Inboard profile of HMS Halifax, by John Marshall [Master Shipwright, Plymouth Dockyard]; National Maritime Museum, Greenwich | |
History | |
---|---|
France | |
Name | Marie |
Builder | Caribbean |
Commissioned | 1797 |
Captured | 15 July 1800 |
Great Britain | |
Name | HMS Mary |
Acquired | 1797 by capture |
Renamed | HMS Halifax |
Fate | Sold 1801 |
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland | |
Name | Halifax |
Acquired | 1801 by purchase |
Fate | Last listed in 1808 |
General characteristics [1] | |
Tons burthen | 13655⁄94, or 139 bm) |
Length |
|
Beam | 21 ft 7 in (6.6 m) |
Depth of hold | 9 ft 8 in (2.9 m) |
Complement |
|
Armament |
|
HMS Halifax was the French privateer brig Marie that the Royal Navy captured in November 1797 and took into service. The Navy sold her in 1801 and she became the merchantman Halifax. She sailed between Portsmouth and Newfoundland and was last listed in 1808.
Marie was a privateer brig from an unknown home port in the Caribbean. [2]
HMS Jason, Captain Charles Stirling, captured the French privateer brig Marie off Belle Isle on 21 November 1797. Marie was armed with 14 guns and had a crew of 60 men. [3]
Marie arrived in Plymouth on 8 December 1797 and was laid up. Between December 1801 and July 1801 she underwent fitting for sea. The Admiralty initially named her HMS Mary, but renamed her HMS Halifax prior to her commissioning. [1]
Lieutenant J. Scott commissioned Halifax in 1801. On 22 November it was reported at Plymouth that Halifax, Lieutenant J. Scott, had departed for Bantry Bay on 1 November, but had not arrived there by the 12th. As she had been out in the hurricanes on 1 and 2 November it was feared that she might have been lost. [4] She was deleted from the Navy list that same year. [1]
Halifax was not lost but instead appeared in the Register of Shipping (RS) in 1802. The entry described her as a prize taken in 1797, and reported that she had undergone repairs in 1801. [5]
Year | Master | Owner | Trade | Source |
---|---|---|---|---|
1802 | C.Goffe [lower-alpha 1] J.Randel | B.Lester | Portsmouth–Newfoundland | RS; repairs 1801 |
1808 | J.Randall | Lester & Co. | Portsmouth–Newfoundland | LR |
Halifax was last listed in Lloyd's Register in 1808.
The first HMS Epervier, sometimes spelled HMS Epervoir, was the French ex-naval brick-aviso and then privateer Épervier, launched in 1788. The British captured her in 1797 and registered her in 1798 as an 18-gun brig-sloop of the Royal Navy. The Navy never commissioned her and she was sold in 1801.
HMS Porcupine was a 24-gun Porcupine-class sixth-rate post ship of the Royal Navy built in 1777 and broken up in 1805. During her career she saw service in the American War of Independence and the French Revolutionary Wars.
HMS Port Royal was a 10-gun schooner that the British Royal Navy bought in Jamaica in 1796. The French captured her in 1797 and the British recaptured her later that year, when they renamed her HMS Recovery. She captured three privateers, one in a single-ship action, before the Navy sold her in 1801.
The French brig Suffisante was launched in 1793 for the French Navy. In 1795 the Royal Navy captured her and took her into service under her existing name. HMS Suffisante captured seven privateers during her career, as well as recapturing some British merchantmen and capturing a number of prizes, some of them valuable. She was lost in December 1803 when she grounded in poor weather in Cork harbour.
Robert was a 16-gun French privateer corvette launched in 1793 at Nantes. The British captured her in 1793 and named her HMS Espion. The French recaptured her in 1794 and took her into service as Espion. The British recaptured her in 1795, but there being another Espion in service by then, the British renamed their capture HMS Spy. She served under that name until the Navy sold her in 1801. Spy then became a slave ship, a merchantman to South America, and privateer again. The French captured her in mid-1805 and sent her into Guadeloupe.
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 Pilote was a cutter launched for the French Navy at Dunkirk in 1778. The British Royal Navy captured her in 1779 and took her into service under her existing name. It sold her in 1799.
Earl Spencer was the French privateer brig Aventurier, which the British Royal Navy captured in December 1799. The French prize became a British privateer in 1800. After the Peace of Amiens she became a merchant vessel that traded between London and Gibraltar. She apparently was condemned in 1802, perhaps after having received damage there.
HMS Manly, was originally the merchant ship Experiment, launched in 1792 at Leith. The British Royal Navy purchased her in 1797, used her as a gun-brig escorting convoys, and then sold her in 1802. New owners sailed her between London and Monserrat; she was last listed in 1816.
HMS Eugenie was the French privateer Nouvelle Eugénie, launched at Nantes in 1796 that the British Royal Navy captured in 1797 and took into service. As a brig-sloop she served in the Channel, primarily escorting convoys, and was sold in 1803.
Auguste was a French 14-gun privateer commissioned in Saint-Malo in November 1811 under Pierre Jean Marie Lepeltier. She captured numerous British merchant vessels before the Royal Navy forced her in January 1814 to run onshore and wreck.
HMS Vulture was launched in 1801 at South Shields as Warrior. The Royal Navy purchased her in 1803 as a sloop and renamed her. From 1808 through 1813 she was a floating battery at Jersey,. The Navy sold her in 1814 and she returned to mercantile service as Warrior. She was last listed in 1820, but does not seem to have sailed again after returning from east of the Cape in 1817.
The Royal Navy purchased HMS Barracouta on the stocks in 1782. After she had served for almost ten years patrolling against smugglers, the Navy sold her in 1792. She became the privateer Thought, which had a successful cruize, capturing several prizes including a French privateer, but then was herself captured in September 1793. She served the French Navy under the names Pensée, Montagne, Pensée, and Vedette, until the British recaptured her in 1800 and renamed her HMS Vidette. The Royal Navy sold her in 1802.
HMS Royalist was launched in 1807. She captured many privateers and letters of marque, most French, but also some from Denmark and the United States. Her crew twice were awarded the Naval General Service Medal. She was instrumental in the capture of a French frigate. The Royal Navy sold her in 1819. She then became a whaler, making three complete voyages. She was condemned after a mishap while on her fourth.
HMS Trompeuse was a former French 16-gun brig-sloop, launched in July 1793, that HMS Sphinx captured on 12 January 1794 near Cape Clear Island. The British Royal Navy took her into service. As HMS Trompeuse she captured a small privateer and then grounded off Kinsale in 1796.
Wright was a merchantman launched at Shields in 1794. From 1797 to 1801 she was a hired armed ship for the British Royal Navy during which service she captured a French privateer. She then returned to mercantile service, sailing out of Newcastle, first as a transport and then trading between Newcastle and Charleston. She was captured circa December 1809.
The French brig Gironde was launched at Rochefort in 1793 as a Dédaigneuse-class gun-brig of the French Navy. In 1797 she was struck from the lists and sold. She became a privateer operating out of Bordeaux. The British Royal Navy captured her in 1800 but never commissioned her; it sold her in 1801.
HMS Muros was the privateer Alcide, launched at Bordeaux in 1804. The British Royal Navy (RN) captured her in 1806 and commissioned her. She wrecked in March 1808.
HMS Pouncer was the mercantile David, launched in 1785 at Leith, that the Admiralty purchased and armed in 1797 as GB No.38. David originally sailed to the Baltic and then to the Mediterranean. From 1793 or so till her sale to the Admiralty she sailed as a transport under contract to the Transport Board. The Navy renamed GB No.38 HMS Pouncer, and she was the only naval vessel ever to bear that name. The Navy sold Pouncer in 1802 following the Peace of Amiens. She then returned to mercantile service as the West Indiaman David. Under several masters and owners she traded more widely. In 1816 she sank, but was recovered.
Mentor was launched in 1792 at Wemyss. With the out break of war with France in early 1793, the Royal Navy needed smaller vessels to protect convoys from privateers. The Navy employed Mentor as a hired armed vessel, releasing her from her contract at the end of 1801 after the signing of the Treaty of Amiens. She then returned to mercantile service, sailing first to Hamburg and then Oporto. She became a coaster on England's east coast, or a Baltic trader. She was last listed in 1832.