Loss
Blenheim left Madras on 12 January 1807, in the company of the sloop HMS Harrier (Capt. Justice Finley) and the frigate HMS Java (Capt. George Pigot), the latter recently captured from the Dutch. The two parted company from Harrier in a gale on 5 February 1807. She last saw them at Lat 22° 44'S., Long 66° 11'E., flying signals of distress.
The French frigate Sémillante later reported having seen Blenheim off Rodrigues in a gale on 18 February. Another frigate later reported in Calcutta that ships answering to the descriptions of Blenheim and Java had been seen in distress off Réunion after the gale, had put in for repairs at Île Sainte-Marie in February 1807 and had sailed again.
No further trace of the ships was ever found, despite an extensive search by Troubridge's son Captain Edward Troubridge in HMS Greyhound and the co-operation of the French. Blenheim and Java are presumed to have foundered somewhere off Madagascar. A painting depicting their loss was created by Thomas Buttersworth.
About 280 men were lost aboard Java and 590 aboard Blenheim. Those lost aboard Blenheim included Troubridge, Bissell, Captain Charles Elphinstone (nephew of Admiral the Lord Keith), the midshipmen George, Lord Rosehill (eldest son and heir of Rear-Admiral the Earl of Northesk) and William Henry Courtenay (illegitimate son of Admiral the Duke of Clarence). Also lost was former HMS Bounty mutineer James Morrison.
Read more about this topic: HMS Blenheim (1761)
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