Dame Ernouf (1807 privateer)

Last updated

History
Civil and Naval Ensign of France.svg France
NameDame Ernouf
NamesakeGeneviève Miloent, wife of Jean Augustin Ernouf, governor of Guadeloupe
RenamedDiligent (1810)
General characteristics
Complement
  • Dame Ernouf:130
  • Diligent:97-120
Armament
  • Dame Ernouf:10 guns, later 6 to increase her speed
  • Diligent:2 × 12-pounder guns + 16 × 24-pounder carronades

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.

Contents

Origins

By one source Dame Ernouf was the privateer brig Barbara, of 185 tons (bm), that the French privateer General Ernouf had captured on 15 September 1807 and had taken into Guadeloupe. [1] However, the vessel that General Ernouf captured was the British Royal Navy schooner HMS Barbara, an Adonis class schooner of 110 tons (bm), that her captor took into Cayenne. She became the French privateer Pératy, which the Royal Navy recaptured her in 1808.

Dame Ernouf

Dame Ernouf was commissioned in Guadeloupe in late 1807 under Alexis Grassin who had earlier captained Général Ernouf. Under Grassin she was based in Lorient and later in Nantes, from August 1808 to July 1809. [1]

On 11 September 1808, Dame Ernouf captured Brutus, of and for New York, Edwards, master. [2] Brutus was returning from Bengal when she was captured. Her captors sent her into Cayenne where she arrived on 5 October; Brutus was condemned there. [3] [lower-alpha 1] Dame Ernouf was recommissioned in Nantes in April 1809.

On 17 June Dame Ernouf left Guadeloupe, carrying Madame Ernouf back to France for her health. Dame Ernouf arrived at Lorient on 28 July. On this voyage she captured several British merchant vessels: schooner Antelope and brig Hanna, and the ships Joseph, Swifise [sic], and Diana. [5] Lloyd's List describes Antelope as a Spanish schooner that Dame Ernouf, of six guns, captured on 17 June as Antelope was sailing from St Thomas's to Martinique. [6]

A report from Paris dated 1 March 1810 stated that Dame Ernouf had recently arrived at Bordeaux with three prizes, a ship carrying sugar, coffee, and indigo, a brig with cotton, and a ship with oil and cod. [7]

On 24 July 1810 Dame Ernouf captured two Spanish vessels, one sailing in ballast from London to Caracas, and the other carrying ironmongery from Bristol to Cadiz. Dame Ernouf sank the first and sent the second into Brest. [8]

The next day the West Indiaman Starling, Coulson, master, was returning to London from Martinique and St Lucia when she encountered Dame Ernouf, of 18 guns and 130 men, nine days into a cruise from Brest. Dame Ernouf captured Starling, but three days later, on 28 July, HMS Seine recaptured Starling off Brest. [9]

Dame Ernouf was decommissioned in Nantes; she was soon recommissioned as a privateer under the name Diligent. [10]

Diligent

Diligent made several successful cruises under Grassin. [11] From June 1811 to December 1812, Diligent operated from Nantes under Alexis Grassin

On Diligent, Grassin had captured six ships by July 1811. On 23 August 1812, he captured the schooner HMS Whiting, [12] and on 8 September the 10-gun brig HMS Laura. [13] [14]

In late December, Diligent arrived in Saint-Nazaire from Philadelphia, laden with despatches from the French ambassador to the USA. [10]

Diligent was last mentioned in French records as being at Saint-Nazaire in December 1812. However, on 24 December 1813 Lloyd's List reported that Derwent had recaptured Racehorse, which the French privateer Diligent, of 14 guns and 120 men, had captured. Racehorse had been sailing from Newfoundland to Teignmouth when captured. [15] [lower-alpha 2]

The same report stated that Diligent had captured seven other vessels, and then had captured the Portuguese brig Rio de Mandego as the brig was sailing from Liverpool to Cape Verde. Diligent put the crews from the vessels she had captured on board Rio de Mandego, which arrived at Plymouth on 21 December. [15]

Notes

  1. ↑ A week after HMS Reindeer, Franchise, Aurora, Daedalus, and Pert captured the town and port of Samana, on 18 November they captured two French 5-gun privateer schooners. One was Guerrière, Louis Telin, master, with a crew of 110 men; the other was Exchange with a crew of 104. The British also took three merchant vessels: the schooner Diana and a brig, both laden with fish, and the sloop Brutus, laden with coffee. [4]
  2. ↑ Racehorse, of 123 tons (bm), had been launched at Teignmouth in 1802. [16]

Citations

  1. 1 2 Demerliac (2003), p. 323, no.2757.
  2. ↑ La Nicollière-Teijero (1896), p. 428.
  3. ↑ Lloyd's List no.4317 – accessed 11 May 2016.
  4. ↑ "No. 16223". The London Gazette . 24 January 1809. pp. 109–110.
  5. ↑ La Revue Normande: Histoire, littérature, sciences & arts (1892), Vol. 1–2, pp.222–3.
  6. ↑ Lloyd's List, no. 4379 – accessed 11 May 2016.
  7. ↑ Lloyd's List, no.4440 – accessed 11 May 2016.
  8. ↑ Lloyd's List no.4486– accessed 11 May 2016.
  9. ↑ Lloyd's List №4481.
  10. 1 2 La Nicollière-Teijero (1896), p. 431.
  11. ↑ La Nicollière-Teijero (1896), p. 432.
  12. ↑ Fonds Marine, p.468
  13. ↑ Fonds Marine, p.515
  14. ↑ Lloyd's List №4712.
  15. 1 2 "The Marine List". Lloyd's List. No. 4832. 24 December 1813. hdl:2027/mdp.39015005689347.
  16. ↑ Lloyd's Register (1813), Seq.№R2.

Related Research Articles

Heureux was a 22-gun French privateer brig that the British captured in 1800. She served with the Royal Navy as the 22-gun post ship HMS Heureux. She captured numerous French and Spanish privateers and merchant vessels in the Caribbean Sea before she was lost at sea in 1806. Her fate remains a mystery to this day.

French frigate <i>Embuscade</i> (1789)

Embuscade ("Ambush") was a 32-gun frigate. She served in the French Navy during the War of the First Coalition before being captured by the British. Renamed HMS Ambuscade and later HMS Seine, she participated in the Napoleonic Wars in the Royal Navy. She was broken up in 1813.

French frigate <i>Aréthuse</i> (1812)

Aréthuse was a 46-gun frigate of the French Navy. She served during the Napoleonic Wars, taking part in a major single-ship action. Much later the vessel took part in the conquest of Algeria, and ended her days as a coal depot in Brest, France.

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

HMS Curieux was a French corvette launched in September 1800 at Saint-Malo to a design by François Pestel, and carrying sixteen 6-pounder guns. She was commissioned under Capitaine de frégate Joseph-Marie-Emmanuel Cordier. The British captured her in 1804 in a cutting-out action at Martinique. In her five-year British career Curieux captured several French privateers and engaged in two notable single-ship actions, also against privateers. In the first she captured Dame Ernouf; in the second, she took heavy casualties in an indecisive action with Revanche. In 1809 Curieux hit a rock; all her crew were saved but they had to set fire to her to prevent her recapture.

HMS Laura was an Adonis-class schooner of the Royal Navy, launched in 1806 at Bermuda. Laura served during the Napoleonic Wars before a French privateer captured her at the beginning of the War of 1812. She was briefly an American letter of marque before the British recaptured her in 1813. Despite having recaptured her, the British did not return Laura to service.

HMS Barbara was an Adonis class schooner of the Royal Navy and launched in 1806. A French privateer captured her in 1807 and she became the French privateer Pératy. The Royal Navy recaptured her in 1808. She was paid off in June 1814 and sold in February 1815.

HMS Spencer was a 16-gun brig-sloop of the Royal Navy, formerly the civilian Sir Charles Grey. The Admiralty purchased her in 1795, after having hired her in 1793-94, and renamed her HMS Lilly in 1800. The French privateer Dame Ambert captured her in 1804 and Lilly became the French privateer Général Ernouf. She blew up in 1805 while in an engagement with HMS Renard.

HMS Renard was the French privateer Renard, launched in 1797, that Cerberus captured in the Channel that same year. The Royal Navy took her into service under her existing name and she participated in some notable engagements on the Jamaica station before the Navy sold her in 1809.

HMS Diligent was the French naval brig Diligent, launched in 1800, that HMS Renard captured in 1806. The Royal Navy took her into service under her existing name, which it later changed, first to Prudente, and then to Wolf. During her two years of active duty with the Royal Navy she captured two small privateers. Wolf was laid up in 1808 and sold in 1811.

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.

Éole was an 18-gun corvette of the French Navy, launched, captured, and later commissioned in the Royal Navy in 1799 as HMS Nimrod after her capture by HMS Solebay. She was then "the finest and most handsome ship-sloop in the British navy". She was sold in 1811. Nimrod made three whaling voyages between 1811 and 1819. On her first she captured several American whalers. Nimrod was last listed in 1820.

During the Napoleonic Wars, at least four French privateer ships were named Général Ernouf, for Jean Augustin Ernouf, the governor of the colony of Guadeloupe:

At least three French privateers during the Napoleonic Wars were named Dame Ernouf, for Geneviève Miloent, wife of Jean Augustin Ernouf, governor of Guadeloupe:

Alexis Grassin was a highly successful French privateer, who operated during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars.

HMS Tobago was a schooner of unknown origin that the British Royal Navy purchased in 1805. In 1806 a French privateer captured her. The Royal Navy recaptured her in 1809 and took her into service as HMS Vengeur before selling her later that year.

HMS Alexander was the French privateer schooner Alexandre that the British Royal Navy captured in 1796, purchased, and took into service as a ship's tender to HMS Prince of Wales, and later a troopship. She was the victor in two single-ship actions against opponents of equal or greater force. The Navy sold her in 1802.

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 vessels carrying over 1100 slaves. Barbadoes became a powder ship in Jamaica that was later wrecked with her remains being sold.

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.

Oiseau was a privateer brig from Nantes, commissioned in May 1797. She had a short, but highly successful career. In her three to four months of cruising, before the Royal Navy captured her, Oiseau's captured eight prizes, seven of which were not recaptured. Her first prize required a single ship action. Her prizes had a cumulative value of Livres 1,168,150.

References

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.