Commerce (ship)

Several ships have been named Commerce:

• Commerce (1786 ship) was launched at Bermuda. She initially sailed between London and North America, and later between London and the West Indies. In 1803 new owners dispatched her on a whaling voyage. She may have been lost in late 1806 as she was returning from her voyage; she was last listed in 1806.
• Commerce (1791 ship) was launched at Liverpool in 1791. She was initially a West Indiaman. New owners in 1795 sent Commerce to the Southern Whale Fishery in 1796. The Spanish captured her in 1797, but by 1799 she had returned to British ownership. She then traded generally until a French privateer captured her in 1805.
• Commerce (1797 ship) was launched at Teignmouth. A French privateer captured her in 1800.
• Commerce (1798 ship) was launched at Newfoundland. In 1801 she became a whaler and made two voyages to the Southern Whale Fishery where she was captured c.1806.
• Commerce (1815 ship) was a Connecticut-based American merchant sailing ship that ran aground on 28 August 1815 at Cape Bojador, off the coast of Morocco. Far more famous than the ship itself is the story of the crew who survived the shipwreck, who went on to become slaves of local tribes who captured them.