Alicia Hill was launched in 1807 in France under another name. She was taken in prize and entered British ownership in 1811. In 1812 a French privateer captured her, but the Royal Navy quickly recaptured her. She primarily traded with the Mediterranean. Still, in 1818 pirates plundered her off the coast of Sierra Leone. She was wrecked at Odessa in the Black Sea in November 1820.
Alicia Hill, Redmayne, master, arrived on 4 June 1810 at Liverpool. She had come from Guadeloupe, suggesting that she may have been captured a few months after the invasion of Guadeloupe (1810) in January–February. Whether she was a prize from that campaign or had been taken earlier and elsewhere in the Caribbean is an open question.
Alicia Hill first appeared in Lloyd's Register (LR) in the issue for 1811.[1]
Year
Master
Owner
Trade
Source
1811
W.Tolson LeBrun
Captain & Co.
Liverpool–Lisbon
LR
1811
W.Tolson LeBrun
Edwards
Liverpool–Lisbon Bristol–Gibraltar
Register of Shipping
On 10 May 1812 HMSSybille captured the French privateer Aigle at 49°6′N8°22′W / 49.100°N 8.367°W / 49.100; -8.367. Aigle was the former Weymouth to Guernsey packet Chesterfield. Aigle, of 61 men under the command of Captain Alexander Black, had thrown eight of her 14 guns overboard while trying to escape Sybille. Aigle was three days out of Bennodet, near Quimper, and had earlier captured the brig Alicia as Alicia was sailing from Bristol to Gibraltar.[2][lower-alpha 1]Aigle had captured Alicia Hill, Le Brun, master, at 48°26′N9°58′W / 48.433°N 9.967°W / 48.433; -9.967. HMSRota recaptured Alicia Hill, which arrived on 19 July at Plymouth, and which had a cargo of beer and sundries. Aigle arrived at Cork on 15 July.[4]
Alicia Hill, P.LeBrun, master, arrived at Liverpool on 28 November 1812 from Malalga. She was carrying a cargo of raisins, almonds, reeds, and jars of grapes.
Year
Master
Owner
Trade
Source & notes
1813
LeBrun P.Crawford
R.Edwards
Falmouth–Gibraltar
LR
1814
P.Crawford
Corkhill & Co.
Liverpool–Oporto
LR; raised and repaired 1813
1818
P.Crawford J.Blray
Captain & Co.
Liverpool–Leghorn Liverpool–Brazil
LR; raised and repaired 1813
A letter from Sierra Leone dated 27 January 1818, reported that Alicia Hill, of Liverpool, had arrived at Freetown from the leeward part of the coast. She had encountered a brig and a schooner that had plundered her of all her outward bound cargo, her spare sails, cordage, wearing apparel, and about a ton of ivory.[5] The brig was reportedly armed with fourteen 24-pounder cannons, and the schooner with one long gun amidships. It took the pirates two days to complete their plundering. Alicia Hill had been on her way to Liverpool from Sierra Leone.[6] On 26 April, Alicia Hill, Crawford, master, was at Cork; on 1 May she arrived at Liverpool. She had a cargo of oil, hides, wax, elephants teeth (ivory tusks), gum copal, and camwood.
She next returned from Pará, Brazil with cotton, rice, and fustic.
Year
Master
Owner
Trade
Source & notes
1819
J.Blray M.Smyth
M.Swainson
Liverpool–Brazil Liverpool–Gibraltar
LR; raised and repaired 1813
1820
M.Smith
"CdeBethm"
Liverpool–Gibraltar
LR; raised and repaired 1813
1821
M.Smith
Betham
Liverpool–Gibraltar
Register of Shipping ; sharp raised and damages repaired 1818, & good repair 1819
Fate
Alicia Hill, Sprent, master, was driven ashore and severely damaged on 25 November 1820 at Odessa. She had been lying in the Odessa Roads with a cargo of tallow and linseed, ready to sail to England, when a gale caused her to break her iron cable and drove her ashore. She was on a bed of mud and sand and was full of water. It was believed that she was badly damaged and she was being unloaded.[7] The next report was that she had stranded on 7 December and that a heavy gale on the 22nd had broken her to pieces.[8]
Notes
↑ A French privateer lugger had captured Earl of Chesterfield Packet in late 1811 as the packet was sailing to Guernsey.[3]
Sir John Sherbrooke was a successful and famous Nova Scotian privateer brig during the War of 1812, the largest privateer from Atlantic Canada during the war. In addition to preying on American merchant ships, she also defended Nova Scotian waters during the war. After her conversion to a merchantman she fell prey to an American privateer in 1814. She was burnt to prevent her reuse.
HMS Fantome was an 18-gun brig-sloop of the Royal Navy. She was originally a French privateer brig named Fantôme, which the British captured in 1810 and commissioned into British service. Fantome saw extensive action in the War of 1812 until she was lost in a shipwreck at Prospect, Nova Scotia, near Halifax in 1814.
Phoenix was a vessel launched in France in 1809. After the frigate HMS Aigle captured her she was sold and her new owners employed her as whaler. She visited the Galapagos islands in July 1823. In 1824, while under the command of John Palmer, she discovered Phoenix Island, later known as Rawaki Island. She is last listed in 1829.
Sibylle was a 38-gun Hébé-class frigate of the French Navy. She was launched in 1791 at the dockyards in Toulon and placed in service in 1792. After the 50-gun fourth rate HMS Romney captured her in 1794, the British took her into service as HMS Sybille. She served in the Royal Navy until disposed of in 1833. While in British service, Sybille participated in three notable single-ship actions, in each case capturing a French vessel. On anti-slavery duties off West Africa from July 1827 to June 1830, Sybille captured many slavers and freed some 3,500 slaves. She was finally sold in 1833 in Portsmouth.
Barton was launched in Bermuda, probably in 1799, and built of Bermuda cedar. She first appeared in registers under the Barton name in 1801 as a slave ship in the triangular trade in enslaved people. The French captured her in 1803 before she had delivered the captives she had purchased for her second voyage. She returned to British ownership but her whereabouts between 1804 and 1810 are obscure. In 1811, she was again captured by a French privateer, which however gave her up. She grounded on 27 April 1819 at the entrance to the Sierra Leone River and was wrecked.
HMS North Star was a ship launched in 1810 and spent much of her naval career on the Jamaica Station. The Navy sold her in 1817 and she became the merchantman Columbo. Columbo sailed between Britain and India under a license from the British East India Company (EIC) until she was damaged in 1822 while returning from Ceylon. She was condemned at Point de Galle and sold there for breaking up.
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.
Babiole was a French privateer launched at La Ciotat in 1811. She made four cruises between 1811 and 1813 in the Mediterranean as a privateer, capturing a number of prizes. The British Royal Navy captured her in 1815. She might have been a balaou, a type of schooner.
Townshend Packet was launched at Falmouth in 1800 as a packet for the Post Office Packet Service. She made numerous voyages between Falmouth and Lisbon and also sailed to the West Indies, Brazil, and the Mediterranean. She had two engagements with American privateers. In the first the Americans captured her, but then released her. In the second she repelled her attacker. A French frigate captured her in 1814 and then sank her.
Lady Mary Pelham was launched in 1811 as a packet based in Falmouth, Cornwall for the Post Office Packet Service. She repelled attack by privateers in 1812 and 1813, the latter being a notable and controversial engagement with an American privateer. Another American privateer captured her in February 1815 in the West Indies. New owners retained her name and between 1815 and at least 1824 she continued to sail to the Continent and South America.
Express Packet was built in France in 1807, probably under another name, and taken in prize circa 1808. From 1809 she sailed as a packet for the Post Office Packet Service out of Falmouth, Cornwall. In 1812 an American privateer captured her in a notable single ship action, but then returned her to her captain and crew after plundering her. Express stopped sailing as a packet in 1817 and then made one more voyage to Spain, after which she disappeared from online records.
Patent was launched at Lynn in 1803. During her career French privateers captured her twice, and the French Navy captured her once. Two of the captures took place in 1812. The British Royal Navy recaptured her twice, and her French Navy captors released her. She also captured but lost a valuable American ship. She was wrecked in 1819.
HMS Parthian was launched at Deptford in 1808. During the Napoleonic Wars she captured one important French privateer, and several Danish, Dutch, and French merchantmen. After the war, Parthian captured a pirate schooner near Vera Cruz. Parthian was wrecked off Alexandria on 15 May 1828.
John Tobin was a ship launched in 1809 at Hull. In 1810 she recaptured a British vessel and in November 1812 she repelled an attack by an American privateer in a single ship action. From 1816 John Tobin made three voyages to India, sailing under a license from the British East India Company (EIC). She then sailed to Calabar, West Africa. She left there on 28 November 1821 and was never heard of again.
HMS Barbadoes was originally a French privateer and then slave ship named Brave or Braave. A British slave ship captured her in September 1803. In 1803–1804 she became the British privateer Barbadoes for a few months. In 1804 the inhabitants of Barbados purchased her and donated her to the Royal Navy, which took her into service as HMS Barbadoes. She wrecked on 27 September 1812.
Caledonia was built in 1807 in Chester. She sailed as a letter of marque West Indiaman, trading between England and Demerara. She captured or recaptured two vessels, and in 1812 repelled an attack by a US privateer in a single ship action. In 1833, she made a voyage to India, sailing under one of the last licences that the British East India Company (EIC) issued before it gave up its shipping activities. Caledonia then continued to trade with India, Africa, and Peru. She suffered a maritime incident in 1840. She was condemned after having returned to Lima in April 1846 in a highly leaky state.
Vittoria was a schooner launched at Baltimore in 1811 under another name. British owners acquired her in 1813, probably as a prize, and renamed her. She became a privateer sailing out of Guernsey and captured at least three vessels trading between the United States and France. She disappeared from online records circa 1814, though she remains listed to 1818 with data unchanged from 1813. A French privateer may have captured her in 1814.
HMS Pioneer was a Pigmy–class schooner of the Royal Navy, launched in 1810 as a cutter. During her service with the Navy she captured one French privateer and assisted at the capture of another. In 1823–1824 she underwent fitting for the Coast Guard blockade. She then served with the Coast Guard to 1845. She was sold at Plymouth in 1849.
HMS Richmond was a Confounder-class gunbrig, launched at Itchenor in February 1806. She captured several small privateers and merchantmen off the Iberian peninsula before the Royal Navy sold her in 1814. After the Navy sold her, she became the mercantile Ben Jonson.
Chesterfield was launched in 1806 at Portland. She served from November 1806 to her capture in October 1811, as a Post Office Packet Service packet, sailing between Weymouth and the Channel Islands. A French privateer captured her at the end of October 1811 in "a spirited but ineffectual" single ship action. She then became a French privateer that made several captures before the Royal Navy recaptured her.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
United Kingdom
