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HMS Desire
This 50 gun ship under the command of Admiral Thom Cavendish (the first Englishman to visit St Helena) was sent to the East Indies to add strength in the face of a Dutch and French build up of power. Even as early as 1586 Europeans were realising the value of colonies so far away and sent powerful ships to protect trade routes.

SG766 St Helena Philatelic

CAVENDISH or CANDISH Thomas(1555 - 1592) British circumnavigator.
After having squandered a fortune inherited from his father he was determined to make another by a life at sea. He purchased a ship and commanded her in the voyage made by Sir Richard Grenville to attempt to colonise Virginia in the U.S.A. On his return he planned a voyage of circumnavigation similar to that carried out by Sir Francis Drake eight years earlier.
With three small ships. the largest of 140 tons, Cavendish sailed from London in 1586, reached the Pacific in February 1587 and sailed up the South American coast, burning and pillaging. In November of that year he had the good fortune to fall in with the annual Spanish treasure ship from Manila to Acapulco, capturing her after a hard fight and loaded up his own ships with gold and treasure taken from her before setting her on fire. He returned to England by the Philippine Islands, Cape of Good Hope and St. Helena being the first man to discover that island. He arrived in English waters a few days after the defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588.
On his return he quickly spent the money acquired during his voyage and fitted out a second expedition to follow the lines of his first. His ships reached the Straits of Magellan in March 1592, but were unable to get through because of stormy weather. After two months, Cavendish abandoned the expedition and giving his other ships the slip during the night, attempted to return home alone via the Island of Ascension. He died during the voyage.

St Helena SG494 Log Book Dec 2004

She was fitted out and provisioned at Thomas Cavendish own expense. When and where built not sure but she is in the Kings service from 1583 till 1589 according Ships of the Royal Navy.
Cavendish had to mortgage his estate to pay for the fitting out of the vessel.
Tonnage given as 140 tons, (average dimensions are given in Pacific Sail as 23.56 x 7.22 x 3.28m., length of keel 16.34m.) She was rigged conventional as a three-mast ship of that time.

The DESIRE and two other vessels the CONTENT of 50 tons and the HUGH GALLANT of 40 tons, were used in his privateer plunder expedition to circumnavigate the globe. The three ships did have a total crew of 123 men.
10 June 1586 the three vessels sailed from London, after a short call at Harwich where Cavendish lived, she sailed for Plymouth.
21 July 1586 the three vessels sailed from Plymouth and 5 days later she was involved off Cape Finisterre in a minor skirmish with five Biscayne ships.
21 August off Sierra Leone she captured a Portuguese vessel and tried to burn a native village, before sailing onward to Brazil, where he built a pinacce and took on board of his ship fresh provision and water.
From there he sailed south and discovered Port Desire where he spent Christmas.
06 January 1587 he entered Strait Magellan, and began on the difficult passage through the straits, in the straits they came upon the tragic remnants of the Spanish fort of Ciudad del Rey Don Felipe, Cavendish renamed the fort Port Famine, which name they carried till today.
24 February 1587 they reached the Pacific waters, and sailed in Northerly direction along the coast, while capturing several Spanish ships under which the Manila galleon SANTA ANA loaded with an immensely rich cargo. After a fight of six hours the galleon was captured on 14 November 1587. After he looted the ship she was set on fire, but later during a storm she drifted ashore, and the survivors succeeded to extinguish the fire.
The HUGH GALLANT was burned, due to a shortage of crew, and both other vessels were repaired on a quit place along the coast.
Then he sailed to the Philippines where he arrived on 15 January 1588.
After two months in the Philippines and Indonesia waters, the two ships set sail for Africa on 11 March 1588.
Arrived off the Cape of Good Hope on 11 May, they sighted the Cape but did not land, and reached St Helena 08 June.
09 September 1588 he arrived at Plymouth and a few days later he sailed up the River Thames on board the DESIRE for London.

Thomas Cavendish was now a rich and famous man, but by unwise investments his wealth squandered away, and he planned a new privateer expedition.
Five ships were fitted out the GALLEON LEICESTER, Cavendish flagship, his old ship the DESIRE, the ROEBUCK of 240 tons and 20 guns, the BLACK PINNACE and a small bark; altogether the ships were armed with 80 guns and 350 men.
John Davis was the captain of the DESIRE.
26 August 1591 the fleet set sail from Plymouth for the Brazilian coast.
But due to a lengthy stay in the Doldrums without and wind, the crew got scurvy and there was a food shortage before she reached Brazil.
16 December 1591 they took Santos, and stayed there till 24 January 1592, but most of the local provisions on which they relied were before they landed hidden away by the locals.

Off the River Plate the fleet got in a storm and was scattered, but four ships were reunited in Port Desire on 16 March.
By passing Strait Magellan the fleet met furious storms and had to shelter a few miles west of Cape Froward. Many men were ill and Cavendish decided to return to the Atlantic, and to recuperate in Brazil before they try to reach the East Indies via the Cape of Good Hope.
When off Port Desire in the night of 20 May, Captain Davis in the DESIRE together with the BLACK PINNACE lost contact with the fleet, and Cavendish had failed to make a rendezvous point. Both vessel set course for Port Desire, but not meeting the other vessels there; they refitted and pressed on with the voyage. At least they sailed from this port on 07 August. They ran in a severe storm three days later, which forced them to heave to, on 14 August they sighted uninhabited islands which are now know as the Falkland Islands, he pressed on even during the winter season and passed Strait Magellan, when in the Pacific he lost the BLACK PINNACE but on 10 October he was driven back in the Straits, and on the 30th he was again off Port Desire, where she took on board 20.000 dried penguins as food for the homeward voyage, 22 December the DESIRE set sail from Port Desire..

In the meantime Cavendish who did not look for his missing ships, had died while sailing back to England, accusing Davis of desertion in a letter he wrote before he passed away.

While watering in Brazil they were surprised by an attack of the Portuguese where in the DESIRE lost 21 men. At least on 11 June 1593 they reached Berehaven in Ireland of the total crew of 16 were only five fit enough to work the ship.
What happened later with the DESIRE, some sources gives she was ran aground when she arrived in Ireland.

The name of the ship is incorporated in the motto on the coat of arms of the Falkland Islands “Desire the Right”.

Falkland Islands 1991 68p sg664, scott420. 1992 68p sg, scott561.
St Helena 1986 15p sg494, 1997 30p sg743, scott694. 1998 10p sg 766

Sources: Watercraft Philately CD-Rom ships on Stamps. The Blind Horns Hate by Richard Hough. Dictionary of Pirates by Jan Rogozinsky. Pacific Sail by Roger Morris. http://www.nps.gov/for a/cavendish.htm