| History | |
|---|---|
 Great Britain | |
| Name | Fowey |
| Launched | 1798 |
| General characteristics [1] | |
| Tons burthen | 221, [2] or 22188⁄94, or 22192⁄94 [3] (bm) |
| Length | 67 ft 3 in (20.5 m) |
| Beam | 21 ft 9 in (6.6 m) |
| Depth of hold | 8 ft 6 in (2.6 m) |
| Complement | |
| Armament |
|
Fowey was launched in 1798. She spent a little more than a year-and-a-half as a hired armed cutter for the British Royal Navy. She was sold in 1800 and became a privateer. Her fate after 1804 is currently obscure.
His Majesty's hired armed cutter Fowey served under contract from 10 November 1798 until 20 June 1800. [1] During this period she captured, alone or with others, a number of merchant vessels.
On 8 July 1799 the Portuguese schooner Teijo, of Lisbon, came into Plymouth. She had been sailing from Bristol to Lisbon when the French privateer Vengeance had captured her on 1 July. Fowey, Lieutenant Derby, recaptured Teijo on 3 July. [4] Fowey, Lieutenant John Darby, had recaptured Friends on 17 June, and Teijo on 2 July. [5] On 17 July the Bristol underwriters and shippers on Tejo wrote a letter of appreciation for Lieutenant Derby's initiative in her recapture. [6]
On 12 July the sloop Goodwill came into Cork. She had been sailing from Waterford to Lisbon when she was taken.Fowey had recaptured her. [7]
On 23 July Juno, of Stettin, Joachim Frederick Rogerson, came into Plymouth. She had been sailing from Dantzig to Nantes with a cargo of time when Fowey, Lieutenant Darby, detained her. [8] [9] The capture took place off the Eddystone.
On 12 October Two Friends, J. Schmid, master, came into Plymouth. She had been sailing from Havana to Altona when Fowey captured her. [10] Two Friends had been carrying a cargo of cotton, sugar, and coffee. The vessel was Danish, but the cargo was suspected of being Spanish. [11]
Fowey was one of the seven Royal Navy vessels that shared in the proceeds of the capture of a French sloop on 25 November, and a French brig on 28 November. [12]
Fowey was offered for sale at Plymouth on 12 July 1800. The advertisement noted that she was less than two years old, had been a hired armed cutter, and that she would make a good privateer.
Captain Christopher Parnall acquired a letter of marque on 24 February 1801. [2]
On 8 June 1803, Captain John Rowe acquired a letter of marque. By this time she had been converted to a brig. [2]
In August 1803, Lloyd's List reported that the Fowey privateer had taken Amité, which had been sailing from Newfoundland to Bordeaux, and sent her into Guernsey. [13]
In November, the Fowey privateer, of Guernsey, recaptured Flying Fish and sent her into Guernsey. Flying Fish, of Cork, had been sailing from Gibraltar to Cork when a French privateer had captured her. [14]
Citations
References
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.
During the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars the Admiralty also made use of hired armed vessels, one of which was His Majesty's Hired armed cutter Swan. Actually there were two such cutters, 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 cutter Lurcher was a 12-gun cutter that served the Royal Navy from 15 August 1795 until 15 January 1801 when a French privateer captured her in the Channel.
HMS Moucheron was a French privateer, built in 1799, that the British captured in 1801 and that the British government purchased in 1802 for the Royal Navy. She foundered in 1807 in the Mediterranean without leaving a trace.
During the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, the British Royal Navy employed at least two cutters designated His Majesty's hired armedcutterNile.
London Packet was a merchant vessel launched on the Thames in 1791. She served the Royal Navy as a Hired armed ship from 31 March 1793 to at least 30 September 1800, and despite some records, apparently for a year or more beyond that. She then returned to sailing as a merchant man until an American privateer captured her in May 1814.
HMS Seagull, was a Royal Navy Diligence-class brig-sloop, launched in 1795. During the French Revolutionary Wars she shared in the capture of a number of small French and Dutch privateers. Then early in the Napoleonic Wars she participated in a notable single-ship action before she disappeared without a trace in 1805.
The French brig Suffisante was launched in 1793 for the French Navy. In 1795 the Royal Navy captured her and took her into service under her existing name. HMS Suffisante captured seven privateers during her career, as well as recapturing some British merchantmen and capturing a number of prizes, some of them valuable. She was lost in December 1803 when she grounded in poor weather in Cork harbour.
His Majesty's hired armed schooner Lady Charlotte served the British Royal Navy on contract between 28 October 1799 and 28 October 1801. She had a burthen of 120 85⁄94 tons (bm), and was armed with twelve 12-pounder carronades. As a hired armed vessel she captured several privateers and recaptured a number of British merchant vessels. After her service with the Royal Navy, she apparently sailed as a letter of marque until the French captured her in 1806.
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.
His Majesty's hired armed cutter John Bull served the British Royal Navy under contract between 5 May 1804 and 26 November 1806. She then became a privateer. She detained numerous vessels before she herself fell prey to a French privateer in 1809. She then became a French privateer. Her ultimate fate is currently unknown.
Earl Spencer was the French privateer brig Aventurier which the British Royal Navy captured in December 1799. The French prize became a British privateer in 1800. After the Peace of Amiens she became a merchant vessel that traded between London and Gibraltar. She apparently was condemned in 1802, perhaps after having received damage there.
Three hired armed cutters named Earl Spencer served the British Royal Navy during the French Revolutionary or Napoleonic Wars. Two, both cutters, served at the same time between 1799 and 1801. A third, variously referred to as a tender or cutter, served from 1803 to 1814.
Princess of Wales was launched at Stockton in 1795. She made three voyages as an "Extra ship", i.e., under charter, for the British East India Company (EIC). On her return she became a West Indiaman. A privateer captured her in 1803 as she was coming back to England from Jamaica, but British privateers immediately recaptured her. She continued sailing to Jamaica though later, under a new owner, she traded more widely. She probably foundered in 1828, and is last listed in 1830.
Perseverance was launched in Virginia in 1797 and was registered in Great Britain in 1799, A privateer captured her in 1800 but the British Royal Navy recaptured her within days. She traded with Baltimore, Brazil, and the Mediterranean. She made one voyage as a whaler that resulted in pirates taking her in 1821, killing her master and at least some of her crew, and burning her.
Minerva was the French letter of marque Minerve, a former privateer from Bordeaux, that the Royal Navy captured in September 1804. Samuel Enderby & Sons purchased her c.1805 for use as a whaler. She was taken off the coast of Peru circa August 1805 after a crewman had killed her captain and her crew had mutinied.
The Royal Navy purchased HMS Barracouta on the stocks in 1782. After she had served for almost ten years patrolling against smugglers, the Navy sold her in 1792. She became the privateer Thought, which had a successful cruize, capturing several prizes including a French privateer, but then was herself captured in September 1793. She served the French Navy under the names Pensée, Montagne, Pensée, and Vedette, until the British recaptured her in 1800 and renamed her HMS Vidette. The Royal Navy sold her in 1802.
Resolution was a privateer lugger operating out of Guernsey in 1793. She made several captures, most notably of the French East Indiaman St.Jean de Lone.
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.
Sea Horse was launched in 1782 at Gravesend for the Hudson Bay Company. She then became a merchantman that a French naval squadron captured in 1794. She became the Spanish merchantman Principe Fernando that a Guernsey privateer recaptured in January 1800. She became a merchantman again, and then made one voyage as a whaler. She became a Government transport and it was as a transport that she was wrecked in 1816 with great loss of life.