Comet (1810 schooner)

Last updated
Hibernia and Comet.jpg
Hibernia engaging Comet, 1814
History
US flag 15 stars.svgUnited States
NameComet
OwnerWilliam Furlong and Thorndike Chase
BuilderThomas Kemp
Completed1810
Acquired1812
In service29 June 1812 [1]
General characteristics
Type Schooner
Tonnage187
Length
  • 90 ft 6 in (27.58 m)
  • 68 ft 0 in (20.73 m) (keel)
Beam23 ft 6 in (7.16 m)
Depth of hold10 ft 0 in (3.05 m)
Sail plan Schooner-rigged
Complement120
Armament
  • 2 × 9-pounder guns + 10 × 12-pounder carronades in 1810
  • 2 × 9-pounder guns + 12 × 12-pounder carronades in 1812

Comet, an American schooner, was built in 1810 at Baltimore, Maryland. She was owned by "a group of wealthy Baltimore investors." [1] Under Captain Thomas Boyle, who was a part owner of the schooner, Comet sailed from July 1812 [2] to March 1814 as a privateer, which was a type of ships licensed by the United States during the War of 1812 to harass the British merchant vessels and divest their cargoes. [1]

Contents

Construction

Comet was built by Thomas Kemp of Baltimore, Maryland for Captain William Furlong, who made a series of payments of $1,505. Captain Thorndike Chase paid the rest of the total cost of $3,630 in 1810, bringing his share in the schooner to a little more than half. [3]

Career

First and Second Cruises

Comet started her career as a privateer on 12 July 1812 [4] under the command of Thomas Boyle. [5] At first she harassed many British vessels in the Caribbean Sea. Just two weeks into her cruise as a privateer, on 26 July 1812, she took her first prize. [4]

Her second voyage was off the coast of South America. The cruise was less successful as the prize ships she was able to capture were all retaken by the British before able to reach the United States. Comet went back into the home port of Baltimore through fog at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay, successfully running the British blockade on 17 March 1813. [6]

Charter of U.S. Navy

Between April and September 1813, Comet, together with three other Baltimore privateers, Revenge, Patapsco and Wasp, was chartered by the U.S. Navy for reconnaissance in the Chesapeake Bay area, with Thomas Boyle remaining in command as a sailing Master of Comet. By the end of August, all four were released from patrol duty and Comet again put to sea on 29 October 1813, returning to Beaufort, North Carolina.

Third Cruise and Engagement with Hibernia

Boyle took the Comet on a third privateering cruise, which lasted until March 1814.

On 11 January 1814, Comet encountered Hibernia , who carried 22 men and six guns on board. Two days before Comet had encountered the British merchantman Wasp west of Saba, but had sailed away when Wasp gave chase, fearing that Wasp was a warship. This time Captain Boyle was ready to take his prize. After an intense 9-hour single-ship action Hibernia succeeded in driving Comet off [7] and left the field. Comet had three men killed and sixteen wounded. The reports of the wounded and killed on Hibernia vary greatly, depending on the side reporting the numbers. A British source [7] reports one dead and 11 wounded, as one American book [5] lists that eight men were killed and 13 were wounded. (The former probably is more reliable in its reporting.) As to the schooner, Comet was completely demasted and had 28 wounds in her hall with water pouring in. [5] After overnight jury rigging, she retired to Puerto Rico and stayed there for a three-week refit. Hibernia arrived at St Thomas's that same day. [8] Comet wasn't fit for further duties as a privateer and Boyle took a command of another famous Baltimore privateer, Chasseur .

The 1812-1814 cruises were documented by a crew member and a relative of Thomas Boyle in a book. [5]

Later career

Little is known of Comet's career after her years as a privateer.

On 12 May 1814 she was sold at Charleston, South Carolina, to New York owners. [9] Another account report that she was purchased in 1815 by Thomas Boyle, owning 50% of the schooner, and the rest was owned by another two crew members of the 1812-1814 cruise. [5]

List of the prizes, War of 1812

Comet took 35 prizes as a privateer. The list is: [2] [9] [10]

Paintings

Only one painting of Comet is available, [17] which is an 1814 painting by Thomas Whitcombe, 12 at Midnight; the Hibernia Attempting to run the Comet at the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thomas Boyle</span>

Thomas Boyle, an Irish American, as a captain of the schooner Comet and the clipper Chasseur, was one of the most successful Baltimore privateers during the War of 1812. He briefly served in the United States Navy during the same war.

HMS <i>Belvidera</i> (1809) Frigate of the Royal Navy

HMS Belvidera was a Royal Navy 36-gun Apollo-class frigate built in Deptford in 1809. She saw action in the Napoleonic Wars and the War of 1812 and continued a busy career at sea into the middle of the 19th century. In 1846 she was reduced to harbour service, in 1860 she became a receiving ship, and she was finally disposed of in 1906.

<i>Chasseur</i> (1812 clipper)

Chasseur was a Baltimore Clipper commanded by Captains Pearl Durkee, William Wade (1813) and Thomas Boyle (1814-1815). She was one of the best equipped and crewed American privateers during the War of 1812.

HMS <i>Poictiers</i> (1809) Vengeur-class ship of the line

HMS Poictiers was a 74-gun Royal Navy third rate. This ship of the line was launched on 9 December 1809 at Upnor. During the War of 1812 she was part of the blockade of the United States. She was broken up in 1857.

HMS <i>Reindeer</i> (1804) Brig-sloop of the Royal Navy

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.

HMS Niemen was a Royal Navy 38-gun fifth-rate frigate. She began her career as the Niémen, a 44-gun French Navy Armide-class frigate, designed by Pierre Rolland. She was only in French service for a few months when in 1809 she encountered some British frigates. The British captured her and she continued in British service as Niemen. In British service she cruised in the Atlantic and North American waters, taking numerous small American prizes, some privateers but mostly merchantmen. She was broken up in 1815, at the end of the Napoleonic Wars and the War of 1812.

HMS Highflyer was originally an American privateer schooner built in 1811. As a privateer she took several British vessels as prizes. The Royal Navy captured her in 1813. She then participated in several raids on the Chesapeake and coastal Virginia before the Americans recaptured her later in 1813.

HMS <i>St Lawrence</i> (1813) British warship

HMS St Lawrence was a 14-gun schooner of the Royal Navy. She had been built in 1808 in St. Michaels, Talbot County, Maryland for Thomas Tennant and sold to Philadelphians in 1810. During the War of 1812 she was the US privateer Atlas. The UK captured her in 1813 and renamed her St Lawrence. The US privateer Chasseur recaptured her in 1815, and then HMS Acasta re-recaptured her.

HMS <i>Sophie</i> (1809) Brig-sloop of the Royal Navy

HMS Sophie was an 18-gun Cruizer class brig-sloop of the Royal Navy. She served during the Napoleonic Wars and the War of 1812. During the War of 1812 Sophie participated in the economic war against American trade, capturing or destroying numerous small merchant vessels, and in an unsuccessful attack on Fort Bowyer, Alabama. Later, she moved to the East Indies where she served in the First Anglo-Burmese War. The Admiralty sold Sophie in 1825.

HMS Landrail was a Cuckoo-class schooner built by Thomas Sutton at Ringmore, Teignmouth. Like all her class she carried four 12-pounder carronades and had a crew of 20. She had a relatively uneventful career during the Napoleonic Wars and the War of 1812 until 1814 when she was taken in a notable action, and then retaken. She was sold in approximately 1818.

HMS Shelburne was the American letter of marque schooner Racer, built in Baltimore in 1811 and captured by the British in 1813. She served on the American coast, capturing the American brig Frolic. She also captured some merchantmen and was sold in Britain in 1817.

<i>General Armstrong</i>

General Armstrong was an American brig built for privateering in the Atlantic Ocean theater of the War of 1812. She was named for Brigadier General John Armstrong, Sr., who fought in the American Revolutionary War.

HMS <i>Lightning</i> (1806) Sloop of the Royal Navy

HMS Lightning was launched in 1806 as a Thais-class fireship. Like the other members of her class she was quickly converted to a sloop. She participated in the second Battle of Copenhagen, captured a number of small prizes, and was sold in 1816.

HMS Canso was the American letter of marque schooner Lottery, launched in 1811, that a British squadron captured in 1813. The Royal Navy took Lottery into service as HMS Canso and she served during the War of 1812 and briefly thereafter. The navy sold her in 1816.

HMS <i>Rover</i> (1808) Brig-sloop of the Royal Navy

HMS Rover was a Royal Navy Cruizer-class brig-sloop laid down in 1804 but not launched until 1808. She served in the North Sea, off the north coast of Spain, in the Channel, and on the North American station. She captured two letters-of-marque and numerous merchant vessels before being laid-up in 1815. She then sat unused until she was sold in 1828. She became a whaler that made four voyages to the British southern whale fishery between 1830 and 1848. She was last listed in 1848.

<i>Hibernia</i> (1810 ship) British ship launched at Cowes in 1810

Hibernia, of 435 tons, was launched at Cowes in 1810. She operated as a letter of marque West Indiaman and in 1814 engaged in a noteworthy single-ship action with the American privateer Comet during which she repelled her more heavily-armed attacker. In 1819 she transported convicts to Van Diemen's Land. She was last listed in 1840.

Dame Ernouf first appears under that name in 1807. Her origins are currently obscure. She served as a privateer first under that name, and then under the name Diligent. As Diligent she not only capture several merchantmen but also two British Royal Navy vessels: a schooner and a brig. She continued to capture prizes until the end of 1813 and then disappears from online records.

Thomas Kemp was a Baltimore shipbuilder, known for building some of the fastest and best known privateers of the War of 1812, such as Rossie, Comet, Patapsco, Chasseur, and Lynx.

HMS Barbadoes was a 16-gun vessel, the American Herald, captured in 1813. The Royal Navy took her into service as HMS Barbadoes She captured a number of merchantmen and privateers before she was paid-off in May 1816. In 1814–1815 she also captured three Spanish and French slave ships carrying over 1100 enslaved people. Barbadoes became a powder ship in Jamaica that was later wrecked with her remains being sold.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Tabarrok, Alexander (Winter 2007). "The Rise, Fall, and Rise Again of Privateers" (PDF). The Independent Review. v., XI, n. 3: 565–577. ISSN   1086-1653.
  2. 1 2 White, Frank Jr. (Winter 1958). "The COMET Harasses the British". Maryland Historical Magazine: 295–315.
  3. Donnelly, Mark P. (2014). Pirates of Maryland : Plunder and High Adventure in the Chesapeake Bay. Stackpole Books. ISBN   9780811748865. OCLC   1022787251.
  4. 1 2 Garitee, Jerome R. (1977). The Republic's private navy: the American privateering business as practiced by Baltimore during the war of 1812. Conn. p. 150. ISBN   0819550043. OCLC   464329695.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 Otis, James, ed. (1898). The cruise of the Comet : the story of a privateer of 1812, sailing from Baltimore. The privateers of 1812 series. Boston: Estes and Lauriat. p. 13. OCLC   4057939.
  6. 1 2 SCHARF, J. THOMAS. (1874). CHRONICLES OF BALTIMORE : being a complete history of baltimore town and baltimore city from the ... earliest period to the present time (PDF). Baltimore: Turnbull Bros. OCLC   983256953.
  7. 1 2 Naval Chronicle, Vol. 31, p.192.
  8. Lloyd's List №4852.
  9. 1 2 Cranwell and Crane (1940), pp. 377-78.
  10. 1 2 Maclay, Edgar Stanton (1899). A history of American privateers. Cornell University Library: New York : D. Appleton and Co. pp. 280–292.
  11. Lloyd's List 29 June 1813, №4782.
  12. Lloyd's List 18 May 1813, №4771.
  13. Lloyd's List 30 March 1813, №4757.
  14. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Butler, James (1816). American bravery displayed, in the capture of fourteen hundred vessels of war and commerce, since the declaration of war by the president. Printed by George Phillips (for the author). ISBN   066547881X. OCLC   1083487993.
  15. 1 2 Coggeshall, George (1861). History of the American privateers, and letters-of-marque, during our war with England in the years 1812, '13, and '14. Interspersed with several naval battles between American and British ships-of-war.
  16. Maclay, Edgar Stanton (1899), "PRIVATEERS AGAINST PRIVATEERS", A History of American Privateers, Cambridge University Press, p. 342, ISBN   9780511793707 , retrieved 2019-04-25
  17. Thomas Whitcombe (c. 1760–c. 1824), “12 at Midnight; the Hibernia Attempting to run the Comet Down,” Baltimore Heritage Digital Collections, accessed April 27, 2019, https://collection.baltimoreheritage.org/items/show/166