HMS Grecian (1814)

Last updated

History
US flag 15 stars.svgUnited States
NameGrecian
OwnerIsaac McKim
BuilderThomas Kemp, Baltimore [1]
Launchedc.March 1812
CapturedCaptured on 2 May 1814
Naval Ensign of the United Kingdom.svg United Kingdom
NameHMS Grecian
Acquired
  • Captured on 2 May 1814
  • Purchased 3 November 1815
FateSold 1822
British-Red-Ensign-1707.svgUnited Kingdom
NameGrecian
OwnerD. Holbrow (captain)
Port of registryLondon
Acquired1823 by purchase
FateProbably lost 1829; last listed 1830
General characteristics [2]
Tons burthen22432⁄94, or 226, [3] or 229 bm
Length
  • 95 ft 11 in (29.2 m) (overall)
  • 74 ft 3 in (22.6 m) (keel)
Beam23 ft (7.0 m)
Depth of hold10 ft 5 in (3.2 m)
Sail plan schooner
Complement
  • Grecian:24-27
  • HMS:50
Armament
  • Grecian: 2 × 4-pounder + 2 × 6-pounder guns + 5 swivels
  • HMS: 8 × 18-pounder carronades + 2 × 6-pounder guns (Royal Navy)

Grecian was an American schooner launched in 1812. During the War of 1812 she received a letter of marque. The Royal Navy captured her on 5 February 1814 and took her into service as HMS Grecian. She was sold in 1822. In 1823 she became a merchantman. In 1824 the Chilean Navy captured her, but she escaped, and thereafter may have served for a time as a Spanish privateer. After the end of the Peruvian War of Independence she apparently returned to more conventional pursuits and was probably lost in 1829 though she was still listed in 1830 as sailing between London and Lima.

Contents

American service

Thomas Kemp of Baltimore designed Grecian with several innovations. She was pierced for 20 guns, though she never carried that many, and her gunports were unique, designed perhaps to save weight. [1] She had a long, curving stem, and a shallow, less convex bow.

Grecian's first captain was James Phillips, and under him she had made one voyage to France. [4]

She received letter of marque No. 944 in December 1813, [1] under Captain Knapp. She had not captured anything before the boats of HMS Jaseur cut her out under the guns of a battery field pieces on East River, in Chesapeake Bay on 2 May 1814. [5] The British cutting out party under Lieutenant West, first lieutenant of Jaseur, rowed up silently in the night, drove Knapp and the seven members of the crew on watch below deck, fastened the hatches, cut her cables, and sailed off. [4]

Royal Navy service

The British commissioned her as HMS Grecian under the command of Lieutenant Henry Jewry.

After the end of the Napoleonic Wars, Grecian was deployed on anti-smuggling duties in the Channel. On 14 March 1816 Grecian captured the smuggling vessel Betsey. [lower-alpha 1] Then a month later, on 18 April, Grecian was in company with the schooner HMS Rosario when they captured the smuggling vessel Nancy. [lower-alpha 2]

In May, Grecian captured three smuggling vessels. Then on 11 and 20 May she captured Active and Market Maid, of Hastings. [lower-alpha 3] The last day of May saw Grecian capture Po. [lower-alpha 4] On 30 July Grecian captured Ox, followed on 26 August with the capture of the Three Sisters. Lastly, on 6 December Grecian retrieved 84 kegs of contraband spirits from the sea. [lower-alpha 5]

On 3 May 1818 Grecian captured the smuggling lugger Fly. [lower-alpha 6]

On 18 August 1818 Lieutenant Nathaniel Martin was appointed captain of Grecian. [10] Between 30 August 1819 and 20 January 1820, Grecian made several small captures. [lower-alpha 7] Grecian made further sundry small captures on 16 May 1820, 27 March 1821, 20 April, 6 May, and 2 August. [lower-alpha 8]

Disposal

She was paid off in 1821. The Admiralty put Grecian up for sale in April 1822 at Portsmouth. [13] She was sold to Joshua Crystall for £510 on 18 April 1822. [2]

Merchantman

Grecian appeared in Lloyd's Register in 1823 with D. Holbrow, master and owner, and trade London-Lima. [3] She then got caught up in the Peruvian War of Independence.

Grecian was one of the 16 vessels that HMS Fly got out from Callao and put under her protection on 26 February 1824. [14]

A report dated 23 December 1824, reported that a Chilean Navy squadron captured Grecian as she attempted to return to Callao. Her crew recaptured Grecian and took her to Chiloe. [15]

A report dated Lima 8 October 1825, reported that Grecian, having escaped from Admiral Martin Guise's squadron, had refitted in Chiloe. She then began cruising as a Spanish privateer between Lima and Guayaquil. [16]

Fate

Grecian was lost on the Triangles Reef before 3 July 1829. She was on a voyage from British Honduras to Campeche, Mexico. [17]

Grecian was last listed in Lloyd's Register for 1830 with master D, Holbrow, master, and trade London-Lima.

Notes

  1. ↑ Jewry's first-class share of the proceeds was worth £60 8s 4d; a fifth-class share, that of a seaman, was worth 11s 4d. [6]
  2. ↑ Jewry's first-class share of the proceeds for 100 kegs of spirits and headmoney for the smuggler's five-man crew was worth £63 5s 8d; a fifth-class share, that of a seaman, was worth 13s 2d. [6]
  3. ↑ The first-class share of the proceeds for both vessels was worth £103 18s 0d; a fifth-class share was worth £1 3s 10d. [7]
  4. ↑ The first-class share of the proceeds was worth £95 3s 6d; a fifth-class share was worth 19s 10d. [6]
  5. ↑ The first class shares, i.e., Jewry's shares of the prize money for these three seizures, were worth £40 13s 6d, £61 8s 10d, and £17 11s 6d. The sixth-class shares, those of an ordinary seaman, were worth 19s, £1 8s 9d, and 8s 1+1⁄2d. [8]
  6. ↑ The first-class share was worth £91 6s 0d; a sixth-class share was worth £2 1s 2d. [9]
  7. ↑ The first-class share was worth £28 7s 10+1⁄2d; a sixth-class share was worth 13s 3d. [11]
  8. ↑ The first-class share was worth £19 1s 4+1⁄2d; a sixth-class share was worth 8s 0+3⁄4d. [12]

Citations

  1. 1 2 3 Footner (1998), pp. 113–6.
  2. 1 2 Winfield (2008), p. 369.
  3. 1 2 Lloyd's Register (1823), Supplement Seq. No. G7.
  4. 1 2 Cranwell & Crane (1940), p. 186.
  5. ↑ "No. 16924". The London Gazette . 9 August 1814. p. 1610.
  6. 1 2 3 "No. 17191". The London Gazette . 12 November 1816. pp. 2149–2150.
  7. ↑ "No. 17239". The London Gazette . 12 April 1817. p. 892.
  8. ↑ "No. 17278". The London Gazette . 19 August 1817. p. 1792.
  9. ↑ "No. 17447". The London Gazette . 6 February 1819. p. 248.
  10. ↑ Marshall (1835), p. 169.
  11. ↑ "No. 17617". The London Gazette . 22 July 1820. p. 1433.
  12. ↑ "No. 17805". The London Gazette . 2 April 1822. p. 559.
  13. ↑ "No. 17806". The London Gazette . 6 April 1822. p. 576.
  14. ↑ Lloyd's List No. 5922.
  15. ↑ Lloyd's List No. 6004.
  16. ↑ Lloyd's List No. 6090.
  17. ↑ "Ship News". The Times. No. 13999. London. 22 August 1829. col C, p. 4.

Related Research Articles

HMS <i>Euryalus</i> (1803) Frigate of the Royal Navy

HMS Euryalus was a Royal Navy 36-gun Apollo-class frigate that saw service in the Battle of Trafalgar and the War of 1812. During her career she was commanded by three prominent naval personalities of the Napoleonic and post-Napoleonic period: Henry Blackwood, George Dundas and Charles Napier. After the end of the Napoleonic Wars she continued on active service for a number of years, before spending more than two decades as a prison hulk. She ended her career in Gibraltar where, in 1860, she was sold for breaking up.

HMS Leda, launched in 1800, was the lead ship of a successful class of forty-seven British Royal Navy 38-gun sailing frigates. Leda's design was based on the French Hébé, which the British had captured in 1782. Leda was wrecked at the mouth of Milford Haven in 1808, Captain Honeyman was exonerated of all blame, as it was a pilot error.

HMS <i>Cherub</i> (1806) Sloop of the Royal Navy

HMS Cherub was an 18-gun Royal Navy Cormorant-class sloop built in Dover in 1806. She participated in two major campaigns in the West Indies during the Napoleonic Wars, and one major engagement in the Pacific during the War of 1812, all each of which earned her crews clasps to the Naval General Service Medal. The Navy sold her in 1820.

HMS <i>Bombay</i> (1805) Frigate of the Royal Navy

HCS Bombay, later HMS Bombay and HMS Ceylon, was a teak-built fifth rate, 38-gun wooden warship built in the Bombay Dockyard for the Honourable East India Company (HEIC) and launched in 1793. The Royal Navy purchased her in 1805 and renamed her HMS Bombay. She served with the Royal Navy under that name until 1 July 1808, when she became HMS Ceylon. She was sold at Malta in 1857 and broken up in 1861.

HMS <i>Racehorse</i> (1806) British naval brig-sloop (1806–1822)

HMS Racehorse was a Royal Navy 18-gun Cruizer-class brig-sloop built by Hamilton & Breeds and launched in 1806 at Hastings. She served in the English Channel, where she captured a small privateer, and in the East Indies, where she participated in the capture of Isle de France and the operations around it. She was wrecked in 1822.

HMS <i>Sappho</i> (1806) Brig-sloop of the Royal Navy

HMS Sappho was a Cruizer class brig-sloop built by Jabez Bailey at Ipswich and launched in 1806. She defeated the Danish brig Admiral Yawl in a single-ship action during the Gunboat War, and then had a notably successful two months of prize-taking in the first year of the War of 1812. She was wrecked in 1825 off the Canadian coast and then broken up in 1830.

HMS <i>Musquito</i> (1804) Brig-sloop of the Royal Navy

HMS Musquito. was a Royal Navy Cruizer-class brig-sloop built by John Preston at Great Yarmouth and launched in 1804. She was commissioned in October 1804 under Commander Samuel Jackson. She served in the North Sea and the Baltic, and Jackson supervised the first successful rocket attack in Europe at Boulogne in 1806. After the war she served off Africa and captured some slavers. She was broken up in 1822, having been laid up since 1818.

HMS Brazen was a 28-gun Royal Navy Bittern-class ship sloop, launched in 1808.

HMS <i>Severn</i> (1813)

HMS Severn was an Endymion-class frigate of the British Royal Navy, launched in 1813 as one of five heavy frigates built to match the powerful American frigates. The shortage of oak meant that she was built of "fir", which meant a considerably shortened lifespan. Nonetheless, the ship saw useful service, especially at the bombardment of Algiers in 1816, before being broken up in 1825.

HMS Colibri was the French naval Curieux-class brig Colibri, launched in 1808, that the British captured in 1809 and took into the Royal Navy under her existing name. She spent her time in British service on the North American station based in Halifax, Nova Scotia. During the War of 1812, Colibri served mostly in blockading the American coast and capturing privateers and merchant ships. She foundered in 1813 in Port Royal Sound, South Carolina, but without loss of life.

HMS <i>Rosario</i> (1808) Brig-sloop of the Royal Navy

HMS Rosario was a Cherokee-class 10-gun brig of the Royal Navy, launched in 1808. She served during the Napoleonic Wars and participated in one engagement that earned her crew the Naval General Service Medal (NGSM). She was sold in 1832.

HMS <i>Sealark</i> (1811)

HMS Sealark was the American schooner Fly, launched in 1801 or 1811, that HMS Scylla captured in 1811. The Royal Navy took her into service as a 10-gun schooner. She participated in one notable single-ship action in 1812 that in 1847 the Admiralty recognized with a clasp to the Naval General Service Medal. She was sold in 1820.

HMS <i>Thais</i> (1806) Sloop of the Royal Navy

HMS Thais was built for the British Royal Navy in 1806 and was the name-vessel of her class of fire ships. Between 1811 and 1813 she served in the West Africa Squadron, which was attempting to suppress the slave trade. During this service she captured several slave traders and an American privateer. She made one voyage to the East Indies. Thais was sold in 1818. She then became a merchantman. She was last listed in 1826.

HMS Saracen was launched in 1812 at Portsmouth for the British Royal Navy. She had an active, though brief, naval career during which she captured a number of enemy-held islands and enemy vessels. The navy sold her in 1819 and new owners employed her as a whaler for two voyages between 1819 and 1826. She was apparently wrecked in 1828 off the coast of Chile, but with little or no loss of life.

HMS Express was the American merchant vessel Achilles, launched in 1809 in America. Her owners in 1813 renamed her Anna Maria. In 1814 she served the British Royal Navy in North American waters as an advice boat. In 1815 the Royal Navy commissioned her as HMS Express, a ship's tender serving in the Mediterranean. In 1816 she was at the bombardment of Algiers. The Navy sold her at Malta in 1827.

HMS Challenger was a Cruizer-class brig-sloop launched at Redbridge, Southampton, in 1813. She participated in the capture of a French privateer and then sailed to the East Indies. She was laid up in 1819 and sold in 1824.

HMS <i>Snake</i> (1797) British naval brig (1797–1816)

HMS Snake was a British Royal Navy ship launched in 1797 as the only member of her class of brig-sloops. She captured or destroyed two French privateers and one Danish privateer. She also captured numerous small merchantmen, but spent time escorting convoys to and from the West Indies. She was sold in 1816.

HMS Quail was launched at Deptford in 1817 as the name ship of her class of schooners. She herself may have been cutter-rigged. She was broken up in 1829.

HMS Tweed was launched in 1807. On the Jamaica station she captured two small privateers and several merchant vessels. On the North Sea station she captured one small privateers and several merchant vessels. She was wrecked on 5 November 1813 with the loss of more than half her crew.

HMS Dwarf was a Decoy-class cutter launched in 1810. She participated in the capture of a French privateer and in operations in the Gironde. After the end of the Napoleonic Wars she captured some smuggling vessels. She was wrecked in March 1824.

References

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.