EXPERIMENT E.I.C. survey ship 1786

[aukepalmhof]

Not much I could find on the EXPERIMENT, she is not mentioned in Rowan Hackman book “Ships of the East India Company” and the many web-sites on the East India Company, so most probably was she an “extra ship”, or “country ship”, a ship built in India mostly used in trades there.

The following I got from http://www.zianet.com/tedmorris/dg/realhistory.html and I believe the ship mentioned in the text is the ship depict on the stamp. The ship on the stamp carried the British East India Company flag of that time, which was identical to the flag used by American rebels 1776-1777.

A British East India Company colonizing expedition from Bombay enters the lagoon on 27 April 1786, (the year on the stamp), with the ships ADMIRAL HUGHES, DRAKE, VIPER and EXPERIMENT, and claim the island for King George III and the East India Company. The purpose of the colony is to establish a ‘victualing station’ and six shipsloads of topsoil are imported from India in which to grow food plants.

On http://www.zianet.com/tedmorris/dg/realhistory-2.html I found:
In April 1805, off the coast of southern Africa the east Indiaman EXPERIMENT with her 20 guns would be captured by the French 30 gun NAPOLEON commanded by Captain Malo le Nouvel. At that time she was carrying a cargo of tea from India, after the capture she was taken to I’ll de France to be sold.

British Indian Ocean Territory 1991 20p sg115, scott115.