Capture of the Jeune Richard

Capture of the Jeune Richard
	Part of the Napoleonic Wars
	; Captain William Rogers Capturing the 'Jeune Richard', 1 October 1807, Samuel Drummond
Date	1 October 1807
Location	off Barbados, Caribbean Sea
Result	British victory
Belligerents
United Kingdom	France
Commanders and leaders
William Rogers	Unknown
Strength
1 packet ship	1 privateer
Casualties and losses
13 killed and wounded	54 killed and wounded; 1 privateer captured

Last updated January 08, 2021

The capture of the Jeune Richard was the result of a naval engagement that took place in the Caribbean on 1 October 1807, during the Napoleonic Wars between the British packet ship Windsor Castle and the French privateer Jeune Richard. In an unequal battle, Windsor Castle, under the command of her acting captain William Rogers, not only defended repeated attacks from the privateer, but finally engaged her, boarded her and after overpowering the much larger crew, forced them below decks, and took the privateer as its prize.^[1] The victory was widely reported in contemporary papers and journals, and Rogers and his crew were hailed as heroes and lavishly rewarded for their valour.

Background

The Windsor Castle sailed from England under the command of Acting Captain William Rogers, bound for the Leeward Islands and Barbados in September 1807, carrying the mail.^[1] She carried six 4-pounder guns and two 9-pounder carronades and had a crew of 28 men and boys.^[2] Early on the morning of 1 October a sail was sighted and by half past eight the mystery ship was piling on sail to catch the packet. Identifying her as a privateer schooner, Rogers attempted to outrun the enemy, but she continued to close and he realised he would be compelled to fight.^[1] His enemy was the Jeune Richard, carrying six long 6-pounder guns and one long 18-pounder gun, a considerably heavier weight of shot than the Windsor Castle. The Jeune Richard also had a crew of 92, over three times that of the British packet.^[1]^[2]^[3]

Battle

Rogers prepared for action and stood by to sink the mail should it become necessary to keep it out of enemy hands.^[2] By noon the Jeune Richard had closed the distance and, running up the French colours, she opened fire.^[1] The Windsor Castle returned fire, at which the French called on Rogers to surrender. He refused, so the Jeune Richard ran alongside the Windsor Castle deploying grappling irons, and attempted to board.^[1] The Windsor Castle′s crew mustered with pikes and repelled the boarders, killing or wounding between eight and ten of the French. The Jeune Richard′s crew attempted to cut the lines and pull away but the Windsor Castle′s main yard remained locked in the privateer's rigging, holding the two ships together.^[1]^[2]

The fighting continued for several hours, but by 3pm one of the Windsor Castle′s 9-pounder carronades had been brought up on deck and loaded with double grape, canister and 100 musket balls. When the French made another attempt to force their way aboard, the British discharged it to great effect, sweeping the privateer's decks and causing considerable casualties and damage.^[1] Rogers then led five of his men onto the Jeune Richard and forced the French from their guns, driving them below after a fierce fight and securing control of the privateer.^[1]^[2]^[3] With the French crew trapped below but still considerably greater in number than the small British force that had control of the decks, Rogers ordered each Frenchman up on deck one at a time, where he had them placed in irons.^[1]^[2]

Aftermath

With the Jeune Richard secured, Rogers took her and the Windsor Castle to the nearest British port.^[4]^[2] The British had three dead and ten wounded, the French had twenty-one dead and thirty-three wounded.^[4] Rogers then made his report to the officer commanding the station, Admiral Sir Alexander Cochrane.^[4] Cochrane forwarded his report to the Admiralty, adding an accompanying note:

Sir, The enclosed letter which I have just received from Mr. Rogers, the master of the Windsor Castle packet, gives an account of the capture of a French privateer. It is an instance of bravery and persevering courage, combined with great presence of mind, as was scarcely ever exceeded. He has shewn such ability defending one of His Majesty's packets, that I hope it will secure him the command of the first which is vacant.
— I have the honour to be, &c, Alexander Cochrane^[5]

The news of how Rogers had turned upon his pursuer and taken her as his prize created a sensation. The account appeared in numerous newspapers, journals and periodicals. Societies and guilds joined to raise subscriptions to reward Rogers and his crew.^[6] In addition to sums of money, Rogers received two swords, a piece of plate worth 100 guineas, a vase worth £60, and command of another packet ship.^[6] The artist Samuel Drummond painted Rogers' portrait, and also created a depiction of the action, while other engravers and artists produced versions to illustrate the stories carried in the papers.

Notes

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 James. Naval History of Great Britain. p. 343.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Scott. London Magazine. p. 376.
1 2 "Captain William Rogers Capturing the 'Jeune Richard', 1 October 1807 (BHC0579)". National Maritime Museum. Archived from the original on 31 January 2009. Retrieved 7 November 2008.
1 2 3 "No. 16102". The London Gazette . 26 December 1807. p. 1747.
↑ Southey. History of the West Indies. p. 395.
1 2 European Magazine and London Review . pp. 291–2.

Related Research Articles

Guerrière was a 38-gun frigate of the French Navy, designed by Forfait. The British captured her and recommissioned her as HMS Guerriere. She is most famous for her fight against USS Constitution.

The Post Office Packet Service dates to Tudor times and ran until 1823, when the Admiralty assumed control of the service. Originally, the Post Office used packet ships to carry mail packets to and from British embassies, colonies and outposts. The vessels generally also carried bullion, private goods and passengers. The ships were usually lightly armed and relied on speed for their security. However, Britain was at war almost continuously during the 18th and early 19th centuries with the result that packet ships did get involved in naval engagements with enemy warships and privateers, and were occasionally captured.

HMS Reindeer was a Royal Navy 18-gun Cruizer-class brig-sloop of the Royal Navy, built by Samuel & Daniel Brent at Rotherhithe and was launched in 1804. She was built of fir, which made for more rapid construction at the expense of durability. Reindeer fought in the Napoleonic Wars before succumbing in 1814 to the guns of USS Wasp during the War of 1812.

Loire was a 38-gun frigate of the French Navy. She was captured following the Battle of Tory Island by a Royal Navy frigate squadron and subsequently taken into British service as HMS Loire.

HMS Kingfisher was a Royal Navy 18-gun ship sloop, built by John King and launched in 1804 at Dover. She served during the Napoleonic Wars, first in the Caribbean and then in the Mediterranean before being broken up in 1816.

HMS Melampus was a Royal Navy fifth-rate frigate that served during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. She captured numerous prizes before the British sold her to the Royal Netherlands Navy in 1815. With the Dutch, she participated in a major action at Algiers and, then, in a number of colonial punitive expeditions in the Dutch East Indies.

HMS Wolverine was a Royal Navy 18-gun Cruizer-class brig-sloop, launched in 1805 at Topsham, near Exeter. Early in her career she was involved in two fratricidal incidents, one involving a British frigate and then a newsworthy case in which she helped capture a British slave ship. She later captured a small naval vessel and several privateers, and took part in the invasion of Martinique, and during the War of 1812, in the attack on Baltimore. Wolverine was decommissioned in August or September 1815 and was sold on 15 February 1816.

HMS Belette was an 18-gun Cruizer-class brig-sloop, built by King at Dover and launched on 21 March 1806. During the Napoleonic Wars she served with some success in the Baltic and the Caribbean. Belette was lost in the Kattegat in 1812 when she hit a rock off Læsø.

HMS Elk was a Cruizer-class brig-sloop, built of pine, and launched in 1804. She served on the Jamaica station where she captured a number of privateers. She was broken up in 1812.

There were two, and possibly three, vessels named His Majesty's hired armed brig Ann that served the British Royal Navy. The first participated in an engagement in 1807 that would earn her crew the Naval General Service Medal. She is sometimes referred to in sources as the hired armed cutter Ann or the hired armed brig Anne. Little or nothing is known of the second and third hired armed brigs Ann or Anne.

The Action of 2 March 1808 was a minor naval battle between the Royal Navy's 18-gun Cruizer-class brig-sloop HMS Sappho, and the 28-gun, Danish two-decker brig Admiral Yawl, during the Gunboat War. Sappho, under the command of Captain George Langford, discovered and chased Admiral Yawl, which was steering a course to intercept several merchant vessels to leeward. After a short engagement Sappho captured Admiral Yawl, commanded by Jørgen Jørgensen.

HMS Dominica was a schooner that the British purchased in 1805 in the Leeward Islands. Her crew mutinied in 1806, turning her over to the French, who immediately sent her out as the privateer Napoléon. The British recaptured her four days after the mutiny and returned her to their service. In British service she captured some six small privateers. She was broken up in 1808.

HMS Dominica was the French letter of marque schooner Duc de Wagram, which the British captured in 1809 in the Leeward Islands and took into the Royal Navy in 1810. The American privateer Decatur captured her in 1813 in a notable single-ship action. However, Majestic recaptured her in 1814. She was wrecked in 1815

HMS Maria was a gun-brig the Royal Navy purchased in 1807 and commissioned at Antigua in 1808. On 29 September 1808 the French Navy corvette French corvette Department des Landes captured her. The French burnt Maria in February 1809 at Martinique to prevent her recapture.

HMS Dart was one of two sloops built to an experimental design by Sir Samuel Bentham and launched in 1796. She served the Royal Navy during the French Revolutionary wars and the early part of the Napoleonic wars before being sold in 1809 for breaking up.

Duc de Dantzig was a brig launched in 1808 at Nantes that became a privateer. She captured a number of vessels, generally plundering them and then letting them go, or burning them. She disappeared mysteriously in the Caribbean in early 1812, and became the subject of a ghost ship legend.

HMS Constant was an Archer– class gun-brig of the Royal Navy, built for service against the French during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. In service from 1801, she was variously stationed in English home waters, the Baltic, the Caribbean and off the coast of Spain, and was responsible for the capture of at least seven enemy vessels during her fifteen years at sea.

Wanstead was launched in 1802. In 1807 a French privateer captured her, but the British Royal Navy recaptured her the next day. Then in 1810 she was again captured by a French privateer, and was again recaptured a few days later. In 1819 she traded with India or China under a license from the British East India Company (EIC). She was wrecked in 1820.

Windsor Castle was launched at Yarmouth in 1804. She spent her entire 11-year career as a Falmouth packet, primarily on the Falmouth–Halifax–New York–Halifax–Falmouth route and the Falmouth–Leeward Islands–Falmouth route. She also sailed on some other voyages. She was involved in two notable single-ship actions. In the first, in 1807, she captured her attacker, a French privateer schooner in a sanguinary encounter. In the second, in 1815, an American privateer captured her. A prize crew took her into Norfolk, Virginia, where she was sold at auction.

HMS Imperieuse was a 38-gun fifth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy. Built in Ferrol, Spain, for the Spanish Navy she was launched as Medea in 1797. In 1804 she was part of a squadron carrying gold from South America to Spain that was seized by the British while Spain and Britain were at peace. Medea was subsequently taken into service with the Royal Navy and was briefly named HMS Iphigenia before being renamed Imperieuse in 1805.

References

James, William; Chamier, Frederick (1837). The Naval History of Great Britain, from the Declaration of War by France in 1793, to the Accession of George IV. Richard Bentley.
Southey, Thomas (1827). Chronological History of the West Indies. Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, & Green.
Scott, John (1827). The London Magazine. Baldwin, Cradock, and Joy.
The European Magazine and London Review. Philological Society of London. 1808.
"Captain William Rogers Capturing the 'Jeune Richard', 1 October 1807 (BHC0579)". National Maritime Museum. Archived from the original on 31 January 2009. Retrieved 7 November 2008.

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.

[NH343-1] 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 James. Naval History of Great Britain. p. 343.

[LM-2] 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Scott. London Magazine. p. 376.

[nmm-3] 1 2 "Captain William Rogers Capturing the 'Jeune Richard', 1 October 1807 (BHC0579)". National Maritime Museum. Archived from the original on 31 January 2009. Retrieved 7 November 2008.

[LG16102-4] 1 2 3 "No. 16102". The London Gazette . 26 December 1807. p. 1747.

[WI-5] Southey. History of the West Indies. p. 395.

[EM-6] 1 2 European Magazine and London Review . pp. 291–2.

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]