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Lot Essay
The fourth ship in the Honourable East India Company's fleet to bear the name, York was built at Bowater's Yard at Woolwich and launched on 16th October 1773. Measured at 794 tons and 111 feet in length, her first voyage, departing in December 1773, was to St. Helena and Bencoolen (Sumatra) under Captain George Hayter, from which she returned home in October 1775. For her second voyage, direct to Bombay, she sailed from Portsmouth on 30th April 1777 under Captain John Atkins Blanchard who, in fact, retained her command until he brought her home from her second China run in July 1784. Returning to home waters from the Bombay voyage, she arrived in the Downs on 30th December 1778 but was caught in a tremendous gale whilst anchored off Margate on New Year's Day 1779. Despite dragging her anchors and losing two of her masts she survived the battering and, once repaired, sailed for the Coromandel Coast and China on 12th February that same year. She later undertook two further voyages, the second under Blanchard's successor Captain Huddart, until sold for employment as a troop (?) transport in 1788.