution to shipbuilding during the lengthy war with France which had begun in 1793.
Measured by her builder at 1,256 tons, Alnwick Castle was 134 feet in length with a 42 foot beam and had been built to the order of Mr. John Locke of America Square, London. Upon completion, her managing owner appointed Captain Charles Prescott to command his new ship and prepare her for her maiden voyage. Crewed and provisioned, she then sailed from Portsmouth on 25th February 1802, bound for the Coromandel Coast (of India) and China. Returning home safely in April 1803, her second voyage [June 1804 - September 1805] was a direct passage to China under Captain Gledstanes but Prescott was back in command for her third trip [March 1806 - July 1807] which took her back to the Coromandel Coast as well as China. Thereafter she did four more direct runs to China but when she returned home from the last in May 1816, she was sold for breaking, presumably worn out by seven gruelling passages across the world and back again.
Measured by her builder at 1,256 tons, Alnwick Castle was 134 feet in length with a 42 foot beam and had been built to the order of Mr. John Locke of America Square, London. Upon completion, her managing owner appointed Captain Charles Prescott to command his new ship and prepare her for her maiden voyage. Crewed and provisioned, she then sailed from Portsmouth on 25