Cadmus was launched in 1813 at Sunderland. She traded with the East Indies under license from the British East India Company (EIC) until 1827. Then between 1827 and 1834 she made two voyages as a whaler. She was lost in 1835.
Career Cadmus first appears in Lloyd's Register in 1813 with the little information beyond her burthen and place of launch.Lloyd's Register (1813). Supple. pages "C", Seq. №126. After a voyage to Jamaica, Cadmus started trading with the East Indies, primarily to Île de France, but also on to Bombay or Bengal.
In 1813 the British East India Company had lost its monopoly on the trade between India and Britain. British ships were then free to sail to India or the Indian Ocean under a licence from the EIC. Cadmuss owners applied on 20 December 1815 for a licence, which they received the next day.
For instance, Cadmus, Captain J. Dent, master, sailed from Gravesend on 24 January 1817, bound for Île de France. At Île de France Cadmus took on some of the undamaged cargo from , which had arrived leaky there and been condemned. Asiatic Journal and Monthly Register for British and Foreign ..., (1827), Volume 23, p.299. Cadmus arrived back at Gravesend on 21 January 1818.
Equally, Captain R. Appleby sailed on 28 February 1819 and on 5 April 1821 for Fort William, India.
Year Master Owner Trade Source & notes 1814 I. TaylorJ. Dent Laing & Co. London–Jamaica Lloyd's Register (1814) 1815 J. Dent Blanchard London–Île de France Register of Shipping (1815)Register of Shipping (1815), Seq. №C1. 1820 R. Appleby Blanchard London–Île de France Register of Shipping (1820) 1825 Snowden Sturge & Co. London-Quebec Register of Shipping (1825)
In 1827 T. Sturge & Co. started to use Cadmus as a South Sea whaler.
Whaling voyage #1 (1827-1830): Captain Snowden sailed from England on 11 November 1827, bound for Timor. In April 1829 Cadmus was near Timor. Then, by March 1830 she had moved to the Bay of Islands and was whaling there, as was , Grimes, master, and a number of other whaling ships from London, Port Jackson, and the United States. She returned to England on 4 August 1830 with 450 casks of oil.British Southern Whale Fishery Database – voyages: Cadmus.
Whaling voyage #2 (1830–1834): Captain Snowden sailed from England on 24 December 1830, bound for the Pacific Ocean. On 27 August 1831 Cadmus was off Ocean Island. She then sailed to Christmas Island. On 4 April 1832 she was near Guam.
On 21 March 1833 Cadmus was at Sydney, New South Wales, with 112 tuns of sperm oil.Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser, 26 Mar 1833, p.2, "Sydney General Trade List". There she unloaded her oil for transshipment to London aboard Nelson. Cadmus left on 9 May.
On 3 July 1833 Snowden passed on the news to that the whaler had been lost on the coast of the Seychelles.British Southern Whale Fishery - Voyages: Borneo.
By one report Snowden landed 14 mutinous crewmen on the Bonin Islands. He had engaged some of them at Sydney.Journal of the Royal Geographical Society ..., Volume 26. p.233. However, another report states that Cadmus was at the Bonins between 22 and 23 August, and that the 14 men that had been landed against the wishes of the inhabitants, had come a month earlier from Harriet, Bunker, master.Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan, Volumes 32-34.
On 17 November 1833 Cadmus was at Oahu. Then she was reported to have been at the Bay of Islands on 13 March 1834, and homeward bound. She returned to England on 15 October 1834 with 98 tons of oil.
Year Master Owner Trade Source & notes 1830 Snowden Sturge & Co London–South Seas Register of Shipping (1830); Large repairs 1827 & 1830 1835 W. Soot (Foot) J. Brown Poole-North America Lloyd's Register (1835); Small repairs 1835
Loss Cadmus was wrecked on Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, on 30 November 1835. She was on a voyage from Quebec City, Lower Canada to Poole, Dorset, or Prince Edward Island to Haiti.
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