southeast into the open ocean and to return to England by sailing the other way around the world, via Cape Horn and Rio de Janeiro and then northeast across the Atlantic to Europe. The Pacific weather proved favourable but by August the two ships had lost sight of each other and continued their voyage separately. On 23 August Prince of Wales rounded Cape Horn alone and headed northeast and north on a path to Rio. Throughout the voyage her crew had been heavily reliant on a diet of salted meat and by early September scurvy had incapacitated the majority. Mason died from the condition on 9 October, and another 13 men were too ill to leave their bunks. When Rio was finally sighted on 13 October the crew were too sick to bring the ship to port. She drifted helplessly in the outer harbor until Rio's harbourmaster sighted her the following morning and had additional seamen rowed out to assist. Twelve of Prince of Wales sickest crew members were hospitalised in Rio while the remainder recovered on board. A resupplied Prince of Wales set sail from Rio on Christmas Day 1788, completing an uneventful final leg to reach Falmouth in England on 25 March 1789. Despite the delays of disease, weather and an unfamiliar route, she was the first of the Fleet to return home, two months ahead of Alexander which did not reach England until 28 May. Whaler Between 1790 and into 1793-4 Mather & Co. employed Prince of Wales as a whaler in the South Seas Fisheries, under the command of Captain F. Bolton. In 1790 she left for the Brazil Banks and Africa Grounds, but returned in November. By 10 August 1791 she was "All well" at Walwich (Walvis) Bay. In April 1792 Prince of Wales returned to England; she sailed again in July. She sailed around Cape Horn to Peru, but returned to England by late in 1793. Privateer Mather & Co. sold Prince of Wales to Clayton Tarleton in 1793. Tarleton armed her with twenty 6-pounder guns and placed her under the command of William Scales. Scales received a letter of marque on 1 March 1793. The letter indicated that Prince of Wales had a crew of 100 men, many more than she needed to sail her, suggesting that Tarleton intended her to sail as a privateer. Prince of Wales departed on a cruise and