Career
She was commissioned in May 1778 under the command of Captain Thomas Gaborian. She initially operated as part of the squadron off the Downs. There she captured the French privateer Agneau on 15 August. [2] Amphitrite shared with the sloop Fairy, and the cutters Griffin, Flying Fish, Sprightly, and Wells, in the capture on 24 May of the French privateers Dunkerque and Prince de Robcq, which had "eight ransomers" aboard. [3] Then on 6 July Amphitrite and the cutter Rambler captured the shallop Samuel and Elizabeth.
In 1780 Amphitrite passed under the command of Captain Robert Biggs. She was among the vessels sharing in the proceeds of the capture in January 1780 of the brig Kitty and the ship Jolly Tar. [4] [lower-alpha 1] Biggs sailed Amphitrite to North America in May that year. On her arrival she joined Graves's squadron.
In June 1781 Admiral Mariot Arbuthnot sent Amphitrite and several other vessels to attempt to intercept some French reinforcements from entering Boston. [5]
On 30 June Amphitrite captured the brig Adventure. [6] One month later, on 30 July, Medea, Amphitrite, and the armed ship General Monk shared in the capture of the schooner Neptune. [6] The squadron that Arbuthnot sent to Boston recaptured HMS Atalanta on 7 July. [5]
On 7 September 1781 Medea captured Belisarius, "a fast sailing frigate of 26 guns and 147 men, belonging to Salem". Medea captured her off the Delaware River. Amphitrite and Savage shared in the capture. [6] The Royal Navy took her into service as the sixth rate Bellisarius, but then sold her in 1783, after the end of the war.
On 10 September Admiral Graves received two letters from Biggs dated 10 September, at Boston. Biggs mentioned that together with the armed ship General Monk, Amphitrite had captured four prizes. Then on 4 September she had encountered a French ship of the line and a frigate off Cape Ann, but had escaped them. Lastly, Biggs reported that on 2 September Chatham had captured the French frigate Magicienne on 2 September off Cape Ann. Biggs reported that the French lost 60 men killed and 40 wounded; the British lost one man killed and one man wounded. [7]
Between 20 August and 31 October Amphitrite made a number of captures:
- Experiment, privateer of 300 tons, 20 men and 22 guns;
- Endeavour, of 70 tons, eight men, carrying beef, port, etc.;
- Union, of 100 tons, nine men, carrying beef, port, etc.;
- St. John, of 90 90 tons, 10 men, carrying plank;
- Minerva, of 95 tons, 10 men, carrying tobacco;
- Dolphin of 100 tons, 11 men, carrying plank;
- Nero, carrying tobacco; and lastly,
- Revenge privateer, of 40 tons, 30 men, and eight guns. [8]
Amphitrite may have come under the command of Captain Robert George temporarily in November 1781. [9] [lower-alpha 2]
Between 11 November and 23 March 1782, Amphitrite took three vessels: the schooner Betsey (12 January), and the brigs Sally (13 February) and Peggy (20 February). [10] Amphitrite and Amphion then took the privateer Franklin on 3 April off the Chesapeake. She was in ballast. Five days later the same two captured the brig Gale, off Cape Henry. She was taking coffee to Amsterdam. Then on the 14th, they took the brig Patty, also off Cape Henry. She was carrying flour to Havana. That same day they took the brig Nymphe, also off Cape Henry, and also carrying flour to Havana. [11]
On 2 May Amphitrite and Amphion were off Match Springs when they captured three vessels on their way to Philadelphia. Fair American and the brig Adriana were carrying rum and dry goods. The sloop Alpin was carrying sugar and coffee. [11] Hornet and the privateer Digby shared in the capture of the Adriana and the Alpin. [12]
Observer, a sloop of 10 guns, was the Massachusetts privateer Amsterdam, which Amphitrite captured on 19 October. [13] The British took Observer into the Royal Navy and sold her on 21 October 1784.
On 12 November, Amphitrite captured the brig Adventure, the schooner Salisbury, the ship Rattlesnake, and the sloop Phoenix. [14] On 5 December she captured the ship Bellisarius, brig Marianne, and schooner Neptune. [15]
Amphitrite continued to take prizes in 1782:
- Betsey (4 March);
- Peggy 22 April;
- Nymphe (5 October);
- Franklin (25 June);
- ship Enterprise recaptured (3 September); and lastly,
- Vigilante (20 December). [16]
Amphitrite, Fowey, Hope, and Thames captured the sloop Lark. [17] Amphitrite alone captured the ship Salem Packet, the brigs Amsterdam, Dolphin, and Minerva, and the sloops Dove and Fox. [18]
American records show that in late January 1783, Amphitrite, Captain Robert George, captured the former Massachusetts privateer and now letter of marque Apollo. She sent Apollo into New York where she was condemned and sold in March.
HMS Lively was a 20-gun post ship of the Royal Navy, launched in 1756. During the Seven Years' War she captured several vessels, most notably the French corvette Valeur in 1760. She then served during the American Revolutionary War, where she helped initiate the Battle of Bunker Hill. The French captured her in 1778, but the British recaptured her 1781. She was sold in 1784.
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 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 Ariel was a 20-gun Sphinx-class sixth-rate post ship of the Royal Navy. The French captured her in 1779, and she served during the American Revolutionary War for them, and later for the Americans, before reverting to French control. Her French crew scuttled Ariel in 1793 to prevent the British from recapturing her.
HMS Eurydice was a 24-gun Porcupine-class post ship of the Royal Navy built in 1781 and broken up in 1834. During her long career she saw service in the American War of Independence, the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars. She captured a number of enemy privateers and served in the East and West Indies, the Mediterranean and British and American waters.
HMS Lowestoffe was a 32-gun fifth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy. Built during the latter part of the Seven Years' War, she went on to see action in the American War of Independence and the French Revolutionary War, and served often in the Caribbean. A young Horatio Nelson served aboard her shortly after passing his lieutenant's examination.
HMS Daedalus was a 32-gun fifth rate frigate of the Royal Navy, launched in 1780 from the yards of John Fisher, of Liverpool. She went on to serve in the American War of Independence, as well as the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars.
HMS Spitfire was a Tisiphone-class fireship of the Royal Navy. She served during the years of peace following the end of the American War of Independence, and by the outbreak of the French Revolutionary Wars, had been reclassified as a 14-gun sloop-of-war. Spitfire went on to serve under a number of notable commanders during a successful career that saw her capture a considerable number of French privateers and small naval vessels. She spent most of her career in Home waters, though during the later part of her life she sailed further afield, to the British stations in North America and West Africa. She survived the Napoleonic Wars and was eventually sold in 1825 after a period spent laid up.
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 Camilla was a Royal Navy 20-gun Sphinx-class post ship. Camilla was built in Chatham Dockyard to a design by John Williams and was launched in 1776. She served in the American Revolution, the French Revolutionary Wars, and the Napoleonic Wars, before being sold in 1831.
HMS Surprise was a 28-gun Enterprise-class sixth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy, which served throughout the American Revolutionary War and was broken up in 1783.
HMS Medea was a 28-gun Enterprise-class sixth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy. Medea was first commissioned in May 1778 under the command of Captain William Cornwallis. She was sold for breaking up in 1805.
HMS Sprightly was a 10-gun cutter of the Royal Navy, built to a design by John Williams, and the name ship of her two-vessel class of cutters. She was launched in 1778. The French captured and scuttled her off the Andulasian coast in 1801.
HMS Vulture was a 14 to 16-gun ship sloop of the Swan class, launched for the Royal Navy on 18 March 1776. She served during both the American Revolutionary War and the French Revolutionary War, before the Navy sold her in 1802. Vulture is perhaps best known for being the warship to which Benedict Arnold fled on the Hudson River in 1780 after unsuccessfully trying to betray the Continental Army's fortress at West Point, New York to the British.
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.
Bunker Hill was a Massachusetts privateer sloop, first commissioned in 1778. She made two cruises, capturing three prizes, but during her second cruise the Royal Navy captured her at Saint Lucia. The Royal Navy took her into service as HMS Surprize. She served in the Caribbean, and was one of the two sloops that captured Essequibo and Demerara in March 1781. She sailed to Britain in late 1782 where the Navy sold her in 1783. The French Navy may have purchased her. If so, they sold her in 1789.
The French brig Duc de Chartres was built between 1779 and 1780 at Le Havre as a 24-gun privateer. As a privateer she captured one British warship before in 1781 the Royal Navy captured her. The Royal Navy took her into service as HMS Duc de Chartres. She then captured several American privateers and armed merchant vessels, and one French naval corvette in a noteworthy single-ship action. The Navy sold Duc de Chartres in 1784.
The Battle of Blomindon took place on 21 May 1781 during the American Revolutionary War. The naval battle involved three armed U.S. privateer vessels against three Nova Scotian vessels off Cape Split, Nova Scotia. American Privateers caught two Nova Scotia Vessels. The first Nova Scotia vessel was re-captured by Lieut Benjamin Belcher. The second Nova Scotia vessel was overtaken by the captured crew under the command of Captain Bishop. The privateers were taken to Cornwallis and put on trial.
HMS Otter was the French merchantman Glanure, which the Royal Navy (RN) captured early in 1778. The Royal Navy took her into service as the sloop HMS Otter and she served in the American theatre. The Navy sold her in 1783. She became a merchantman and then a slave ship. She made two complete voyages bringing slaves to Jamaica. The French captured her in December 1795 as she was on her way to deliver her third cargo of slaves.
Belisarius was launched in Massachusetts in 1781. The British Royal Navy captured later that year and took her into service as HMS Bellisarius. She captured several American privateers, including one in a single ship action, before the Navy sold her in 1784. Her new owners sailed her as a merchantman between London and British Honduras. In 1787 she carried emigrants to Sierra Leone for the Committee for the Relief of the Black Poor, before returning to trading with Honduras. She was wrecked in September 1787.
Great Britain