Ronco was a French Illyrien or Friedland-classbrig built at Venice and launched in April 1808. HMS Unite captured her less than two months later. The Royal Navy took her into service as HMS Tuscan. She served in the Mediterranean and participated in one action that earned her crew a Naval General Service Medal. She was first offered for sale in 1816 and sold in 1818. At that time mercantile interests purchased her and she became a whaler, making six voyages before being condemned as no longer seaworthy in March 1840 and sold in April during her seventh voyage.
Unite encountered Ronco at daybreak on 2 May 1808 some seven or eight miles NW of Cape Promontore, Istria. Ronco fired several broadsides that cut up Unite's sails and rigging, and then surrendered. Captain Campbell of Unite described Ronco as being armed with sixteen 32-pounder carronades, and "only Two Months off the Stocks, measures about Four Hundred Tons, extremely well found, and in my Opinion, very fit for His Majesty's Service."[5]Ronco had barely struck when Unite sighted a frigate and a schooner to windward. Unite immediately gave chase, but her quarry escaped into Pola.[5] The Royal Navy heeded Campbell and took Ronco into service as HMS Tuscan.
HMS Tuscan
Tuscan was commissioned in August 1808 in the Mediterranean under Commander John Gourley (acting). One month later Commander John Wilson replaced Gourly.[2]
Between 30 October and 1 November Tuscan was part of Admiral Benjamin Hallowell's squadron at the Bay of Rosas. On 30 October, boats from Tuscan joined with boats from HMSTigre, Cumberland, Volontaire, Apollo, Topaze, Philomel, and Scout in a cutting out attack after a squadron off the south of France chased an enemy convoy into the Bay of Rosas in the Battle of Maguelone.[6] The convoy had lost its escorting ships of the line, Robuste and Lion, which had run aground near Frontignan and been scuttled by their crew. Still an armed storeship of 18 guns, two bombards, and a xebec protected the convoy. Some of the British boats took heavy casualties in the clash, but Tuscan had only one officer slightly wounded, and one seaman dangerously wounded. By the following morning the British had accounted for all eleven vessels in the bay, burning those they did not bring out.[7] In January 1813, prize money was awarded to the British vessels that took part in the action for the capture of the ships of war Grondeur and Normande, and of the transports Dragon and Indien. A court declared Invincible a joint captor. Head money was also paid for the Grondeur and Normande and for the destruction of Lamproie and Victoire.[8] In 1847 the Admiralty awarded the Naval General Service Medal with clasp "1 Nov. Boat Service 1809" to all surviving claimants from the action.
In December 1810 Commander George Matthew Jones replaced Wilson. However, in January 1811, Lieutenant Phillips (acting) took temporary command. Jones returned to command by February, holding it until through 1812.[2]
In 1811 Tuscan supported the British Army in Spain, especially in the efforts to break the siege of Cadiz by landing troops to attack the French at Isla de León. In 20 February a naval force of warships and transports under the command of Captain Edwin BraceHMS St Albans weighed anchor. The 7000 troops Lieutenant-General Thomas Graham landed at Algeciras and marched to Tariffa. There the transports the artillery and military stores in heavy surf. Subsequently, Graham participated in the Battle of Barrossa.The Royal Navy ships involved, in addition to St Alban's and Tuscan, included Druid, Comus, Sabine, Ephira, Steady and Rebuff.[9]
In October, a French force was pressing on Spanish General Francisco Ballesteros in the vicinity of San Roque, Cádiz. Ballasteros asked for assistance. Rear-Admiral Legge, the commander of the British fleet at Cadiz, dispatched a force on 11 October to Tariffa to come to his assistance. Stately, Columbine and Tuscan carried eight companies each from the 47th and 87th regiments of foot, a detachment of 70 men from the 95th Regiment, and four light artillery pieces. The troops landed on 18 October and the next day the French advanced along the coast. Fire from Tuscan, Stately's boats, and Gunboat 14 sent them into retreat.[10]
When the War of 1812 broke out, the British captured several American ships in the Mediterranean. Tuscan shared with San Juan, Sabine, Lavinia, Hindostan, and Hyacinth in the American droits for Phoenix, Margaret, Allegany and Tyger, captured on 8 August 1812.[11][lower-alpha 1]
Tuscan arrived at Portsmouth on 11 October, having convoyed transports from Gibraltar.[13]
In May 1813, Jones recommissioned Tuscan, which returned to the Mediterranean. Tuscan shared with Pomone and some other British vessels in the salvage for the recapture two Spanish vessels El Correv Diligente de Carraccas and Nostra Senora de los Desemperados on 26 May.[14][lower-alpha 2]
On 6 or 8 July 1815 a privateer of one gun and 20 men came into Genoa. Tuscan had captured her off Elba,[16] of 3 July.[lower-alpha 3]
Tuscan arrived at Portsmouth on 29 November from the west.[13]
Disposal: The Principal Officers and Commissioners of the Navy offered the "Tuscan brig, of 334 tons", lying at Plymouth for sale on 28 August 1816.[19] However, she did not sell. Still, though in ordinary at Plymouth, Tuscan was able to be of some use. On 8 November 1817 the port authorities moored her to serve as a breakwater sheltering workmen building a new pier.[13] Finally, after numerous unsuccessful listings, Tuscan sold on 29 January 1818 Thomas Pittman for £800.[2]
Whaler
Tuscan became a whaling ship, making her first of seven whaling voyages in 1819. Her owners were Alexander & George Birnie.[4]Tuscan first appears in the Register of Shipping in 1819 with C. Colman, master, and "Burnie", owner.[3]
Captain Coleman sailed Tuscan on her first whaling voyage, leaving England on 5 October 1819.[4] In May 1820 she was at Port Jackson. There she loaded the oil that the whaler Martha had gathered before Martha was condemned as unseaworthy. Tuscan carried the cargo back to England.
For her second whaling voyage, Tuscan left London on 7 May 1821 and was at Portsmouth on 18 May.[4] She was under the command of Francis Stavers and bound for Timor. She sailed in company with Zephyr and Earl Morley. She arrive at Tahiti on 25 September and stayed into October 1821.[4] She brought with her as passengers the Rev. Mr. Tyerman, and Mr. George Bennett, whom the directors of the London Missionary Society had deputed to visit the islands, as well as the new missionary, the Rev. Mr. Jones, and Messrs. Armitage and Blossom, artisans, and their wives.[20] She revisited Tahiti on 22 April 1822. She visited Honolulu and by 1823 had 1500 barrels of sperm oil. On 2 June 1823 she was at Mauritius with about 200 tons of oil. Later she was reported off Madagascar with 200 tons of sperm oil leaking, otherwise she would be full. Tuscan arrived back in Britain on 20 October 1823 with 420 casks.[4]
Thomas Reed Stavers was Tuscan's captain for her third, and three subsequent whaling voyage. She left Britain on 17 January 1824, bound for the Sandwich Islands. She was at Tahiti from February to March 1826, and at Honolulu 18 to 20 May 1826. She was reported at Mowee and at Honolulu with 2200 barrels. Tuscan returned to Britain on 7 May 1827.[4]
Stavers and Tuscan left Britain on 16 September 1827 on her fourth whaling voyage. She was at Madeira on 27 September 1827. She was then at Honolulu on 5 November 1828 and at Tahiti in December 1828. She returned to Honolulu from 9 to 13 May 1829 and was there again on 1 October 1829 with 2150 barrels. Tuscan returned to Britain on 20 April 1830 2ith 520 casks of oil.[4]
Tuscan left Britain on her fifth whaling voyage on 5 September 1830. She was at Tahiti in March 1831. She sailed to Honolulu from Tahiti and Maui, arriving 29 April 1831. She was at Honolulu on 24 September 1831 with 110 barrels. However she left Maui on 9 May 1832 with 1400 barrels. From Maui Tuscan was at Honolulu between 27 October to 14 November 1832, with 1850 barrels. Stavers and Tuscan returned to Britain on 11 June 1833.[4]
Stavers and Tuscan left Britain on her sixth whaling voyage on 17 October 1833. She was at Tahiti 22 to 26 March 1834 with 60 barrels. She was then at Honolulu 16 May 1834 from Tahiti with 60 barrels. She visited Pitcairn Island on 8 March 1834. She then returned to Oahu where she stopped from 7 to 20 October 1834 with 500 barrels. On 8 April 1835 she had built up her catch to 800 barrels. From 5 October to 3 November she was at Honolulu with 1700 barrels, being repaired. She was at Tahiti 11 March 1836. She reached St Helena by 26 September, bound for London with 1950 barrels.[4]
Tuscan, Watson, master, left Britain in 1837. she was reported to have been at Tahiti from 24 February to 20 March 1838 with sperm oil. By 22 March she was reported to have gathered 850 barrels. She was reported to have been at Oahu from 14 to 21 October 1838, still with 850 barrels. She visited Maui and Lahaina but without catching anything. She was at Honolulu 2 to 22 September 1839 and reported that although she had been out 29 months, she had taken only 200 barrels in the preceding 12 months and 100 in the season. All whalers reported having done poorly. After 36 months out she was at New Zealand, with 1300 barrels.[4]
Fate
On 29 February 1840 there was a violent gale in the Bay of Islands.[21]Tuscan arrived there on 8 March, much battered by heavy gales.[22] One report gave the name of her master as "White".[23] On 24 March she was still there, with 1,300 barrels of sperm oil.[24]
Tuscan was condemned at the Bay of Islands in late March or early April 1840 as no longer seaworthy. She was sold at public auction on 6 April.[25]
Notes
↑ In May 1816 there was distribution to the sharing vessels of their portions of two-thirds of the first three American vessels and nine-tenths of Tyger. A first-class share was worth £120 16s0+1⁄2d; a sixth-class share was worth £1 19s 9+1⁄4d.[12]
↑ A first-class share of the prize money was worth £4 0s8+3⁄4d; a sixth-class share, that of an ordinary seaman, was worth 7d.[15]
↑ The proceeds for the vessel itself were paid in October 1832. A first-class share was worth £31 6s 10+1⁄2d; a sixth-class share was worth 10s 2+1⁄4d.[17] Head money was paid in February 1833. A first-class share was worth £43 6s 3d; a sixth-class share was worth 14s 1d. Unusually, the notice has the number of each class of shares issued, providing a breakdown of the structure of the crew.[18]
The Impérieuse was a 40-gun Minerve-class frigate of the French Navy. The Royal Navy captured her in 1793 and she served first as HMS Imperieuse and then from 1803 as HMS Unite. She became a hospital hulk in 1836 and was broken up in 1858.
HMS Eclipse was a Royal Navy Cruizer-class brig-sloop built by John King at Dover and launched in 1807. She served off Portugal and then in the Indian Ocean at the capture of the Île de France. Shortly thereafter she captured Tamatave. She was sold for mercantile service in 1815. She traded with India until 1823. Then between 1823 and 1845 she made seven voyages as a whaler.
HMS Lynx was a 16-gun ship-rigged sloop of the Cormorant class in the Royal Navy, launched in 1794 at Gravesend. In 1795 she was the cause of an international incident when she fired on USRC Eagle. She was at the Battle of Copenhagen in 1801, and during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars took numerous prizes, mostly merchant vessels but also including some privateers. She was also at the second Battle of Copenhagen in 1807. She was sold in April 1813. She then became the whaler Recovery. She made 12 whaling voyages in the southern whale fishery, the last one ending in 1843, at which time her owner had her broken up.
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.
Nettuno was a French Illyrien or Friedland-class brig built at Venice and launched in June 1807. HMS Unite captured her a year later off Zara. The Royal Navy took her into service as HMS Cretan. She served in the Mediterranean. She was sold in 1814. Between 1815 and 1831 she made five voyages as a whaler.
HMS Fawn was a Cormorant-class ship-sloop of the British Royal Navy, launched in 1807. Before she was sold in 1818 she captured one privateer and destroyed another, and participated in three campaigns. In all, her crew qualified for three clasps to the Naval General Service medal (NGSM). After the Royal Navy sold her in 1818 she became a whaler. She then made seven whaling voyages to the Pacific, and especially to the waters off New Zealand, between 1820 and 1844. She was broken up on her return from her last voyage.
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.
HMS Indian was a Bermuda-built sloop launched in 1805. She captured several small privateers while on the West Indies and Halifax stations before the Royal Navy sold her in 1817. Her main claim to fame, however, is that she was the first command of future Rear-Admiral Charles Austen, who was also the brother of the famed novelist Jane Austen. After the Navy sold her she became a whaler for Samuel Enderby & Sons. She apparently sailed for them until the mid-1830s; she then sailed for other owners until mid-1847, for a total of nine whaling voyages since leaving naval service.
HMS Foxhound was the French Navy's brig Basque, launched in 1809, that the British Royal Navy captured in 1809 and took into service as a 16-gun sloop. She had a relatively brief naval career in which she captured a number of merchant vessels. After the Navy sold her in 1816, she made some 10 or 11 whaling voyages between 1817 and 1848.
Antoinetta was a schooner launched in 1812 in America, possibly as Marie Antoinette, and captured in late 1813. New owners renamed her Antoinetta. She performed two sealing or whaling voyages between 1814 and 1818. Thereafter she traded between London and Trinidad; she was no longer listed after 1826.
Serpent was a French navy brig of the Palinure class, launched in 1807 at Paimbeouf (Nantes) as Rivolli, but renamed. HMS Acasta captured her in 1808 in the Caribbean and the British Royal Navy took her into service there as HMS Pert but renamed her Asp. The navy disposed of her in 1814. She then made five voyages as a whaler, and wrecked in December 1828 on her sixth voyage.
Perseverance was launched on the Thames in 1801. She then spent her entire career of 16 voyages as a whaler. Early in her career a French privateer captured her, but the British Royal Navy quickly recaptured her. Perseverance would herself later capture a vessel too. She was broken up in 1841.
Emma was a merchant vessel launched at Calcutta in 1809 that in 1810 served as a government armed ship in the British invasion of Île de France. In 1811 she sailed to England where she was sold. She then became a transport and later a whaler. Between 1815 and 1853 she made 11 whaling voyages. She was then sold and became a merchantman on the England-Australia run. Between 1851 and 1853 she made one more whaling voyage to the South Seas fisheries. She then returned to the England-Australia trade. In 1857 her home port became Hull, and she became a Greenland whaler, though that role may have begun as early as 1855. She was converted in 1864 to a screw steamer but was lost in April while seal hunting.
HMS Coquette was launched in 1807 and spent her naval career patrolling in the Channel and escorting convoys. In 1813 she engaged an American privateer in a notable but inconclusive single-ship action. The Navy put Coquette in ordinary in 1814 and sold her in 1817. She became a whaler and made five whaling voyages to the British southern whale fishery before she was lost in 1835 on her sixth.
Royal George was launched in 1803 as a brig for the Revenue Service. The Royal Navy purchased her in 1806 and renamed her HMS Bustard. She served on active duty between 1808 and 1815, distinguishing herself in operations in the Mediterranean. She then sailed to the West Indies. The Royal Navy sold her in 1815 and she became the whaler Royal George. She made three whaling voyages and was lost in 1825 on her fourth.
Sir Andrew Hammond was launched at Bermuda in 1800. She spent almost a dozen years as a West Indiaman. From 1812 on she was a whaler. On her first whaling voyage she sailed to the Pacific where the United States Navy captured her. She then served briefly in the United States Navy before the British Royal Navy recaptured her. She returned to whaling and made a further eight whaling voyages. She was lost in 1841 on her tenth whaling voyage.
Policy was launched at Dartmouth in 1801. She was a whaler that made seven whaling voyages between 1803 and 1823. On her second whaling voyage, in 1804, she was able to capture two Dutch vessels. On her fourth voyage the United States Navy captured her, but the British Royal Navy recaptured her. She was lost at Tahiti in 1824 on her eighth whaling voyage.
Thames was a Spanish vessel launched in 1804, almost certainly under a different name, and captured circa 1805. She became a whaler, making eight whaling voyages between 1805 and 1826. Although the registers carried Thames for some years after her return from her eighth voyage, there is no evidence that she ever sailed again.
Zephyr was a vessel built in the United States that the Royal Navy captured in late 1813. Between 1814 and 1840, when she was lost, she made eight voyages as a whaler in the southern whale fishery.
HMS Lyra was a Cherokee-class brig-sloop launched at Deptford in 1808 for the Royal Navy. In 1809 she was one of the vessels that participated in the Battle of Basque Roads. Thereafter, she captured numerous small prizes. Between 1812 and 1814 she served off the Spanish coast. In 1816 Lyra sailed to China as escort to a diplomatic mission. The Navy sold her in 1818. She then became a whaler. Between 1819 and 1833 she made five voyages in the southern whale fishery. She was last listed in 1833.
References
Winfield, Rif (2008). British Warships in the Age of Sail 1793–1817: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates. Seaforth Publishing. ISBN978-1-86176-246-7.
Winfield, Rif; Roberts, Stephen S. (2015). French Warships in the Age of Sail 1786–1861: Design Construction, Careers and Fates. Seaforth Publishing. ISBN978-1-84832-204-2.
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