Belisarius was launched in Massachusetts in 1781. The British Royal Navy captured later that year and took her into service as HMS Bellisarius. She captured several American privateers, including one in a single ship action, before the Navy sold her in 1783. Her new owners sailed her as a merchantman between London and British Honduras. In 1787 she carried emigrants to Sierra Leone for the Committee for the Relief of the Black Poor, before returning to trading with Honduras. She was wrecked in September 1787.
Belisarius was a privateer built by "Mr. Paul", launched in 1781, and fitted at Boston. She was a fast, miniature frigate or quarterdeck sloop.[2] On 6 May 1781 she sailed on her first cruise.
In July Belisarius sailed in company with Aurora, but the two ships separated.
Belisarius was under the command of Captain James Munro,[1] when HMSMedea captured her on 7 August 1781,[2] off the Delaware River. She was described as "a very fast-sailing Frigate of 26 Guns and 147 Men, belonging to Salem." Amphitrite and Savage shared in the capture.[4] Reportedly, the privateer Virginia also participated in the capture.
Belisarius arrived at New York City of 12 August.
HMS Bellisarius
The Royal Navy purchased Belisarius and commissioned her as the sixth rate HMS Bellisarius on 29 August 1781 under Captain Richard Graves.[2]
In late 1781 or January 1782 Bellisarius captured the 12-gun Venus, off Boston.
On March 13, 1782, Bellisarius and Pandora captured the sloop Louis, bound to Virginia, taken off the Capes of Virginia. She was carrying cyder and onions.[5]
On April 21, Bellisarius captured the brig Fox, bound to Havana, off Cape Hattrass. Fox was carrying a cargo of flour.[5]
On 12 May Bellisarius captured the privateer Chance,[6] of Providence, Rhode Island, Daniel Ahorn, master, and 12 guns and 60 men.
On 18 May Bellisarius captured the schooner 'Swordfish, which was carrying a cargo of flour and lumber.[6]Swordfish, Charles Collins, master, was from Warren, Rhode Island.
On 18 May Bellisarius captured the privateer Sampson,[6] Captain David Brooks, of New London, and eighteen 6-pounder guns and 130 men.
On 3 June Bellisarius and Quebec captured the privateer Pilgrim.[6]
On 8 July Bellisarius, Bonetta, and the privateer Tyger captured the galleyComte de Grasse. Comte de Grasse had been sailing in ballast.[6]
On 7 December Bellisarius captured the brig Harlequin.[7]
On 14 February 1783 Bellisarius captured the ship Tartar.[7]Tartar was a privateer of twenty 9-pounder guns, under the command of Captain John Cathcart; earlier, she had belonged to the Massachusetts Navy. Tartar was sailing for Virginia and in company with another Massachusetts privateer, Alexander, Captain John Foster Williams, when they encountered Bellisarius. Both privateers attempted to flee, with Alexander, succeeding. Bellisarius caught up with Tartar at about 11p.m. and an exchange of broadsides began. After an hour-and-a-quarter, Cathcart struck. British casualties were three men killed and four wounded; American losses are unknown. Bellisarius put a prize crew aboard Tartar and the two vessels arrived at New York city on 28 February. The Vice admiralty court condemned Tartar and she was sold in mid-March.[8]
Bellisarius arrived at Deptford on 10 October 1783 and was paid off in November. The Navy sold her at Deptford on 2 December for £855.[2]
Merchantman
Bellisarius first appeared in Lloyd's Register (LR) in the volume for 1784.[3]
Year
Master
Owner
Trade
Source & Notes
1784
L.O'Brien Mayer
Montgomery
Honduras–London
LR
On 13 March 1784, Captain Lucius O'Brien sailed from Gravesend for the "Musquito Shore". He died on the voyage. On 6 October, Bellisarius, Mayor, master, arrived at Portsmouth from the Musquito Shore.
Year
Master
Owner
Trade
Source & Notes
1786
J.Armstrong
Montgomery
Honduras–London
LR; small repairs 1785
1787
J.Sill
Montgomery
Honduras–London
LR; small repairs 1785
In late 1786, in London the Committee for the Relief of the Black Poor chartered Bellisarius and two other vessels, Atlantic, and Vernon, to carry emigrants from London to what was to be a new settlement in Sierra Leone.
On 11 January 1787, Atlantic, Muirhead, master, and Belisarius, Sill, master sailed from Gravesend, bound for Sierra Leone.[9]Vernon delayed leaving London to take on some more migrants, but then sailed to join the other two vessels and their escort at Portsmouth.
Bad weather forced them to divert to Plymouth, during which time about 50 passengers died. Another 24 were discharged, and 23 ran away. Eventually, with some more recruitment, 411 passengers sailed to Sierra Leone in April 1787.
Atlantic, Bellisarius, and Vernon, Gill, master, sailed from Portsmouth on 23 February under escort by the sloop-of-warHMS Nautilous.[10]
The four vessels were reported to have been safe at Tenerife on 24 April, and had been expected to sail to Sierra Leone that night.[11] Ninety-six passengers died on the voyage from Portsmouth to Sierra Leone.
Loss
On 2 September 1787 Bellisarius was driven ashore during a hurricane and wrecked at the mouth of the Belize River, British Honduras.[12][13]
↑ "Further Particulars of a most violent Hurricane, which happened in the Bay of Honduras, on the 2d of September last". The Times. No.947. London. 9 January 1788. col A-C, p.4.
Related Research Articles
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HMS Trimmer was the French privateer cutter Anti-Briton, which HMS Stag captured in January 1782 and which the Royal Navy took into service. Early in the French Revolutionary Wars Trimmer captured a privateer. Though she never sailed again after December 1793, the Navy converted her to a temporary fire ship in 1798. The Admiralty sold her in 1801.
Mohawk was a ship launched at Beverly, Massachusetts in 1781. She became a privateer, making two voyages. In 1782 the Royal Navy captured her and briefly took her into service under her existing name before selling her in 1783. She then became a merchantman until some investors in Bristol bought her in 1796 and turned her into a privateer again. In 1799 she became a letter of marque, but the French Navy captured her in 1801. She then served in the French Navy, capturing a British privateer in 1805, and was sold in 1814.
The French brig Duc de Chartres was built between 1779 and 1780 at Le Havre as a 24-gun privateer. As a privateer she captured one British warship before in 1781 the Royal Navy captured her. The Royal Navy took her into service as HMS Duc de Chartres. She then captured several American privateers and armed merchant vessels, and one French naval corvette in a noteworthy single-ship action. The Navy sold Duc de Chartres in 1784.
Protector was a frigate of the Massachusetts Navy, launched in 1779. She fought a notable single-ship action against a British privateer General Duff before the British Royal Navy captured her in 1781. The Royal Navy took her into service as the sixth-rate post ship HMS Hussar. Hussar too engaged in a notable action against the French 32-gun frigate Sybille. The Royal Navy sold Hussar in 1783 and a Dutch ship-owner operating from Copenhagen purchased her. She made one voyage to the East Indies for him before he sold her to British owners circa 1786. She leaves Lloyd's Register by 1790.
Harpooner was launched at Liverpool in 1771. In 1778 she became a privateer. She captured at least two French merchantmen before a French privateer captured her in January 1780. She became the French privateer Comptesse of Buzanisis, which the Royal Navy recaptured. Harpooner returned to online records in 1782, and in 1783 became the slave ship Trelawney, which then made two complete voyages in the triangular trade in enslaved people. She was no longer listed after 1786.
HMS Harpy was launched at Liverpool in 1777, the British Royal Navy having purchased her on the stocks. The Navy sold her in 1783. As Harpy she made voyages to the northern whale fishery, and one voyage as a whaler in the British southern whale fishery. The Sierra Leone Company then purchased her. A French naval squadron captured her in September 1794. The French Navy briefly took her into service as Harcourt, and then Harpie. She was struck in 1796.
Tartar was built in France in 1778, almost surely under another name. She was taken in prize and appears under British ownership in 1780. After a short career as a privateer, she made a voyage between 1781 and 1783 as an extra East Indiaman for the British East India Company (EIC). She then became a whaler in the northern whale fishery. After whaling she traded with the Baltic and then served as a London-based transport. She was probably lost in 1799, and was last listed in 1801. If Tartar is the vessel lost in 1799, in 1796 French warships captured her, but the Royal Navy quickly recaptured her.
Fly was a ship launched in 1772 in Liverpool. She then made three voyages to Africa as a slave ship. Circa 1780 she was renamed Tartar. She then made six more slave trading voyages. From circa 1789 she became a local trader. She was last listed in 1794.
Quaker was built in America in 1774, possibly under another name, and was taken in prize in 1780. She appears in British records from 1781. Between 1781 and 1783 she sailed as a privateer and captured several ships, American, Spanish, and French. She then became a whaler, making four voyages to the British southern whale fishery. Thereafter she became a West Indiaman. The French captured her in 1795.
HMS Spy was a Bonetta-class sloop launched at Rotherhithe in 1756 for the Royal Navy. The Navy sold her in 1773. From 1776, or perhaps earlier she was a transport. Then from 1780 to 1783, as Mars, she was first a privateer and then a slave ship, engaged in the triangular trade in enslaved persons. Between 1783 and 1787 her name was Tartar, and she traded with the Mediterranean. From 1787, as Southampton, she was a whaler in the British southern whale fishery. She made at least four complete whaling voyages and was last listed in 1792.
Vernon was launched at Bordeaux in 1775, almost certainly under another name. She first appeared in British records in 1779. Between 1781 and 1782, she was an armed transport and in 1781 took part in an action that cost her 13 crew members killed and wounded. After the war she traded widely. In 1787 she carried emigrants to Sierra Leone for the Committee for the Relief of the Black Poor. She was wrecked in December 1792.
Several vessels have been named Belisarius, for Belisarius:
Tartar was launched at Bristol in 1778. Initially she sailed, with some success, as a privateer. Then in 1781 she became a slave ship in the triangular trade in enslaved people. She made one complete voyage as an enslaving ship; French naval vessels captured Tartar on her second enslaving voyage.
Molly was launched at Liverpool in 1770. Between 1777 and 1779 she made three voyages to the British northern whale fishery. Afterwards, she sailed as a West Indiaman. From 1779 she sailed under a letter of marque, and captured one prize. Around the end of 1781 she engaged in a single ship action in which her captain was killed. She was captured but her captor gave her up. She was last listed in 1783.
Chaser was built in the East Indies in 1778. The Royal Navy purchased her in 1781 and commissioned her as HMS Chaser. A French frigate captured her in 1782 but the Royal Navy recaptured her in 1783 and took her back into service. She was present at a major battle and then sailed to England where the Navy sold her in 1784. As the mercantile Chaser she made five or six voyages as a whaler in the British northern whale fishery and then two to the southern whale fishery. On her way home from the second a French privateer captured her, but some of her crew recaptured her. Next, she began trading with Honduras but was wrecked in late 1795 as she was returning from there to London.
HMS True Briton was a cutter the Royal Navy purchased in 1778. In 1779 she participated in a successful operation that resulted in the capture of a French frigate and several other naval vessels. The French Navy captured True Briton in 1780. She became the mercantile Tartare. The Royal Navy recaptured her and recommissioned her as HMS True Briton. The Navy laid her up in 1783 and sold her in 1785.
References
Lincoln, Charles Henry, ed. (1906). Naval records of the American Revolution, 1775-1788. Library of Congress, Manuscript Division. Henry,
Winfield, Rif (2007). British Warships in the Age of Sail 1714–1792: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates. Seaforth. ISBN978-1-78346-925-3.
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