HMS Esperance was launched in America in 1781, and is first listed in Lloyd's Register in 1784 under the name Clementina. She then served as a slave ship, sailing out of Liverpool on two slave trading voyages. In 1786 Brent and Co. purchased her, renamed her Ellis, and sailed her for three more voyages as a slaver. In 1793 she became the privateer Ellis. The French captured her, then the Spanish, and then the French recaptured her. After returning to French ownership, she became the FrenchcorvetteEsperance. The Royal Navy captured her in 1795 and took her into service as HMS Esperance. Thus, in her career, Esperance had changed hands six times.[1] She was sold in 1798.
The vessel that became Esperance was built in America and launched in 1781, probably under the name Clementina. She first appeared in Lloyd's Register in 1783.
1st slave trading voyage (1783–1784): Captain John Elworthy sailed from Liverpool on 19 September 1783. Clementina acquired her slaves in Congo North and arrived at Charleston on 29 March 1784 with 440 slaves. She sailed from Charleston on 2 July 1784 and arrived back at Liverpool on 5 August 1784. She had left Liverpool with 42 crew members and she suffered seven crew deaths on her voyage.[4]
2nd slave trading voyage (1784–1785): Captain Elworthy sailed from Liverpool on 7 December 1784. Clementina acquired her slaves at Bonny and arrived at Kingston, Jamaica on 3 June 1785 with 422. She sailed from Kingston on 24 July and arrived back at Liverpool on 16 September. She had left Liverpool with 44 crew members and she suffered 19 crew deaths on the voyage.[5]
In 1786 Bent & Co. purchased Clementina and renamed her Ellis, presumably after Ellis Bent, one of her owners. She remained in the slave trade.
3rd slave trading voyage (1786–1788): Captain John Ford sailed from Liverpool on 19 April 1786. Ellis acquired her slaves at Calabar and delivered then to Grenada. She arrived at Grenada on 4 April 1788 with 33 slaves. She left Grenada on 19 May and arrived back at Liverpool on 24 June. She had left Liverpool with 50 crew members and suffered 20 crew deaths over her journey of 716 days.[6]
Between her return and her next voyage, Ellis was almost completely rebuilt, and from the change in subsequent reports of her burthen, enlarged.
4th slave trading voyage (1789–1791): Captain Joseph Matthews sailed from Liverpool on 3 June 1789 and arrived in Africa on 8 October. Ellis gathered her slaves first at Cape Coast Castle and then at Anomabu. She arrived at the island of St Vincent with 389 slaves, and landed 380. At some point Captain Thomas Given replaced Matthews as he was her master when she arrived at St Vincent. Ellis sailed from St Vincent on 17 February 1791 and arrived back at Liverpool on 30 March. She had left Liverpool with 42 crew members and she suffered five crew deaths on her voyage.[7]
5th slave trading voyage (1791–1792): Captain Given sailed from Liverpool on 29 June 1791 and arrived in Africa on 24 August. She gathered her slaves at Bonny and sailed from Africa on 11 November. She arrived at Montego Bay on 5 January 1792. She had embarked 400 slaves and arrived with 346. She sailed from Montego Bay on 6 February and arrived back at Liverpool on 24 March. She had left Liverpool with 30 crew embers and suffered four crew deaths on her voyage.[8] There is a parallel record, also for 1791–1792, that Ellis under the command of Thomas Heart, and with the same itinerary. It, however, records Ellis as embarking 464 slaves and arriving with 455.[9] There is no evidence in Lloyd's List's ship arrival and departure data for the period of any vessel with Heart, master.
The history of Clementina/Ellis, as outlined in Lloyd's Register is at the end of the article in the section Lloyd's Register. The entries in Lloyd's Register are broadly consistent with respect to masters' names and years with those from the database on slave voyages.
In 1793, Bent & Co. decided to use Ellis as a privateer. Ellis, with John Levingston as master, received a letter of marque on 3 June 1793.[3]
Three times captured (1793)
The French frigateGracieuse, under the command of Captain Chevillard, captured Ellis on 22 July 1793.[10][11]
The French took her into service as Elise.[1] Later that summer the Spanish captured her.[1] In November ownership returned to the French who renamed her Esperance.[1][12]
On 8 January 1795, Argonaut, under the command of Captain Alexander John Ball, captured Esperance on the North America station.[18]Esperance was armed with 22 guns (4 and 6-pounders), and had a crew of 130 men. She was under the command of lieutenant de vaisseau De St. Laurent and had been out 56 days from Rochfort, bound for the Chesapeake. Argonaut shared the prize money with Oiseau, under Captain Robert Murray.[19]
The French ambassador to the United States registered a complaint with the President of the United States that Argonaut, by entering Lynnhaven bay, either before she captured Esperance or shortly thereafter, had violated a treaty between France and the United States.[20] The French also accused the British of having brought Esperance into Lynnhaven for refitting for a cruise. The President passed the complaint to the Secretary of State, who forwarded the complaint to the Governor of Virginia. The Governor inquired into the matter of the British Consul at Virginia.[20] The British Consul replied that the capture had taken place some 10 leagues off shore. The weather had forced Argonaut and her prize to shelter within the Chesapeake for some days, but that they had left as soon as practicable. Furthermore, Argonaut had paroled her French prisoners when she came into Lynnhaven, and if she had entered American territorial waters solely to parole her French prisoners no one would have thought that objectionable.[21] The authorities in Virginia took a number of depositions but ultimately nothing further came of the matter.
Royal Navy service
Because she was captured in good order and sailed well, Rear Admiral George Murray, the British commander in chief of the North American station, put a British crew aboard and sent Esperance out on patrol with Lynx, under the command of John Poo Beresford, on 31 January.[18]
On 1 March the two vessels captured the Cocarde Nationale (or National Cockade), a privateer from Charleston, South Carolina, of 14 guns, six swivels and 80 men. Esperance and Lynx recaptured the ship Norfolk, of Belfast, and the brig George, of Workington.[18]
On 20 July, Esperance, in company with the frigates Thetis and Hussar, intercepted the American vessel Cincinnatus, of Wilmington, sailing from Ireland to Wilmington. They pressed many men on board, narrowly exempting the Irish revolutionary Wolfe Tone, who was going to Philadelphia.[22]
Esperance was formally commissioned into the Royal Navy in August under Commander Jonas Rose.[1]
On 4 May 1796 Esperance was sailing in company with Spencer and Bonetta when they sighted a suspicious vessel.[23]Spencer set off in chase while shortly thereafter Esperance saw two vessels, a schooner and a sloop, and she and Bonetta set off after them. Spencer sailed south-southeast and the other two British vessels sailed southwest by west, with the result that they lost sight of each other. Spencer captured the French gun-brig Volcan, while Bonetta and Esperance captured the schooner Poisson Volant.[23]
Poisson Volant was sailing from Aux Cayes to New York and turned out to be the former HMSFlying Fish that two French privateers had captured in June 1795 while she was on her way to Jamaica.[24] At the time of her recapture she had some eight or ten days earlier met with the French ship Concorde. She was under the command of a sub-lieutenant from Concorde and had a crew of 38 men. Poisson Volant's crew had cut down her gunwales and thrown some of her guns overboard during the chase.[23]
Fate
Esperance arrived at Portsmouth on 3 November 1797 and was paid off.[1] On 31 May 1798 the Admiralty listed for sale "the Esperance Sloop, Burthen 3259⁄94 tons".[25] She was sold on 7 June 1798 for £600.[1]
Lloyd's Register
Year
Name
Master
Owner
Trade
Notes
1783
Clementina
J. Elworthy
Thomas Moss & Co.
Liverpool - Africa
280 tons (bm); American built, launched 1781
1784
Clementina
J. Elworthy
Thomas Moss & Co.
Liverpool - Africa
Ditto.
1785
Unavailable online
1786
Ellis
Jn. Ford
Bent & Co.
Liverpool – Africa
280 tons (bm); American built, launched 1781. Annotation: Florentine ’83 Note: there is no Florentine in 1783.
1787
Ellis
J. Ford
Bent & Co.
Liverpool – Africa
280 tons (bm); American built, launched 1781.
1788
Unavailable online
1789
Ellis
J. Ford J. Mathews
Bent & Co.
Africa – Liverpool Liverpool – Africa
280 tons (bm); American built, launched 1781; almost rebuilt
1790
Ellis
J. Matthews
R. Bent & Co.
Liverpool - Africa
300 tons; American built, launched 1781
1791
Ellis
Matthews Illegible T. Gibbons
Bent & Co.
Liverpool - Africa
Ditto.
1792
Ellis
T. Gibbons
R. Bent & Co.
Liverpool–Africa
333 tons (bm); American built, launched 1781
1793
Ellis
Gibbons J. Leviston
Bent & Co.
Liverpool –Africa
333 tons (bm); American built, launched 1781; 6-pounder guns
Notes
↑ "...the corvette L'esperance dropped anchor, bearing Robespierre's warrant for the Commissioners' arrest and return to Paris to account for their stewardship."[17]
Brooks was a British slave ship launched at Liverpool in 1781. She became infamous after prints of her were published in 1788. Between 1782 and 1804, she made 11 voyages from Liverpool in the triangular slave trade in enslaved people. During this period she spent some years as a West Indiaman. She also recaptured a British merchantman and captured a French merchantman. Brooks's last voyage shipping enslaved people was to Montevideo in the South Atlantic where she was condemned as unseaworthy in November 1804.
HMS Duguay-Trouin was an 18-gun French privateer sloop launched in 1779 at Le Havre. Surprise captured her in 1780 and the British Royal Navy took her into service under her existing name. It sold Duguay-Trouin on 30 October 1783. She then became the West Indiaman Christopher. She captured several French merchant vessels. Later she became a Liverpool-based slave ship, making five voyages in the triangular trade in enslaved people. She was lost at Charleston in September 1804 in a hurricane.
Lady Penrhyn was an American vessel launched in 1777 that the British captured in 1782. Liverpool merchants purchased her and employed her in the African slave trade between 1783 and 1794. A squadron of the French navy drove her onshore on the coast of Africa in 1794.
Elliott was launched at Liverpool in 1783. She made ten voyages as a slave ship in the triangular trade, carrying enslaved people from West Africa to the West Indies. Next, she made one voyage as a whaler. She then became a merchantman, sailing between England and South America. In November 1807 French privateers captured her.
Eliza was launched in America in 1780 and taken in prize in 1782. She entered the Liverpool registry in 1783, 1786, and again in 1792. She made nine voyages as a Liverpool-based slave ship in the triangular trade in enslaved people. She was lost in an explosion on her tenth voyage after she had already embarked her captives. All the captives died, as did her captain and most of her crew. The explosion occurred during a single ship action on 17 December 1797, with a French privateer.
Hannah was built at Liverpool in 1786. She made six complete voyages as a slave ship. French frigates captured her in 1794 as she was sailing to West Africa outward bound on her seventh slave trading voyage.
Vulture was built in France 1777 and captured. By early 1779 she was sailing as a privateer out of Liverpool. She then became a slave ship in the triangular trade in enslaved people. She made 10 voyages transporting enslaved people and was captured in 1795 on her 11th such voyage.
Dispatch was built in Bermuda in 1784 and came to England possibly as early as 1786. In 1792 she made a voyage as a slave ship carrying slaves from Africa to the West Indies in the triangular trade in enslaved people. She was then briefly a privateer before returning to the slave trade. The French captured her in 1795 while she was on her third slave trading voyage.
Resource was launched at Bermuda in 1792, possibly under another name, and sailed from Liverpool from 1798 on. She made four voyages as a slave ship in the triangular trade in enslaved people. The French Navy captured her in 1805 at the very beginning of her fifth voyage. However, the British recaptured her when her captors sent her into the Cape of Good Hope, not realising that the Royal Navy was capturing the Cape.
Harriot was launched in Liverpool in 1786. For many years she was a West Indiaman, sailing between Liverpool and Barbados. In 1796 a French frigate captured her, but the British Royal Navy quickly recaptured her. She became a slave ship in the triangular trade in enslaved people. At the beginning of her of her first slave trading voyage a French privateer captured her, and again the Royal Navy quickly recaptured her. She made five slave trading voyages in all. Thereafter she traded with South America. She was last listed in 1814 with stale data.
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 Ellis:
Little Joe was launched in 1784 in Liverpool as a slave ship. She made six complete voyages from Liverpool in the Atlantic triangular slave trade in enslaved people. On her seventh voyage a French privateer captured her, but a British letter of marque recaptured her. She did not return to the slave trade and was last listed in 1795.
Liverpool Hero was built in France in 1777, probably as Jeune Emilia. She was taken in prize in 1780. In 1781 she entered into the triangular trade in enslaved people. From 1781 she made six complete voyages from Liverpool as a slave ship. On her fourth enslaving voyage she suffered an exceptionally high mortality rate among the captives she had embarked. Her third voyage had been marred by high mortality, but on the fourth 330 captives, 59% of the number she had embarked, died. She was lost in 1794 off the coast of Africa on her seventh voyage, probably with her crew and captives.
Molly was launched at Liverpool in 1778 as a slave ship. Between 1778 and 1807 she made 18 complete voyages in the triangular trade in enslaved persons. During this period she also suffered one major maritime incident and captured two ships. After the end of Britain's involvement in the trans-Atlantic slave trade, Molly became a merchantman trading with the West Indies, Africa, Brazil, Nova Scotia, and Africa again. She was last listed in 1832, giving her a 54-year career.
True Briton was launched at Liverpool in 1775. She made two voyages as a slave ship in the triangular trade in enslaved people. During the second of these voyages there was an unsuccessful insurrection by the captives she was carrying. Then in 1777–1778 she made another enslaving voyage, this time under the name John. On her return to Liverpool, she became the privateer Bellona, and succeeded in taking several prizes. Bellona then made three enslaving voyages. In 1786 her ownership changed, and so did her name. She became Lord Stanley, and under that name proceeded to make 11 more enslaving voyages. In 1794, at Havana, a deadly fever spread through the vessel, apparently after she had landed her captives. On her last voyage the captain acted with such brutality towards a black crew member that the man, who providentially survived, sued the captain when the vessel arrived at Liverpool and won substantial damages.
Bloom was launched in the Thirteen Colonies in 1781. She was taken in prize in 1782. She became a Liverpool-based slave ship and from 1783 on made four complete voyages in the triangular trade in enslaved people. She was broken up in 1789.
Brothers was launched in 1782 at Liverpool as a Guineaman. She made seven complete voyages as a slave ship in the triangular trade in enslaved people. A French privateer captured her in 1795, on her eighth voyage after she had embarked her captives. In a highly unusual move, the privateer sold Brothers and the captives she was carrying to the master of a Spanish vessel that the privateer had captured. The purchaser then took Brothers into Havana.
Golden Age was launched at Havana in 1779, almost certainly under another name. She was taken in prize circa 1783. From late 1783 she sailed from Liverpool as a slave ship in the triangular trade in enslaved people. She made four complete voyages. On her third her captives rebelled, but were unsuccessful. A French private frigate captured her in 1793 after she had disembarked her captives from her fifth enslaving voyage. Her captors took her into Philadelphia where she was sold to a French owner who named her Republican, and sailed her to France.
Bud was launched at Liverpool in 1783. Between 1783 and 1800 she made 12 complete voyages as a slave ship in the triangular trade in enslaved people. In 1796 she repelled an attack by a faster, better armed, and more heavily crewed French privateer in a single ship action. Then in 1798, a French privateer captured her in another single ship action after Bud's short but sanguinary resistance. The Royal Navy quickly captured her, and her captor. On her 13th enslaving voyage she was condemned at Kingston, Jamaica after she had arrived with her captives.
Palmer, William Pitt; Sherwin McRae; Raleigh Edward Colston; Henry W Flournoy; Virginia (1875–1893) "Calendar of Virginia State papers and other manuscripts: ... preserved in the Capitol at Richmond". (Richmond: R.F. Walker).
Roche, Jean-Michel (2005). Dictionnaire des bâtiments de la flotte de guerre française de Colbert à nos jours. Vol.1. Group Retozel-Maury Millau. ISBN978-2-9525917-0-6. OCLC165892922. (1671-1870)
United States. President.; United States. Dept. of State (1815) "State papers and publick documents of the United States from the accession of George Washington to the presidency, exhibiting a complete view of our foreign relations since that time ... ". (Boston, Printed and published by T.B. Wait & Sons).
Winfield, Rif (2008), British Warships in the Age of Sail 1793–1817: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates, Seaforth, 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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