Wexford

Wexford was launched in 1802 as an East Indiaman in the service of the British East India Company (EIC). She made seven voyages to India, Persia, and China for the EIC, on the first of which she participated in the battle of Pulo Aura. Her last voyage ended in 1817 and she was broken up c. 1819. Career EIC voyage #1 (1803-1804): Captain John Henry Pelly was to command Wexford, but Captain William Stanley Clarke superseded him. Clarke acquired a letter of marque on 2 July 1803. He sailed from the Downs on 26 March 1803, bound for Madras and China. Wexford reached Madras on 4 August, and Penang on 7 September; she arrived at Whampoa Anchorage on 23 October. Homeward bound, she crossed the Second Bar on 1 February 1804. Wexford was among the Indiamen under the command of Nathaniel Dance, in . Dance was the senior commander of the East Indiamen that were sailing in convoy back from China. As they were passing through the Straits of Malacca, they encountered a French squadron under Rear-Admiral the Comte de Linois, who hoped to seize as many of them as he could. Dance ordered his fleet to form a line of battle, while creating a bluff that four of his Indiamen were a squadron of ships of the line escorting the convoy. A skirmish ensued with the result that Linois, somewhat inexplicably, withdrew.