History | |
---|---|
Great Britain | |
Name | HMS Duke of Rutland |
Acquired | April 1784 |
Fate | Sunk on 30 July 1784 |
General characteristics [1] | |
Propulsion | Sails |
Sail plan | Brig |
Armament | 6 guns |
HMS Duke of Rutland was a 6-gun brig of the Royal Navy. She was originally a mercantile brig, purchased in April 1784 at Jamaica by Vice-Admiral Gambier and commissioned that year under Lieutenant Brown. A hurricane on 30 July 1784 at Jamaica wrecked her.
Admiral Gambier had acquired two brigs but the Admiralty countermanded their purchase and ordered Gambier to sell them. In July the two, Duke of Rutland and Antelope, came into Port Royal to be prepared for sale. Duke of Rutland was anchored off the port when the hurricane on 30 July caused here to drag her anchors and to ground on the boathouse slip. When she was pulled off it was found that she had broken her back. She was sold locally for £220. The same hurricane sank Antelope on the western wharf. [2]
HMS Meleager was a 36-gun fifth-rate Perseverance-class frigate of the Royal Navy. She was launched in 1806 and wrecked on 30 July 1808 off Jamaica. During her brief career she captured two armed vessels and two merchantmen on the Jamaica station. She was named after Meleager, who could have been a Macedonian officer of distinction in the service of Alexander the Great, or a Meleager a character from Greek mythology.
HMS Antelope was a 14-gun brig of the Royal Navy. She was originally a mercantile brig, purchased in April 1784 at Jamaica by Vice-Admiral Gambier and commissioned that year under Lieutenant Robert Causzor. She sank in a hurricane on 30 July 1784 whilst at Jamaica.
HMS Amphitrite was a 24-gun Porcupine-class sixth-rate post ship of the Royal Navy. She served during the American Revolution primarily in the economic war. On the one hand she protected the trade by capturing or assisting at the capture of a number of privateers, some of which the Royal Navy then took into service. On the other hand, she also captured many American merchant vessels, most of them small. Amphitrite was wrecked early in 1794.
HMS Hinchinbrook was the French privateer Astrée, which the British captured in 1778 and took into the Royal Navy as a 28-gun sixth-rate frigate. She was Captain Horatio Nelson's second navy command, after the brig HMS Badger, and his first as post-captain. She was wrecked, with no loss of life, in January 1783.
HMS Leveret was a Cruizer-class brig-sloop built at Dover, England, and launched in 1806. She was wrecked in 1807.
HMS Foxhound was an 18-gun Cruizer-class brig-sloop built by King at Dover and launched in 1806. She participated in the battle of the Basque Roads in early 1809 and foundered later that year.
HMS Halcyon (1813) was a Royal Navy Cruizer-class brig-sloop that Edward Larking & William Spong built at King's Lynn and launched in 1813. She had one of the shortest lives of any vessel of her class.
HMS Rose was a 28-gun Enterprise-class sixth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy. Rose was first commissioned in August 1783 under the command of Captain James Hawkins.
HMS Orpheus was a 32–gun fifth rate frigate of the Royal Navy. She was launched in 1780, and served for more than a quarter of a century, before she was wrecked in 1807.
HMS Raposa was the Spanish brig Raposa, launched in 1804. She was captured A cutting out expedition in 1806 by boats from HMS Franchise in the western Caribbean captured her. The Royal Navy subsequently took her into service under her existing name. Raposa served in the Caribbean, repeatedly recapturing merchant ships that had fallen victim to French privateers. Thirteen months after being captured she ran aground while pursuing enemy ships. When they were unable to refloat Raposa, her crew set fire to her to avoid her capture, destroying her.
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.
His Majesty's hired armed cutter Admiral Mitchell served under two contracts for the British Royal Navy, one at the end of the French Revolutionary Wars and the second at the beginning of the Napoleonic Wars. She participated in several notable small engagements and actions. In 1806 the Admiralty purchased her and took her into service as the Sir Andrew Mitchell in 1807.
HMS Delight was a British Royal Navy 16-gun brig-sloop of the Seagull class launched in June 1806, six months late. She grounded off Reggio Calabria in January 1808 and was burnt to prevent her being salvaged.
HMS Acheron was the mercantile New Grove, launched at Whitby in 1799, that the Admiralty purchased in 1803 and fitted as a bomb-vessel. She served in the Mediterranean for about a year. On 3 February 1805 she and Arrow were escorting a convoy from Malta to England when they encountered two French frigates. Arrow and Acheron were able to save the majority of the vessels of the convoy by their resistance before they were compelled to strike. Arrow sank almost immediately after surrendering, and Acheron was so badly damaged that the French burnt her. However, the British vessels' self- sacrifice enabled almost all the vessels of the convoy to escape.
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 Thrush was launched in 1794 as the Prince of Wales, which served the Customs Service as a revenue brig. In 1806 the British Admiralty purchased her and the Royal Navy renamed her HMS Thrush as there was already an HMS Prince of Wales in service. Thrush spent her brief active service on the Jamaica Station. She was converted to a powder hulk in late 1809 and foundered at Port Royal in 1815; she was salvaged, and sold.
HMS Jane was the North Carolina ship General Nash. In September–October 1780 General Nash operated as a privateer and captured several British merchant vessels. The British captured General Nash when they took St Eustatius on 14 February 1781. The Royal Navy took General Nash into service as HMS Jane. In 1782 the American privateer Tartar captured Jane.
HMS Mentor was the Massachusetts letter of marque Aurora, commissioned in 1780. The Royal Navy captured her in July 1781 and took her into service as HMS Mentor. Mentor disappeared in 1783.
HMS Ranger was a merchant ship that the Royal Navy purchased on the stocks in May 1806. It registered her on 17 May 1806 as HMS Ranger but renamed her HMS Pigmy on 29 May 1806. Pigmy underwent fitting-out at Portsmouth between 12 June and 26 September 1806, apparently including conversion of her to a brig-rig.
HMS Redbridge was the mercantile schooner Union that the Royal Navy purchased in 1804. She wrecked at Nassau, Bahamas in November 1806.