History | |
---|---|
Great Britain | |
Name | Albion |
Namesake | Albion |
Owner |
|
Builder | Obadiah Ayles, Topsham, Devon [1] |
Launched | 18 January 1800 [1] |
Fate | Condemned 1816 |
General characteristics | |
Tons burthen | 367, [2] or 36762⁄94, [1] or 369 [3] (bm) |
Propulsion | Sail |
Armament |
|
Albion was launched at Topsham, Devon, in 1800. She spent most of her career sailing between London and Jamaica. After 1814 she held a license from the British East India Company to trade with India, but she does not appear to have availed herself of the option. In 1814 the American privateer Brutus captured Albion, but the British recaptured her within a few days. She was condemned at Charleston, South Carolina, and broken up in 1816.
Albion first appears in Lloyd's Register in 1800. [3]
Year | Master | Owner | Trade |
---|---|---|---|
1800 | G.Potbury | J. Hayman | Exeter—London |
1801 | Postbury J. Hayman | Hayman | London transport London—Jamaica |
1802 | J.Hayman C. Warden | Hayman | London—Cape of Good Hope |
1803 | J.Hayman C. Warden | Hayman | London—Cape of Good Hope London—Jamaica |
1804 | C. Warden J. Antrobus | Haman | Cork—Jamaica London—Jamaica |
1805 | J.Antrobus Butler | Hayman | London—Jamaica |
1806 | J.Antrbus Butler | Hayman | London—Jamaica |
1807 | Butler | Hayman | London—Jamaica |
1808 | Butler | Hayman | London—Jamaica |
1809 | Butler | Hayman | London—Jamaica |
1810 | Butler Deanham | Hayman Higgins | London—Jamaica |
1811 | Denham A. Smith | Higgins | London—Jamaica |
1812 | A. Smith A. M'Neil | Higgins | London—Jamaica |
1813 | A. M'Neil L. Hall | Higgins | London—Jamaica |
1814 | L.Hall Skolding | Higgins | London—Jamaica |
On 25 December 1814, towards the end of the War of 1812, the American privateer schooner Brutus captured Albion, "Skoulding", master, off the coast of Ireland as Albion was sailing to Bermuda from England. Brutus was armed with 12 guns and had a crew of 120 men. Even so, Albion resisted for some two hours. [4]
Brutus, of Boston, was under the command of Captain William Austin. [5] American records indicate that at the time of capture Albion, of 350 tons, was armed with eight guns and had a crew of 15 men. Her captors estimated the value of Albion's cargo at $200,000. Austin put a prize crew on board her and sent her to America. [6] [7]
However, on 7 January 1815 Harlequin, Allen, master, recaptured Albion, "Scolding", master, at 50°20′N14°50′W / 50.333°N 14.833°W and sent her into Liverpool. [8]
Year | Master | Owner | Trade | Source |
---|---|---|---|---|
1815 | J.Skelding | Higgins | London—Jamaica | |
1816 | J.Skelding W.Curry | Higgins | London—Jamaica | |
As Albion was sailing from Jamaica to London, Curry had to put into Havana on 18 October, having sprung a leak. She landed and sold 70 hogsheads of sugar. She was expected to sail again on 18 November. [9]
Curry did not get far. Albion put into Charleston in some distress. At Charleston the surveyors condemned her as unseaworthy. She was sold on 11 January 1816 for breaking up. Her cargo was put on Commerce, Wilson, master. [10]
HMS Charybdis was a Royal Navy Cruizer-class brig-sloop built by Mark Richards and John Davidson at Hythe, and launched in 1809. She captured two American prizes during the War of 1812 before she was laid up in 1815 and sold in 1819. She apparently then became the whaler Greenwich, which made three voyages for Samuel Enderby & Sons and one for Daniel Bennett & Son. She was wrecked in the Seychelles in 1833 on her fourth whaling voyage.
Coromandel was the French prize Modeste, captured in 1793 and refitted at Chittagong, British India. She made two voyages transporting convicts to Port Jackson, the first for the British East India Company (EIC). A French privateer captured her in 1805, but she had returned to British hands before 1809. An American privateer captured her in 1814, but this time the British Royal Navy recaptured her within days. She foundered in Indian waters on 6 February 1821.
Countess of Harcourt was a two-decker, teak merchant ship launched at Prince of Wales's Island in 1811, and sold in Great Britain in 1814. An American privateer captured her in 1814, but the British recaptured her in 1815. Later, she made five trips transporting convicts to Australia. Between the third and fourth of these, she undertook a voyage to China and Nova Scotia while under charter to the British East India Company (EIC). She was wrecked in late 1830.
Surprise was a highly successful American privateer schooner. She was launched in 1813 and operated out of Baltimore. She captured over 40 British vessels during her brief career. In one case the capture followed a single-ship action. She was wrecked in April 1815, shortly after the end of the War of 1812.
At least six vessels, including two belonging to the British Royal Navy, have borne the name Little Belt, a translation from the Danish of Lillebælt, the name of the strait that separates Funen from the Danish mainland and that links the Kattegat to the Baltic Sea. The merchant vessels and the second Royal Navy vessel were named to commemorate HMS Little Belt, which was one of the protagonists in the Little Belt affair, or perhaps the affair itself.
HMS Derwent was launched in 1807 and later that year became one of the first ships sent by the British Royal Navy to suppress the slave trade.
HMS Nimrod was a brig-sloop of the British Royal Navy, launched in 1812. She spent her war years in north American waters where she captured one small privateer, assisted in the capture of another, and captured or destroyed some 50 American vessels. After the war she captured smugglers and assisted the civil authorities in maintaining order in Tyne. She was wrecked in 1827 and so damaged that the Navy decided she was not worth repairing. A private ship-owner purchased Nimrod and repaired her. She then went on to spend some 20 years trading between Britain and Charleston, the Mediterranean, Australia, and India. She was last listed in 1851.
Pursuit was launched at Whitby in 1795. She made two voyages for the British East India Company and then traded with the West Indies. She repelled one attack by a French privateer that caused severe casualties, but eventually an American privateer captured her in August 1812.
Hannah was launched at Bombay Dockyard in 1811. Shortly after she was launched, she sailed to England on a voyage for the British East India Company (EIC), where her owners sold her to British owners. She engaged in a single-ship action in 1814 in which she repelled an American privateer. She participated as a transport in a punitive expedition in 1819-1820 to Ras al-Khaimah in the Persian Gulf. She was last listed in 1833.
Portsea was launched at Calcutta in 1807. She was a country ship; that is, she primarily traded east of the Cape of Good Hope. She participated as a transport in the British invasion of Mauritius. She then carried French prisoners of war to France. She also made one voyage to St Helena from Bengal under charter to the British East India Company (EIC). In 1814 a storm dismasted her and she was lengthened, but it is not clear whether before or after the dismasting. She made two voyages as a South Seas whaler between 1828 and 1835. In 1838 she made one voyage transporting convicts to New South Wales. She carried coal to Valparaiso in 1840 and there her owners turned her into a coal hulk. Her final fate is not known.
Invincible Napoleon was a three-masted French privateer commissioned in Bayonne in Spring 1804. She made numerous cruises until 1813–1814 when the British and the Americans repeatedly captured her. In her brief career as an American privateer she captured some 14 vessels. She finally ended up in British hands and was taken to Halifax, Nova Scotia as a prize.
Rambler was launched at Medford, Massachusetts, in 1813. She may have engaged in one voyage as a privateer, but then made a voyage to China as a letter of marque. On that voyage she captured several British merchantmen, at least two of which she released. She captured one that gave rise to an incident between the British East India Company (EIC), Royal Navy, and the Chinese government. Rambler returned to the United States in 1815 and her subsequent history is currently obscure.
Carlebury was launched in 1799 and spent her entire career as a West Indiaman. An American privateer captured her in 1814, but the British Royal Navy recaptured her. She foundered in 1821 with the loss of most of her crew.
Auguste was a French 14-gun privateer commissioned in Saint-Malo in November 1811 under Pierre Jean Marie Lepeltier. She captured numerous British merchant vessels before the Royal Navy forced her in January 1814 to run onshore and wreck.
Paragon was launched at Whitby in 1800. Between 1803 and 1805 she served as an armed defense ship protecting Britain's coasts and convoys. She then served as a transport on the 1805 naval expedition to capture the Cape of Good Hope. Next, she returned to mercantile service and in 1814 a French privateer captured her, but the British Royal Navy recaptured her the next day. She sailed to India in 1818 under a license from the British East India Company (EIC}, and was wrecked in March 1819 while inbound to Calcutta.
Lion was launched in 1803 in Turkey, or 1802 in Spain. British owners acquired her in 1809, probably by purchase of a prize. She was a merchantman and letter of marque. She captured an American privateer in a notable single-ship action in 1813, some months before Lion was wrecked in 1813.
Bonetta was an American vessel that was launched at Duxbury, Massachusetts, in 1800. The British Royal Navy captured in 1808. She then became a West Indiaman. Her owners appealed her capture to the Vice admiralty court at Antigua, but without success. A French privateer captured her in 1810.
Star was launched in New York in 1812. She was captured in 1813 and first appears in the Register of Shipping (RS) in 1814. In 1815 she sailed to Batavia under a license from the British East India Company (EIC). On her way back a privateer from the United States captured her in a notable single-ship action and then sent her into New York.
Clarendon was built in 1807 at Whitehaven. Between 1808 or so and 1813 she sailed as a West Indiaman between London and Jamaica. In 1814 she sailed for Batavia under a license from the British East India Company (EIC). The privateer Young Wasp captured Clarendon off the Cape of Good Hope, on 6 January 1815, and she arrived at Baltimore on 15 April.
Nimble was built in Kingston upon Hull in 1802. She traded with Portugal, first from Hull and then from Liverpool. She was lengthened in 1806. Later, she traded between London and Brazil, and then London and the West Indies. An American privateer captured her in 1814. She was recaptured and then disappeared from ship arrival and departure (SAD) data.