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Mocha Frigate

An East India Company frigate based at Bombay, seized by her own crew off Acheen in 1696 and sailed as a pirate ship under Ralph Stout and then Robert Culliford, who renamed her the Resolution; she fought the Company ship Dorrill in the Straits of Malacca in July 1697, took most of William Kidd's crew out of him at Ile Sainte-Marie in June 1698 and sailed for the Red Sea, and her end is not established.

LaunchedNot establishedToNot establishedAlso writtenDefence (the name the mutineers gave her in 1696, in the published narrative); Resolution (the name under Culliford, in the Dorrill's journal, in Theophilus Turner's deposition and in the print of Kidd's 1701 trial); Moca (the Dorrill's journal, and Kidd's letter to Bellomont of 24 June 1699); Moco, Mocco (the forms in the Calendar of State Papers Colonial); Morca-Frigat (the form in the print of Kidd's 1701 trial); Supply (reported as her name before the East India Company bought her, on one modern ship database)

The East India Company lost this ship to her own crew and never got her back. She left Bombay in 1696 for China as the Mocha frigate, went pirate off Acheen as the Defence, and finished as the Resolution.2,3

Three names

The Dorrill's journal names "the ship named the Resolution". Theophilus Turner, who had sailed in her, deposed in 1699 that the Moco "now goes by the name of the Resolution". At Kidd's trial the court called her "formerly the Morca-Frigat" and noted that "there have been formerly Tryals and Convictions in this place" for the piratical seizing of her. Defence, the middle name, is the shakiest of the three: it comes from the published narrative alone, and several later writers drop it.4,5,6,7

The Company's ship

She was a frigate based at Bombay, said on one modern ship database to have been bought for the Company as the Supply and renamed about 1694. Her size comes out three different ways. Later writers give about 250 tons and about 350; Turner, who had lived aboard her, called her "a ship of 400 tons mounted with 40 guns", a figure out of memory rather than off a survey.8,9,10

Mutiny off Acheen

On the passage towards China in 1696 the crew rose off the coast of Acheen. They killed their captain, Edgecombe, put twenty-seven officers and men into the pinnace and set them adrift, and renamed the ship. The day, 18 June, comes from later writers alone, and the number set adrift is elsewhere about eighteen.11

Ralph Stout was elected captain for his part in it. Robert Culliford's people had come out of a second mutiny, in the Company ketch Josiah, and he was left near the Nicobar Islands until Stout picked him up. The Dorrill's captain, when he hailed him, knew him for a man who had "been Gunners Mate at Bombay, and after run away with the Ketch".12,13,14

Stout did not last the year. In the summer of 1697, after careening, his own crew murdered him for trying to run away from them. The journal puts that at the Maldives and the narrative at the Laccadives. Culliford took the ship and gave her the third name.15,16

The Dorrill

The Dorrill sighted her in the Straits of Malacca at five in the morning on 7 July, and Solomon Lloyd, the supercargo, suspected her at once. The fighting runs across 7 to 10 July, 1697 in one printing and 1698 in the published narrative; the journal's own days carry no year.17,18

It opened with a conversation. The pirates called across that they wanted "not your ship nor men, but money", and were told to come alongside and take it as they could. The Dorrill's boatswain answered that they would strike to no such dogs as he, "telling him the rogue Evory and all his accomplices were all hanged". He was wrong. Every was never taken. Then the pirates asked whether the Dorrill did not know them to be the Mocha, were told yes, and gave a great shout.19,20,21

The gunnery ran about four hours, from half an hour after eleven until about three, at a range "never more than two ships' length". The chief mate was shot in the leg, the barber lost two fingers, the gunner's boy lost a leg, and a boy of thirteen was hit in the thigh. The Dorrill drove her off, with heavy losses on both sides.22

The Dorrill reckoned "at least an hundred Europeans on board" and "34 gunns mounted, besides 10 pattererers and 2 small mortars in the head", the lower tier judged sixteen and eighteen pounders. A second printing of the same journal gives three mortars.23,24

St Mary's, and after

Kidd came into Ile Sainte-Marie on 1 April 1698 and found her lying there. Culliford went into the woods with his men. Kidd proposed taking her, and by his account they said they would rather fire two guns into him than one into the other; Gabriel Loff remembered it as "they would sooner shoot him than go into the Mocha frigate". Kidd could not keep his own count straight. He wrote ninety-seven in the narrative he made at Boston and ninety-five in his letter to Bellomont. Campbell, who had it from Kidd himself, put it at ninety. Loff, one of Kidd's crew, said only that most of the men went. The deserters fetched Culliford back aboard.25,26,27,28,1

Kidd made her captain a present, and the trial could not settle what it was: two guns and an anchor in the published lives, four guns in Joseph Palmer's evidence. Bradinham, Kidd's surgeon, was asked where the canoe had come from and answered "From the Moco Frigate, Capt. Culliford was the Commander".29,30

She sailed about 15 June, "manned with about 130 men and 40 guns, bound out to take all nations", leaving Kidd thirteen. Kidd wrote to Bellomont in June 1699 that she "went away to the Red Seas and committed several acts of piracy". Turner had her back at Port St. Mary about Christmas, in company with Chivers.31,32,33

Culliford submitted to Commodore Thomas Warren under the 1698 pardon, went to the Marshalsea on 1 August 1700, was tried in London for taking the pilgrim ship Great Mahomet, and was respited. Two of his men hanged with Kidd on 12 May 1701. The ship plays no part.34

Where she ended is not established. A modern shipwreck survey reports her scuttled across the entrance of the Ile Sainte-Marie harbour about January 1699, and readings under the sea bed there that it calls "consistent with" her. Consistent with is not identified. Nothing lifted or dug ties any of it to her. She is last seen afloat at Port St. Mary that Christmas.35,36

What is missing is her paperwork. No builder's certificate, no Company ship list, no survey of her was located, and a frigate kept at Bombay should have left all three in the Company's own books. Her burthen is three numbers from three mouths. What she mounted for the Company is nothing at all.37

What the evidence does not settle

Construction and Company service

  • Mocha's builder, burthen and Company armamentLikely
  • She is reported based at Bombay in Company service

Earlier identity

  • Whether the Company bought her as Supply about 1694Unverified

Final disposition

  • Whether she was scuttled across the Ile Sainte-Marie harbour entrance
  • She was last documented at Ile Sainte-Marie about Christmas 1698

Each line is one question with its own grade, taken from the register where a claim carries it. Nothing here is graded as a whole.

Sources for this record

Every statement above that rests on a checked claim carries a small number; the numbers lead here. Each entry gives what is claimed, how far the record supports it, and where it comes from.

  1. Most of Kidd's crew deserted to Robert Culliford at Ile Sainte-Marie, Madagascar, in 1698. Unverified Reported, not yet checked against the record. Correspondence and secondary accounts: Calendar of State Papers Colonial and secondary accounts
  2. The Mocha frigate, the Defence and the Resolution are three names for one vessel, an East India Company frigate that was seized by her own crew and sailed afterwards as a pirate ship. Very likely Strong evidence, short of proof. Ship's journal and published narrative: The Fight between the Dorrill and the Moca (the Dorrill's own journal); The Pirates of Malabar, and an Englishwoman in India Two Hundred Years Ago
  3. The Mocha frigate was carried by her crew in 1696 on the passage from Bombay towards China, off the coast of Acheen. Likely More likely than not on the evidence we have. Published narrative and reference records: The Pirates of Malabar, and an Englishwoman in India Two Hundred Years Ago; Mocha Frigate (1694), ship record, ship id 31277
  4. The Dorrill's journal names the pirate ship it engaged as 'the ship named the Resolution' and records her people crying 'not know us to be the Moca'. Very likely Strong evidence, short of proof. Ship's journal: The Fight between the Dorrill and the Moca (the Dorrill's own journal)
  5. Theophilus Turner, who had sailed in her, deposed in 1699 that the Moco 'now goes by the name of the Resolution'. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Calendared state papers: Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, Volume 17, 1699 and Addenda 1621-1698, 'America and West Indies: June 1699, 12-20', pp. 283-291, item 530. VI, deposition of Theophilus Turner
  6. The printed record of Kidd's 1701 trial calls the Resolution 'formerly the Morca-Frigat' and states that 'there have been formerly Tryals and Convictions in this place' for the piratical seizing of her, naming Culliford, then in custody, as her commander. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Trial print: The Arraignment, Tryal and Condemnation of Captain William Kidd, Admiralty Sessions at the Old Bailey, 8 and 9 May 1701 (London, 1701), Dr. Newton's recital following the murder verdict
  7. The intermediate name Defence rests on the published narrative; several later compilations omit it and have the mutineers rename the ship Resolution directly. Very likely Strong evidence, short of proof. Published narrative and reference records: The Pirates of Malabar, and an Englishwoman in India Two Hundred Years Ago; Mocha Frigate (1694), ship record, ship id 31277
  8. The Mocha was an East India Company frigate based at Bombay, and one modern ship database reports that she was bought for the Company as the Supply, renamed, and acquired about 1694; no contemporary register or builder's certificate for her has been located. Unverified Reported, not yet checked against the record. Reference database: Mocha Frigate (1694), ship record, ship id 31277
  9. Modern compilations give the Mocha's burthen as about 250 tons and as about 350 tons, and no primary survey of her has been located. Likely More likely than not on the evidence we have. Reference database and web article: Mocha Frigate (1694), ship record, ship id 31277; Pirates and Privateers: Between Two Piracies
  10. Turner's 1699 deposition describes the ship he sailed in, the Moco, as 'a ship of 400 tons mounted with 40 guns'. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Calendared state papers: Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, Volume 17, 1699 and Addenda 1621-1698, 'America and West Indies: June 1699, 12-20', pp. 283-291, item 530. VI, deposition of Theophilus Turner
  11. At the mutiny the crew killed their captain, Edgecombe, set twenty-seven officers and men afloat in the pinnace and renamed the ship the Defence; the date of 18 June 1696 rests only on later compilations, the published narrative gives no day, and the number set adrift is given elsewhere as about eighteen. Likely More likely than not on the evidence we have. Published narrative and reference records: The Pirates of Malabar, and an Englishwoman in India Two Hundred Years Ago; Mocha Frigate (1694), ship record, ship id 31277
  12. Ralph Stout was elected the first pirate captain of the seized ship for his part in the mutiny. Likely More likely than not on the evidence we have. Modern scholarship (1907): The Pirates of Malabar, and an Englishwoman in India Two Hundred Years Ago
  13. Robert Culliford's own men came from the East India Company ketch Josiah, seized in a parallel mutiny, and Culliford was left near the Nicobar Islands and picked up by Stout in the Mocha. Likely More likely than not on the evidence we have. Modern scholarship (1907): The Pirates of Malabar, and an Englishwoman in India Two Hundred Years Ago
  14. The Dorrill's captain identified the pirate captain hailing him as a former gunner's mate at Bombay who had run away with a Company ketch and gone pirating, the journal describing him as having 'been Gunners Mate at Bombay, and after run away with the Ketch'. Likely More likely than not on the evidence we have. Ship's journal: The Fight between the Dorrill and the Moca (the Dorrill's own journal); Arnold Wright, Annesley of Surat and his Times, chapter 'Kidd the Pirate', pp. 203-206, printing a narrative of the fight preserved in the Indian archives
  15. Ralph Stout was murdered by his own crew in the summer of 1697, after careening, for attempting to run away from them; the journal places his death at the Maldives and the published narrative at the Laccadives. Very likely Strong evidence, short of proof. Ship's journal and published narrative: The Fight between the Dorrill and the Moca (the Dorrill's own journal); The Pirates of Malabar, and an Englishwoman in India Two Hundred Years Ago
  16. Robert Culliford took command of the ship after Stout's death in 1697 and renamed her the Resolution. Very likely Strong evidence, short of proof. Ship's journal and published narrative: The Fight between the Dorrill and the Moca (the Dorrill's own journal); The Pirates of Malabar, and an Englishwoman in India Two Hundred Years Ago
  17. The Dorrill sighted the pirate ship in the Straits of Malacca at five in the morning on 7 July, and her supercargo Solomon Lloyd suspected her. Likely More likely than not on the evidence we have. Modern work quoting a manuscript narrative: Arnold Wright, Annesley of Surat and his Times, chapter 'Kidd the Pirate', pp. 203-206, printing a narrative of the fight preserved in the Indian archives
  18. The fighting between the Dorrill and the pirate ship is dated across 7 to 10 July; the year is 1697 in the printing read for this record and in most accounts and 1698 in the published narrative, and the journal's own dated days carry no year. Likely More likely than not on the evidence we have. Ship's journal and modern work quoting a manuscript narrative: The Fight between the Dorrill and the Moca (the Dorrill's own journal); Arnold Wright, Annesley of Surat and his Times, chapter 'Kidd the Pirate', pp. 203-206, printing a narrative of the fight preserved in the Indian archives; The Pirates of Malabar, and an Englishwoman in India Two Hundred Years Ago
  19. The pirates called across to the Dorrill that they wanted 'not your ship nor men, but money', and the Dorrill's people answered that they had none for them and bid them come alongside and take it as they could get it. Likely More likely than not on the evidence we have. Modern work quoting a manuscript narrative: Arnold Wright, Annesley of Surat and his Times, chapter 'Kidd the Pirate', pp. 203-206, printing a narrative of the fight preserved in the Indian archives
  20. The Dorrill's boatswain, who ran up on the poop without orders, answered that they would strike to no such dogs as he, 'telling him the rogue Evory and all his accomplices were all hanged'; Henry Every was never taken. Likely More likely than not on the evidence we have. Modern work quoting a manuscript narrative: Arnold Wright, Annesley of Surat and his Times, chapter 'Kidd the Pirate', pp. 203-206, printing a narrative of the fight preserved in the Indian archives
  21. The pirates asked the Dorrill whether they did not know them to be the Mocha, were answered yes, and gave a great shout. Likely More likely than not on the evidence we have. Modern work quoting a manuscript narrative: Arnold Wright, Annesley of Surat and his Times, chapter 'Kidd the Pirate', pp. 203-206, printing a narrative of the fight preserved in the Indian archives
  22. The running engagement lasted about four hours, from about half an hour after eleven until about three in the afternoon, at a distance 'never more than two ships' length'; the Dorrill's chief mate was wounded in the leg, her barber lost two fingers, the gunner's boy lost a leg and the boatswain's boy, a lad of thirteen, was shot in the thigh, and the Dorrill drove the pirate off with heavy losses on both sides. Likely More likely than not on the evidence we have. Ship's journal and modern work quoting a manuscript narrative: The Fight between the Dorrill and the Moca (the Dorrill's own journal); Arnold Wright, Annesley of Surat and his Times, chapter 'Kidd the Pirate', pp. 203-206, printing a narrative of the fight preserved in the Indian archives
  23. At the Dorrill fight the pirate ship carried 'at least an hundred Europeans on board' and '34 gunns mounted, besides 10 pattererers and 2 small mortars in the head', her lower tier judged sixteen and eighteen pounders. Very likely Strong evidence, short of proof. Ship's journal: The Fight between the Dorrill and the Moca (the Dorrill's own journal)
  24. Two printings of the Dorrill's journal differ on the ship's mortars, one reading '10 pattererers and 2 small mortars in the head' and the other '10 pattereurs and 3 morters in the head'. Likely More likely than not on the evidence we have. Ship's journal and modern work quoting a manuscript narrative: The Fight between the Dorrill and the Moca (the Dorrill's own journal); Arnold Wright, Annesley of Surat and his Times, chapter 'Kidd the Pirate', pp. 203-206, printing a narrative of the fight preserved in the Indian archives
  25. Kidd's narrative states that he arrived at St. Mary's on 1 April 1698 and that the Moca frigate lay at anchor there with Culliford her commander, who left her and ran into the woods with his men when Kidd came in. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Calendared state papers: Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, Volume 17, 1699 and Addenda 1621-1698, 'America and West Indies: July 1699, 26-31', pp. 366-380, item 680. XXV, Narrative of the voyage of Capt. Kidd
  26. Kidd proposed to his men that they take the Moca frigate and they refused, telling him by his own account that they would rather fire two guns into him than one into the other, and Gabriel Loff deposing that they said they would sooner shoot him than go into the Mocha frigate. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Calendared state papers: Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, Volume 17, 1699 and Addenda 1621-1698, 'America and West Indies: July 1699, 26-31', pp. 366-380, items 680. XXV and 680. VIII
  27. The number of Kidd's men who deserted to the ship is given as ninety in Duncan Campbell's memorial, as ninety-five in Kidd's letter to Lord Bellomont of 24 June 1699 and as ninety-seven in the narrative Kidd wrote for the Governor and Council at Boston, while Gabriel Loff's examination says only that most of the men deserted. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Calendared state papers: Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, Volume 17, 1699 and Addenda 1621-1698, 'America and West Indies: July 1699, 26-31', pp. 366-380, items 680. IV, 680. VI, 680. VIII and 680. XXV
  28. The deserters sent into the woods and brought Culliford and his men back on board; Duncan Campbell's memorial alone states that they obliged 'one Capt. Culliver, the then commander of her, to go along with them' to the Red Sea. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Calendared state papers: Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, Volume 17, 1699 and Addenda 1621-1698, 'America and West Indies: July 1699, 26-31', pp. 366-380, items 680. XXV and 680. IV
  29. What Kidd gave the ship's captain at Ile Sainte-Marie is not settled: the published lives give two guns and an anchor, while Joseph Palmer testified at Kidd's trial that Culliford 'had four Guns of him'. Likely More likely than not on the evidence we have. Published narrative and trial print: The Pirates of Malabar, and an Englishwoman in India Two Hundred Years Ago; The Arraignment, Tryal and Condemnation of Captain William Kidd, Admiralty Sessions at the Old Bailey, 8 and 9 May 1701 (London, 1701), evidence of Joseph Palmer
  30. Robert Bradinham, the Adventure Galley's surgeon, testified at Kidd's trial that the canoe which came off to them at Madagascar came 'From the Moco Frigate, Capt. Culliford was the Commander'. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Trial print: The Arraignment, Tryal and Condemnation of Captain William Kidd, Admiralty Sessions at the Old Bailey, 8 and 9 May 1701 (London, 1701), evidence of Robert Bradinham
  31. Kidd's narrative states that about 15 June the Mocha frigate went away, 'manned with about 130 men and 40 guns, bound out to take all nations', leaving him with only thirteen men. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Calendared state papers: Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, Volume 17, 1699 and Addenda 1621-1698, 'America and West Indies: July 1699, 26-31', pp. 366-380, item 680. XXV, Narrative of the voyage of Capt. Kidd
  32. Kidd wrote to Lord Bellomont on 24 June 1699 that the men who left him went on board the Moca under Capt. Robt. Cullifur, 'who went away to the Red Seas and committed several acts of piracy'. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Calendared state papers: Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, Volume 17, 1699 and Addenda 1621-1698, 'America and West Indies: July 1699, 26-31', pp. 366-380, item 680. VI, Kidd to Bellomont, 24 June 1699
  33. Theophilus Turner deposed that about Christmas he was at Port St. Mary in the Moco, in company with Capt. Chivers in a bigger ship of 22 guns taken from the Turks. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Calendared state papers: Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, Volume 17, 1699 and Addenda 1621-1698, 'America and West Indies: June 1699, 12-20', pp. 283-291, item 530. VI, deposition of Theophilus Turner
  34. Robert Culliford made his submission to Commodore Thomas Warren under the 1698 Act of Grace, was taken to the Marshalsea prison on 1 August 1700, was tried in London for taking the Great Mahomet and was respited; two of his crew were hanged with Kidd at Execution Dock on 12 May 1701. Likely More likely than not on the evidence we have. Modern scholarship (1907): The Pirates of Malabar, and an Englishwoman in India Two Hundred Years Ago
  35. A modern shipwreck survey account reports the ship scuttled across the entrance of the Ile Sainte-Marie harbour about January 1699; the documentary sources read for this record do not record a scuttling. Unverified Reported, not yet checked against the record. Contested survey account: Great Mahomet and the Mocha Pirate Shipwrecks, Sainte Marie, Madagascar; Pirate Shipwrecks of Ile Sainte-Marie, Madagascar
  36. A modern remote-sensing and diver survey reports readings beneath the sea bed at Ile Sainte-Marie that it describes as 'consistent with' the Mocha and the Great Mahomet; no excavation report or diagnostic object ties any of them to her, and the project's other identifications at the island have been disputed. Unverified Reported, not yet checked against the record. Contested survey account: Great Mahomet and the Mocha Pirate Shipwrecks, Sainte Marie, Madagascar; Pirate Shipwrecks of Ile Sainte-Marie, Madagascar
  37. No primary survey of the Mocha's burthen and no East India Company survey of her armament has been located, so her tonnage and her Company armament rest on later compilations and on one deposition. Likely More likely than not on the evidence we have. Reference database and web article: Mocha Frigate (1694), ship record, ship id 31277; Pirates and Privateers: Between Two Piracies