Privateer: 18 × 6–pounder guns + two smaller guns[2]
Royal Navy:18 × 6-pounder guns
HMS Bonetta was the French privateer Huit Amis, launched at Bordeaux in 1798 that the British Royal Navy captured in May. In her brief naval career she captured a number of small prizes, one of them a 2-gun privateer. Bonetta was wrecked in 1801.
Huit Amis was purpose-built for privateering, quite new, and on her first cruise when HMSEndymion captured her on 10 May 1798 on the Irish Station. Huit Amis was provisioned for a four-month cruise, had been out 20 days, but had taken nothing.[3] Her commander was Bernard Benquey.
Royal Navy
Huit Amis arrived at Deptford on 11 July 1798 and was registered and taken into the Navy on that day. Commander Henry Vansittart commissioned her in August while she was undergoing fitting.[1]
Bonetta sailed for Newfoundland on 8 June 1799. Then on 10 October Bonetta sailed from Portsmouth with a convoy for Newfoundland. From there she was to sail to Halifax, Nova Scotia with horses for His Royal Highness the Duke of Kent.[4]
She sailed via Portugal and in early January 1800 a report arrived that the fleet had tried to get over the bar at Oporto but that only two vessels of the convoy had been able to do so due to the severity of the surf. Bonetta and the rest of the convoy had been beating to and fro off the port for 52 days. Three Portuguese Brazilmen had stuck on the bar and had been beaten to pieces.[5]
At some point in the first half of 1800 Bonetta recaptured the American schooner Fame, of Charlestown. She was carrying flour, soap, candles, and claret. Bonetta also detained the American schooner Maria, belonging to Kingston. She was sailing from the Bay of Honduras.[6]
In June Bonetta destroyed the Spanish feluccaDel Carmen. Del Carmen was armed with two 4-pounder guns and had a crew of 30 men.[7]
At around the same time Bonetta captured a number of small merchant vessels:[7]
Danish schooner Friendship of 80 tons, carrying provisions and dry goods;
Danish schooner Liberty, of 100 tons, carrying provisions and dry goods;
Spanish polaccaSan Josef, of 100 tons, carrying cocoa;
American schooner Betsey, of 110 Tons, carrying provisions.
On 13 February 1801 Vansittart was promoted to post captain and command of HMSAbergavenny, stationed at Port Royal, though he may not have taken command until November. In June Commander J.Managhan replaced Vansittart, only to be replaced by Commander Thomas New.[1]
Lowestoffe sailed from Kingston, Jamaica on 22 July 1801, and met a convoy five days later at Port Antonio. The escorts consisted of Lowestoffe, Acasta, Bonetta, and the schooners Musquito (or Muskito), and Sting. On 10 August Lowestoffe ran broadside onto Little Inagua (“Heneaga”) Island. The change in currents that caused Lowestoffe to wreck also caused the wreck of five, or six merchantmen.[8][9] In the late afternoon of 11 August Acasta left Bonetta and three of her own boats to help the wrecked vessels and then took command of the convoy.[10]
RYS Falcon (1824), design inspired by Huit Amis
Loss
During the night of 25 October 1801 Bonetta ran aground on a reef in the Jardines south of Cuba. She bilged, fell on her side, and was wrecked. The subsequent courtmartial absolved Commander New of all responsibility. However, it found the second officer, who had been on duty, guilty of ignoring New's orders and sleeping on watch. It ordered him to forfeit all pay due to him, to be dismissed the service, never to serve in the Navy again, and to spend two years in the Marshalsea prison.[11][12]
Legacy
The design of Huit Amis would inspire that of RYSFalcon, launched in 1824.[13]
Briot, Jacqueline; Briot, Claude (1993). Clippers français. Chasse-Marée Armen. ISBN2-903708-46-0.
Demerliac, Alain (1796). La Marine de la Révolution: Nomenclature des Navires Français de 1792 A 1799 (in French). Éditions Ancre. ISBN2-906381-24-1.
Grocott, Terence (1997). Shipwrecks of the Revolutionary & Napoleonic Eras. London: Chatham. ISBN1861760302.
Hepper, David J. (1994). British Warship Losses in the Age of Sail, 1650–1859. Rotherfield: Jean Boudriot. ISBN0-948864-30-3.
Winfield, Rif (2008). British Warships in the Age of Sail 1793–1817: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates. Seaforth Publishing. ISBN978-1-86176-246-7.
Ten ships of the Royal Navy have carried the name HMS Spitfire, while an eleventh was planned but renamed before entering service. All are named after the euphemistic translation of Cacafuego, a Spanish treasure galleon captured by Sir Francis Drake.
HMS Pickle was a topsail schooner of the Royal Navy. She was originally a civilian vessel named Sting, of six guns, that Lord Hugh Seymour purchased to use as a tender on the Jamaica station. Pickle was at the Battle of Trafalgar, and though she was too small to take part in the fighting, Pickle was the first ship to bring the news of Nelson's victory to Great Britain. She also participated in a notable single-ship action when she captured the French privateer Favorite in 1807. Pickle was wrecked in 1808, but without loss of life.
HMS Babet was a 20-gun sixth-rate post ship of the British Royal Navy. She had previously been a corvette of the French Navy under the name Babet, until her capture in 1794, during the French Revolutionary Wars. She served with the British, capturing several privateers and other vessels, and was at the Battle of Groix. She disappeared in the Caribbean in 1800, presumably having foundered.
HMS Apollo, the fourth ship of the Royal Navy to be named for the Greek god Apollo, was a fifth-rate frigate of a nominal 36 guns. She was the name ship of the Apollo-class frigates. Apollo was launched in 1799, and wrecked with heavy loss of life in 1804.
Vénus was a corvette of the French Navy that the British captured in 1800. Renamed HMS Scout, she served briefly in the Channel before being wrecked in 1801, a few days after taking a major prize.
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 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 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 Persian was a Cruizer-class brig-sloop built by Daniel List and launched at Cowes in 1809. She captured two privateers before she wrecked in 1813.
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.
Thirteen ships of the Royal Navy have borne the name HMS Bonetta:
HMS Netley was launched in 1798 with an experimental design. During the French Revolutionary Wars she spent some years on the Oporto station, where she captured many small privateers. The French captured her in 1806, early in the Napoleonic Wars. They lengthened her and she became the 17-gun privateer Duquesne. In 1807 the British recaptured her and the Royal Navy returned her to service as the 12-gun gun-brig HMS Unique. She was expended in an unsuccessful fire ship attack at Guadeloupe in 1809.
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 Deux Amis was the French privateer schooner Deux Amis, launched in 1796. The British captured her in December 1796 and the Royal Navy took her into service under her existing name. She made one capture before wrecking in May 1799.
HMS Musquito was a 12-gun schooner, previously a French privateer. The Royal Navy captured her in 1799. Musquito having just been lost to capture, the navy took their capture into service as Musquito. During her brief service on the Jamaica station Musquito captured several merchantmen and a small armed vessel. The Navy sold her in 1802.
HMS Barbuda was commissioned into the Royal Navy in 1780 after having briefly served as an American privateer. Barbuda was one of the two sloops that captured Demerara and Essequibo in 1781, but the French Navy captured her there in 1782 and took her into service as Barboude. The French Navy sold her to private owners in 1786, and she served briefly as a privateer in early 1793 before the French Navy purchased her again and named her Légère. She served them until mid-1796 when the Royal Navy captured her and took her into service as HMS Legere. She was wrecked off the coast of Colombia, without loss of life, in February 1801.
HMS Swallow was an 18-gun Albatross-class brig-sloop of the British Royal Navy, launched in 1795 and sold in 1802. During her naval career she captured a number of French privateers while on the Jamaica station. After her sale she became an armed whaler sailing under a letter of marque. As a privateer she captured two French whaling vessels but then is no longer listed after 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 1807 while serving on the Halifax, Nova Scotia, station.
Auspicious was launched at Newcastle in 1799 and was wrecked at Heneaga on 16 August 1801. She was part of a convoy sailing from Jamaica to England when strong, unsuspected currents drove her, five other merchantman, and one of their escorts, the frigate HMS Lowestoffe on to the shore.
HMS Morne Fortunee was originally the Bermudian schooner Glory, launched in 1801 but captured in 1803 as the French privateer Morne Fortunée. She was wrecked in 1804.
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