HMS Barbadoes was originally a French privateer and then a slave ship named Brave or Braave. A British slave ship captured her in September 1803. From 1803 to 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.
Barbadoes was a privateer named Braave, or Brave. The key source for British warships declares that she was built in Bordeaux in 1799 and captured on 16 March 1804,[4] or in May 1803,[5] in either case in the West Indies. In both cases it attributes the capture to HMS Loire. HMS Loire did capture a privateer named Braave on 16 March 1804, but on the Irish station, not in the West Indies. Furthermore, Braave, was armed with sixteen 12 and 6-pounder guns and had a crew of 110 men.[6] She therefore appears to have been about half the size of the vessel that became Barbadoes.
There was a French vessel named Brave that Lloyd's List reported the British had brought into St Lucia in 1803. Lloyd's List referred to her as being the former privateer Brave, and to have been coming from Africa.[7] The vessel in question was the negrier (slave ship) Brave that the British captured in 1803, in one account as she was coming from West Africa. Brave, under the command of Jean-David Sers and with owner Jacques Conte, had embarked 760 (or 733) captives in West Africa and arrived at an unspecified port in the British Caribbean with 700.[8][lower-alpha 1]
By a French account, two privateers from Liverpool had captured Brave of the coast of Angola on 14 September 1803 after an action of two hours that left eight Frenchmen dead and 14 wounded.[9] By British accounts, there was only one captor, the Liverpool slave ship Tamer, which suffered five men killed and seven wounded in the engagement. Furthermore, although Tamer and Brave had possibly stopped at St Lucia, they sailed on to Barbados. On the way, Tamer developed a leak and foundered. Brave carried the crew and slaves of both vessels into Barbados.
French sources describe Brave as a privateer frigate based in Bordeaux and probably built there circa 1799. She was pierced for 40 guns. From 1799 to 1800 she was under a Captain Dreans. From 1800 to September 1800 she was under François Beck.
On 12 May 1801, Lloyd's List (LL) reported that the French privateer Braave had captured Nimble, Nuttell, master, as she was sailing from Demerara to Liverpool. HMSRévolutionnaire recaptured Nimble and Marina, another vessel that Braave had also taken.[12][13]
In its next issue, Lloyd's List reported that HMSGlenmore had recaptured two merchant vessels that had fallen prey to the French privateer Braave. One vessel was Camilla, Preston, master, which had been sailing from Grenada to Liverpool. The other was Guiana Planter, Wedge, master, which had been sailing from St Kitts to Portsmouth. Glenmore sent Guiana Planter into Cork.[14]
Braave later captured six more merchant vessels, Shedden, Victory, Vine, Ann, Urania, and Cecilia. Braave put all her prisoners on Ann, Silk, master, and let her go. Glenmore recaptured Urania and set off after Braave.[15]Glenmore then recaptured West Indian, Victory, Vine, and Cecilia. They and Urania all arrived at Cork.[16]
From 1802 to June 1803 Braave served as a merchantman under Jean-David Conte.[17] He had purchased her from Jacques Ségur. She sailed on 18 June 1802 for the Indian Ocean under the command of Captain David Sers. She carried a dozen passenger and two cargoes, one cargo of goods intended for the slave trade with Mozambique, and one, consisting in particular of white and red wine, for the French settlers at Isle de France (Mauritius). Brave arrived at Port Louis on 9 September after a record-setting voyage. The plan had been that the local merchants Tabois and Dubois would hire her for 50,000 piastres to sail to India's Coromandel Coast to acquire textiles. Instead, the merchants provided locally available textiles. It is possible that Brave traded with Africa's east coast, while waiting to sail to the west. She sailed for Angola in late April 1803.[18]
As discussed above, the British captured Brave on 14 September, together with her 750 or so captives and 300,000 francs of Indian merchandise.[19]
British privateer
In September 1804 Ceres, Penelope, and Thetis, were one day out of Barbados when they encountered a French privateer. They were able to repulse the privateer and came into Barbados. There the governor informed them that the privateer they had encountered was Buonaparte, and he dispatched the "private ship of war" Barbadoes in pursuit.[20]
Barbadoes was the former French privateer Braave, and this was her second cruize since the British had captured her. On her first cruize she reportedly had captured the French privateer that had captured the British sloop of warLilly and had taken the French privateer into Barbados.[20] The Lilly in question was probably the vessel that the French privateer Dame-Ambert had captured on 15 July 1804, making Dame-Ambert the privateer that Barbadoes had captured.[lower-alpha 2]
Royal Navy frigate
The inhabitants of Barbados purchased Barbadoes and presented her to the Admiralty. She was initially rated as a 32-gun fifth rate; she was later rated as a 28-gun sixth rate.
Captain Joseph Nourse commissioned Barbadoes in October 1804 in the West Indies. Four days into her first cruize, on 17 October, she captured the French privateer Napoleon, of 18 guns and 150 men under the command of enseigne de vaisseau Suyrvens Pitot. She was nine days out of Guadeloupe also on her first cruize, and had captured nothing. Barbadoes had encountered Napoleon at 17°40′N59°54′W / 17.667°N 59.900°W / 17.667; -59.900 and had captured her after a chase of 13 hours during which Napoleon had thrown two of her guns overboard. Napoleon was the former Duke of Kent Packet.[22][23][lower-alpha 3]
Then in November Barbadoes captured the French privateer Heureux of ten 6-pounder guns and 80 men. She was nine days out of Guadaloupe and had made no captures. During the chase Heureux had thrown all her guns overboard.[25]
On 8 April 1805 Barbadoes captured the French privateer Desirée, of 14 guns and 71 men. Desirée replied to several broadsides with small arms fire, and as a result suffered seven men killed or wounded.[26]
In June 1805 Barbadoes was in company with Netley as they escorted a convoy of 15 merchant vessels back to Britain.[27] They had the misfortune on 8 June to encountered a Franco-Spanish fleet under Admiral Villeneuve. The two British warships managed to escape, but Villeneuve's fleet captured the entire convoy, valued at some five million pounds. Villeneuve sent the convoy to Guadeloupe under the escort of the frigate Sirène.[28] On her way Sirène encountered several British frigates. She escaped after burning the merchantmen.[29]
Barbadoes arrived at Portsmouth on 17 June and was laid up. Between May 1809 and June 1810 she underwent a large repair. Captain Brian Hodgson commissioned her in May 1810 and sailed for the East Indies on 5 September. Early into the voyage, on 22 september, Barbadoes captured Gallicia and General Palafox.[30] In July 1811 Hodgson transferred to HMSOwen Glendower(1808), and Captain Edward Rushworth replaced him on Barbadoes.
On 25 August 1811, Barbados, Captain Rushworth, and Hotspur captured Eseperance, of Havre de Grace, and Guillaume Chorede (or Guillaume Chere), from Cherbourg, both laden with timber. The captured vessels arrived in Portsmouth.[31][32]
On 7 September 1811 Barbadoes was in company with the brig-sloopGoshawk cruising eastward of Cape Barfleur. There they encounter seven French gun-brigs coming from Boulogne. Each gun-brig carried three long 24-pounder guns and a mortar, and a crew of 75 men. Barbadoes and Goshawke chased the gunbrigs into Calvados, driving one of them on shore.
Barbadoes subsequently sailed on 23 November to Jamaica as an escort to a large fleet of merchantmen. Captain Rushworth died on 14 June 1812, aged 25. Rushworth's replacement was Captain Thomas Huskisson.
On 22 August 1812, the USRCJames Madison was engaged in privateering, dogging a convoy under escort by Barbadoes. Barbadoes captured James Madison after a seven-hour chase. James Madison was pierced for 14 guns, and carried ten, but had thrown two overboard during the chase. She had a crew of 65 or 70 men. Captain Huskisson, of Barbadoes, reported that she was seven days out of Savannah but had made no captures. He described her as coppered and copper-fastened, two years old, and a remarkably fast sailer.[33]
Fate
On the evening of 27 September 1812 Barbadoes was at Sable Island escorting three vessels from Bermuda to Newfoundland. She grounded and it proved impossible to free her. When the pumps could not keep up with the water entering from leaks, Captain Huskisson decided to abandon ship; one man drowned as the crew tried to reach shore. Before they left, 6300 dollars that she carried were lowered into the water attached to buoys marking the spot.[34]
Two other vessels in the convoy also wrecked on Sable Island. The surviving vessel went into Halifax, Nova Scotia. There Admiral Sir John Warren, commander in chief of the North America and West Indies Station, despatched HMSShannon and the schoonerBream to rescue the crew and retrieve the money Barbadoes was carrying. The rescuers arrived on 10 October, almost two weeks after Barbadoes had wrecked.
The subsequent court-martial of Huskisson, his officers, and crew blamed the loss of Barbadoes on a very strong current having carried Barbadoes onto the island.[34]
Notes
↑ Several sources give this Brave a burthen of 364 or 386 tons, about half of that of Barbadoes, or the Brave owned by Conte, but consistent with the Brave that Loire had captured.
↑ Dame-Ambert was formerly the British packet ship Marlborough, captured in 1803. Dame-Ambert became a privateer schooner commissioned in Guadeloupe under Charles Lamarque with 75 to 140 men and sixteen 6-pounder guns.[21]
↑ Duke of Kent had been taken around June 1804 while sailing from Falmouth to Barbados and Jamaica. Her captors had taken her into Guadaloupe.[24]
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.
HMS Cruizer was a Royal Navy Cruizer-class brig-sloop built by Stephen Teague of Ipswich and launched in 1797. She was the first ship of the class, but there was a gap of 5 years between her launch and the ordering of the next batch in October 1803; by 1815 a total of 105 other vessels had been ordered to her design. She had an eventful wartime career, mostly in the North Sea, English Channel and the Baltic, and captured some 15 privateers and warships, and many merchant vessels. She also participated in several actions. She was laid up in 1813 and the Commissioners of the Navy sold her for breaking in 1819.
HMS Moucheron was a French privateer, built in 1799, that the British captured in 1801. The British government purchased her in 1802 for the Royal Navy. She foundered in 1807 in the Mediterranean without leaving a trace.
HMS Hawk was an 18-gun sloop-of-war, previously the French privateer Atalante, that HMS Plantagenet captured in 1803. The Royal Navy took Atalante into service as HMS Hawk; she foundered in 1804.
HMS Netley was originally the French privateer brig Déterminé, which the Royal Navy captured in 1807 and took into service. She was lost at sea on the Leeward Islands station in 1808.
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.
HMS Pert was the French privateer Bonaparte, a ship built in the United States that HMS Cyane captured in November 1804. The Royal Navy took Bonaparte into service as HMS Pert. Pert was wrecked off the coast of what is now Venezuela in October 1807.
HMS Rosario was a 20-gun sixth rate of the British Royal Navy. She was previously the French privateer Hardi, which HMS Anson captured in 1800. The navy took her into service as HMS Hardi but renamed her HMS Rosario later in 1800. She was sold in 1809.
Sorcière was the name of several privateers that sailed during the Napoleonic Wars. Three were French vessels, but one was British, though the British Sorciere was probably the Sorcière launched in 1803 at Saint-Malo that the British Royal Navy captured in April 1806.
HMS Matilda was the French corvette Jacobine, which was launched in March 1794 and which the British captured in the West Indies seven months later. Matilda served in the West Indies until 1799, capturing six small privateers. In 1799 she sailed to Woolwich where she became a hospital ship. Between 1805 and 1807 she was the flagship of Rear-Admiral Henry Stanhope. She was broken up in 1810.
HMS Busy was launched in 1797 as the only member of her class of brig-sloops. She captured one French privateer and numerous small merchantmen, but spent most of her career escorting convoys to and from the West Indies. She foundered in 1806 while serving on the Halifax, Nova Scotia, station.
Elizabeth was launched at Bermuda in 1786 or 1790. She first appeared in Lloyd's Register (LR), in 1802. She then made four voyages as a slave ship in the triangular trade in enslaved people. During the second of these voyages a French privateer captured her. After the end of British participation in the trans-Atlantic trade in enslaved people, she spent a little over a year as a hired armed tender under contract to the British Royal Navy. She returned to mercantile service trading with Madeira or Africa, until another French privateer captured her in early 1810.
Horatio was launched in 1800 at Liverpool. She made four voyages as a slave ship in the triangular trade in enslaved people. During two of these voyages she was captured and recaptured. Shortly before the British slave trade ended she left the slave trade and sailed between Britain and South America and as a West Indiaman. She was wrecked in 1817.
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.
General Augereau was a ketch launched in 1801 and recommissioned in Bayonne in 1803 as a privateer. She made a small number of captures during her first cruise, but then the British Royal Navy captured her in February 1805 during her second cruise. She became a British merchantman, sailing between Cork and Liverpool, and was last listed in 1813.
Tamer, was a French prize. She made two complete voyages as a slave ship from 1801 in the triangular trade in enslaved people. She foundered in 1803 off Barbados as she was delivering her captives on her third slave voyage. Before leaving the coast of Angola on this last voyage, she had captured a French slave ship in a sanguinary single ship action. Tamer sailed with her prize, which rescued Tamer's crew and slaves when Tamer foundered. The insurers refused to pay on Tamer's loss, on the grounds that she had deviated from sailing in the most expeditious manner by periodically waiting for her prize to catch up. The court supported the insurers on appeal.
Ellis was a French prize, captured in 1797, and possibly built in that year also. Liverpool merchants purchased her. She made five complete voyages as a slave ship in the triangular trade carrying enslaved people from West Africa to the British West Indies. She was lost at sea on 23 April 1806, on her sixth voyage before she could take on any captives.
Several vessels have been named Venus for the planet Venus or the Roman goddess Venus:
HMS Wolf was a Merlin-class sloop launched at Dartmouth in 1804. She captured or destroyed four small Spanish or French privateers before she was wrecked on 4 September 1806 in the Bahamas.
Beaver was launched in 1796 at Liverpool. She made seven complete voyages as a slave ship in the triangular trade in enslaved persons. She was captured and retaken once, in 1804, and captured a second time in 1807, during her eighth voyage.
References
Demerliac, Alain (1999). La Marine de la Révolution: Nomenclature des Navires Français de 1792 à 1799 (in French). Éditions Ancre. ISBN9782906381247. OCLC492783890.
Demerliac, Alain (2003). La Marine du Consulat et du Premier Empire: Nomenclature des Navires Français de 1800 à 1815 (in French). Éditions Ancre. ISBN9782903179304. OCLC492784876.
Hepper, David J. (1994). British Warship Losses in the Age of Sail, 1650–1859. Rotherfield: Jean Boudriot. ISBN0-948864-30-3.
Lyon, David (1993). The Sailing Navy List. London: Brassey Publications.
Winfield, Rif (2008). British Warships in the Age of Sail 1793–1817: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates. Seaforth Publishing. ISBN978-1-86176-246-7.
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