Charles Mary Wentworth (1798 ship)

Last updated
History
Civil ensign of Great Britain (1707-1800).svg Nova Scotia
Owner Simeon Perkins, Snow Parker, William Lawson, Joseph Barss Senior
Port of registry Halifax, Nova Scotia
BuilderSnow Parker
LaunchedJune 1798
CommissionedMay 1798
Homeport Liverpool, Nova Scotia
FateSank in West Indies, 1802
General characteristics
TypePrivateer ship
Tons burthen130 (bm)
Sail plan Full-rigged ship
Crew80
Armament16 carriage guns (4 & 6 pounder cannons)

Charles Mary Wentworth was a privateer ship built in 1798 by local investors in Liverpool, Nova Scotia, the first privateer ship from British North America in the Napoleonic Wars. The ship was named after Charles Mary Wentworth, the son of then governor of Nova Scotia, Sir John Wentworth. [1] The ship Charles Mary Wentworth launched privateering in Nova Scotia during the Napoleonic Wars. Her success in capturing 11 valuable ships in her short two-year career led to the commissioning of a dozen other privateer ships from Nova Scotia. [2]

History

Sir John Wentworth was named Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia in 1792 after the death of Governor John Parr. [1] Wentworth is called the Loyalist Governor, so his allegiances can be tied to Britain. In 1801 Charles Wentworth was appointed to as a councillor of Halifax. [1] This can be seen by his licensing of over two dozen privateers between the years of 1797 to 1802. [3] Charles Mary Wentworth was licensed for privateering in the spring of 1798, the first British North American privateer to cruise for enemy ships in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. [4]

Charles Mary Wentworth was bigger than most colonial privateer schooners, although still a relatively small warship at only 130 tons. However she was heavily armed with 16 carriage guns, and carried a crew of 80 men provisioned for up to six months of cruising. [5]

Captain Joseph Freeman commanded her on her first cruise; his three officers were Thomas Parker, Joseph Barss Jr., and Enos Collins. Charles Mary Wentworth sailed on 15 August 1798 with a crew of 67 men and four boys. She headed southward to the West Indies pursuing French and Spanish vessels. On this cruise they were able to take two prizes from a Spanish brigantine, Santisima del Carmen. The Spanish brigantine was carrying cocoa, cotton, and sugar when she was captured on 4 September. She arrived in Liverpool on 11 September. The cargo was auctioned off for £7,460 while the ship was auctioned for £871.10. The other prize was the American brig Morning Star, recaptured from the French. [3]

A second cruise began on 3 February 1799. Fly and Victory joined Wentworth to cruise to the West Indies. The Spanish brig Nostra Seignora del Carmen was steered into Liverpool with a cargo valued at over £10,000. The Royal Gazette reported that on May 21, 1799 Wentworth returned to Liverpool with four Spanish vessels following. The Royal Gazette says that the reported prizes were a "brig of 14 guns, and 140 tones of burthen, laden with Wine, Brandy and Flour', a copper-bottomed schooner of 140 tons burthen, mounting 6 guns, laden with Cocoa, a schooner of 60 tons, and another 40 tons, coasters, laden with dry goods and sundry other valuable articles." The value of the cargo was £16,000. [6]

Wentworth's success led within a few months to the commissioning of six other privateer vessels at Liverpool as well as one from nearby Shelburne, and four more from Halifax, Nova Scotia. Several of these new Nova Scotian privateers were in fact French and Spanish prizes to Wentworth that were now turned against their former owners. [2] Men who first served as officers aboard Wentworth such as Joseph Freeman, Joseph Barss, and Enos Collins would go on to lead many privateers in the War of 1812, aboard such vessels such as the schooner Liverpool Packet . [7]

Charles Mary Wentworth had less success on subsequent voyages. Her owners converted her to an armed merchant ship. She capsized and sank in a South Atlantic storm in 1802, but her crew were rescued with no loss of life. [5]

Related Research Articles

HMS <i>Indefatigable</i> (1784) Frigate of the Royal Navy

HMS Indefatigable was one of the Ardent-class 64-gun third-rate ships-of-the-line designed by Sir Thomas Slade in 1761 for the Royal Navy. She was built as a ship-of-the-line, but most of her active service took place after her conversion to a 44-gun razee frigate. She had a long career under several distinguished commanders, serving throughout the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars. She took some 27 prizes, alone or in company, and the Admiralty authorised the issue of four clasps to the Naval General Service Medal in 1847 to any surviving members of her crews from the respective actions. She was broken up in 1816.

The first USS Lee was a schooner under the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War. She was named for General Charles Lee.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joseph Barss</span> Canadian sea captain (1776–1824)

Joseph Barss was a sea captain of the schooner Liverpool Packet and was one of the most successful privateers on the North American Atlantic coast during the War of 1812.

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.

<i>Rover</i> (privateering ship) Privateer brig in the Napoleonic Wars

Rover was a privateer brig out of Liverpool, Nova Scotia known for several bold battles in the Napoleonic Wars.

Liverpool Packet was a privateer schooner from Liverpool, Nova Scotia, that captured 50 American vessels in the War of 1812. American privateers captured Liverpool Packet in 1813, but she failed to take any prizes during the four months before she was recaptured. She was repurchased by her original Nova Scotia owners and returned to raiding American commerce. Liverpool Packet was the most successful privateer vessel ever to sail out of a Canadian port.

HMS <i>Révolutionnaire</i> (1794) Frigate of the Royal Navy

Révolutionnaire, was a 40-gun Seine-class frigate of the French Navy, launched in May 1794. The British captured her in October 1794 and she went on to serve with the Royal Navy until she was broken up in 1822. During this service Revolutionnaire took part in numerous actions, including three for which the Admiralty would in 1847 award clasps to the Naval General Service Medal, and captured several privateers and merchant vessels.

HMS Meleager was a 32-gun Amazon-class frigate' that Greaves and Nickolson built in 1785 at the Quarry House yard in Frindsbury, Kent, England. She served during the French Revolutionary Wars until 1801, when she was wrecked in the Gulf of Mexico.

French frigate <i>Pomone</i> (1787) 40-gun frigate of the French Navy launched in 1785

Pomone was a 40-gun frigate of the French Navy, launched in 1785. The British captured her off the Île de Batz in April 1794 and incorporated her into the Royal Navy. Pomone subsequently had a relatively brief but active career in the British Navy off the Atlantic and Mediterranean coasts of France before suffering sufficient damage from hitting a rock to warrant being taken out of service and then broken up in 1803.

HMS <i>Acasta</i> (1797) 40-gun Royal Navy fifth-rate frigate

HMS Acasta was a 40-gun Royal Navy fifth-rate frigate. She saw service in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, as well as the War of 1812. Although she never took part in any notable single-ship actions nor saw action in a major battle though she was at the Battle of San Domingo, she captured numerous prizes and rid the seas of many Spanish, French and American privateers. She was finally broken up in 1821.

HMS <i>Lark</i> (1794) Sloop of the Royal Navy

HMS Lark was a 16-gun ship sloop of the Cormorant class, launched in 1794 at Northfleet. She served primarily in the Caribbean, where she took a number of prizes, some after quite intensive action. Lark foundered off San Domingo in August 1809, with the loss of her captain and almost all her crew.

HMS Chub was a British Royal Navy Ballahoo-class schooner of four 12-pounder carronades and a crew of 20. The prime contractor for the vessel was Goodrich & Co., in Bermuda, and she was launched in 1807. She and her crew were lost when she was wrecked in August 1812.

During the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars the British Royal Navy made use of hired armed vessels, one of which was His Majesty's hired armed cutter Nimrod. Three such vessels are recorded, but the descriptions of these vessels and the dates of their service are such that they may well represent one vessel under successive contracts. The vessel or vessels cruised, blockaded, carried despatches, and performed reconnaissance.

His Majesty's Hired armed lugger Duke of York served the Royal Navy from 14 October 1794 to 2 January 1799 when she foundered in the North Sea. She was of 574494 tons (bm) and was armed with eight 4-pounder guns.

His Majesty's hired armed cutter Courier appears twice in the records of the British Royal Navy. The size and armament suggests that both contracts could represent the same vessel, but other information indicates that the second Courier had been captured from the French in the West Indies. On the first contract the captain and crew were awarded clasps to the Naval General Service Medal, one for a boat action and one for a single ship action in which they distinguished themselves.

During the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars Égyptienne, or Egypt, which commemorated Napoleon's Egyptian Campaign, was a popular name for French vessels, including naval vessels and privateers. Between 1799 and 1804, warships of the Royal Navy captured one French frigate and five different French privateers all with the name Égyptienne, and at least one privateer with the name Égypte.

HMS <i>Circe</i> (1785) Enterprise-class Royal Navy frigate

HMS Circe was a 28-gun Enterprise-class sixth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy. She was launched in 1785 but not completed or commissioned until 1790. She then served in the English Channel on the blockade of French ports before she was wrecked in 1803.

HMS <i>Diligence</i> (1795) Sloop of the Royal Navy

HMS Diligence was the name ship of her class of brig-sloops of the Royal Navy. She was launched in 1795 and lost in 1800. She spent her brief career on the Jamaica station where she captured four armed vessels, one of them after a short engagement, and many small Spanish and French merchant vessels in the Caribbean inter-island and coastal trade.

Lord Hawke was launched at Ostend in 1793, almost certainly under a different name. In 1798 she became a British privateer. The French captured her in 1799 and she became the French privateer Revanche. The British Royal Navy recaptured her in 1800. New owners returned her to her original British name. She disappeared in early 1801, presumed to have foundered with all hands.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Cuthbertson, Brian. The Loyalist Governor: Biography of John Wentworth. Nimbus Publishing
  2. 1 2 "Privateer Entrepot: Privateering in Liverpool Nova Scotia, 1793-1805" Dan Conlin, The Northern Mariner Vol. VIII (April 1998), p.33
  3. 1 2 Stephen Schneider. Iced:The Story of Organized Crime in Canada. John Wiley & Son
  4. Roger Marsters, Bold Privateers Formac Publishing (2004), p. 100
  5. 1 2 "Charles Mary Wentworth 1798-1800" Dan Conlin, Canadian Privateering Homepage
  6. ""Charles Mary Wentworth Returns with Four Spanish Prizes", Royal Gazette, May 21, 1799, Nova Scotia Archives Spoils of War virtual exhibit". Archived from the original on December 11, 2017. Retrieved August 25, 2017.
  7. "A Private War in the Caribbean: Nova Scotia Privateering 1793-1805" Dan Conlin, The Northern Mariner Vol. VI, No. 4 (October 1996), p.39