HMS Harpy (1777)

Last updated

Naval Ensign of Great Britain (1707-1800).svgGreat Britain
NameHMS Harpy
BuilderJohn Fisher, Liverpool [1]
Launched8 May 1777 [1]
AcquiredBy purchase 11 December 1796
FateSold 21 March 1783
British-Red-Ensign-1707.svgGreat Britain
NameHarpy
AcquiredBy purchase 1783
FateCaptured September–October 1794
Flag of French-Navy-Revolution.svg France
NameHarcourt
AcquiredOctober 1794 by capture
RenamedHarpie (1795)
Stricken1796
General characteristics
Tons burthen36722⁄94, [1] or 368, [2] or 400 [2] [3] (bm)
Length
  • Overall:120 ft 9 in (36.8 m)
  • Keel:85 ft 0 in (25.9 m)
Beam28 ft 6 in (8.7 m)
Depth of hold11 ft 0 in (3.4 m)
Complement
  • HMS
    • Sloop:125
    • Fire ship:50
  • French service:170 [4]
Armament
  • HMS:18 × 6-pounder guns
  • Sierra Leone Company:12 × 6-pounder guns [5]
  • French service:20 guns [4]

HMS Harpy was launched at Liverpool in 1777, the British Royal Navy having purchased her on the stocks. The Navy sold her in 1783. As Harpy she made voyages to the northern whale fishery, and one voyage as a whaler in the British southern whale fishery. The Sierra Leone Company then purchased her. A French naval squadron captured her in September 1794. The French Navy briefly took her into service as Harcourt, and then Harpie. She was struck in 1796.

Contents

Career

Royal Navy: The Navy commissioned Harpy in April 1777 under Commander Roger Wills for Home waters. In 1779 she was in the Belfast area. [1] On 30 April she and HMS Boston captured the American privateer Revenge. [6]

Harpy was registered as a fire ship on 25 August 1779, and underwent temporary fitting for the role between August and September 1779 at Portsmouth. [1]

Commander Phillip Walsh recommissioned Harpy in August, for the Western squadron. In May 1780 she was at Portsmouth undergoing refitting and coppering. [1] Harpy shared with some 30 vessels in the prize money for the capture on 4 July 1780 of the French privateer Comte d'Estaing. [7]

In February 1781 Commander William Cayley assumed command of Harpy. [1]

In spring 1781, Admiral George Darby sailed a fleet to Gibraltar to relieve the siege for a second time. On the way the fleet captured Duc de Chartres, the Spanish frigate Santa Leucadia, and the French brig Trois Amis. Although HMS Cumberland executed the actual capture of Duc de Chartres, the entire British fleet of 42 vessels, including Harpy, shared in the resulting prize money. [8]

Harpy shared with 11 other ships the prize money for Noord Beck, captured on 23 June 1781, and the recapture of Neptune four days later. [9] She also shared with a number of vessels in the prize money for the Voyageur, captured on 12 August. [10]

On 11 October the three fireships Harpy, Lightning, and Firebrand were lying at anchor at Plymouth when Firebrand caught fire and blew up. All her crew were saved. The other two fireships cut their cables and escaped the flames. [11]

In May 1782 Commander Sir James Barclay assumed command. She was paid off in March 1783. The Navy sold her at Woolwich on 21 March. The auction price of £2395 included her masts, yards, rigging, and some stores. [1]

Whaler: In August 1785 Lloyd's List reported that Harpy, Marshall, master, was off Whitby, returning from Greenland with one "fish" (whale). Then on 8 March 1786 Harpy, Marshall, master, sailed from the Downs bound for "David Straits" (Davis Strait). In July Harpy, Marshall, was off Whitby, returning from Davis Straits with five fish. A second report had her arriving at Gravesend on 17 August from Greenland with six fish.

Harpy first appeared in Lloyd's Register in 1786 with J. Marshall, master, J. Dawse, owner, and trade London–Greenland. [3] On 26 February 1787 Harpy, Marshall, master, sailed for Davis Strait. On 29 August they were back at Gravesend. Almost a year later Harpy, Stevens, master, was at Gravesend again, having taken four fish, at Greenland.

Harpy does not appear under that name in a compendium of all merchant vessels registered at Liverpool in 1786–1788. [12]

In 1788 Harpy underwent a large repair. Captain John Inskip and Harpy, Hattersley & Co., owners, were at the Downs on 23 October 1788, waiting to sail for the South Seas. [2] By 11 March 1789 she was at the Cape of Good Hope. [13] She returned on 14 July 1790. [2] While she was on her voyage, her owner had changed from Hattersley to Stephens. Although there is no confirmation from Lloyd's List's ship arrival and departure (SAD) data, Lloyd's Register (1791) still carried her as being in the Southern Whale Fishery. [14] [lower-alpha 1]

Merchantman: On 5 January 1792 Harpy, Wilson, master, sailed from the Downs for Sierra Leone. Lloyd's Register (1792) showed Harpy with James, master, Sierra Leone Company, owner, and trade London–Sierra Leone. She had undergone a good repair in 1791. [16] The Sierra Leone Company had been established in March 1791 and had purchased several vessels. These vessels supported the colony the Company had established in Sierra Leone and that its settlers, free blacks from Canada that the company had transported there, named Freetown. Lloyd's List for 4 May 1792 reported that Amy, Patterson, Lapwing, Robinson, Harpy, Wilson, and 15 ships from Halifax, Nova Scotia ha arrived in Sierra Leone. [17] (It was this fleet of 15 vessels that brought the settlers.) Harpy arrived back in England in December. Lloyd's Register (1795) showed Harpy with D.Telford, master, the Sierra Leone Company, owner, and trade London–Sierra Leone. [5]

Capture: In September 1794 a French naval squadron comprising the razee Experiment under the command of lieutenant de vaisseau Arnaud, Vigilance, Félicité, Mutine, Pervie, and Mutine was cruising the West African coast, destroying British factories and shipping. [18] Harpy, Telford, master, and another Sierra Leone Company ship, Thornton, Sayford, master were only two of the many vessels the squadron captured.

On 9 October 1794 Harpy arrived at Cape Sierra Leone with passengers and some £10,000 in goods. When Telford saw that the Company's settlement had been destroyed he attempted to flee. Harpy was starting to gain on the vessel that the French sent to pursue her when the wind failed. Telford immediately struck when the French overtook her. The French plundered Harpy and her passengers. [19] On 13 October the French departed, taking Harpy with them. [lower-alpha 2]

French service: The French Navy took Harpy into service as Harcourt. In 1795 she was renamed Harpie. She was deleted from the lists in 1796. [4]

Post-script

The Debits and Credits accounts for the Sierra Leone Company dated 31 December 1795 included as credits money expected from the underwriters for Harpy's cargo. [20] The Company had expected insurance largely to cover Hardy and her cargo. [21]

Notes

  1. ↑ John Inskip died in 1791. [15]
  2. ↑ The French gave Thornton to an American slave trader named Mariner, who had assisted them. [19]

Citations

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Winfield (2007), p. 285.
  2. 1 2 3 4 British Southern Whale Fishery Database – Voyages: Harpy.
  3. 1 2 Lloyd's Register (1786), Seq.№H86.
  4. 1 2 3 Winfield & Roberts (2014), p. 376.
  5. 1 2 Lloyd's Register (1795), Seq.№H86.
  6. ↑ "No. 12309". The London Gazette . 29 June 1782. p. 3.
  7. ↑ "No. 12278". The London Gazette . 12 March 1782. p. 4.
  8. ↑ "No. 1226". The London Gazette . 12 January 1782. p. 2.
  9. ↑ "No. 12266". The London Gazette . 29 January 1782. p. 4.
  10. ↑ "No. 12322". The London Gazette . 13 August 1782. p. 3.
  11. ↑ Lloyd's List 16 October 1781, №1311.
  12. ↑ Craig & Jarvis (1967).
  13. ↑ Rhys & du Pasquier (1989), p. 235.
  14. ↑ Clayton (2014), p. 136.
  15. ↑ "No. 13344". The London Gazette . 17 September 1791. p. 527.
  16. ↑ Lloyd's Register (1792), Seq.№H85.
  17. ↑ Lloyd's List 4 May 1792, №2398.
  18. ↑ Lloyd's List 10 February 1795, №2689.
  19. 1 2 Substance... (1795), p.10.
  20. ↑ "No. 13773". The London Gazette . 25 April 1795. p. 385.
  21. ↑ Substance... (1795), p.19.

Related Research Articles

USS Delaware was a 24-gun sailing frigate of the United States Navy that had a short career in the American Revolutionary War as the British Royal Navy captured her in 1777. The Royal Navy took her in as an "armed ship", and later classed her a sixth rate. The Royal Navy sold her in 1783. British owners named her United States and then French interests purchased her and named her Dauphin. She spent some years as a whaler and then in March 1795 she was converted at Charleston, South Carolina, to French privateer. Her subsequent fate is unclear.

The Sierra Leone Company was the corporate body involved in founding the second British colony in Africa on 11 March 1792 through the resettlement of Black Loyalists who had initially been settled in Nova Scotia after the American Revolutionary War. The company came about because of the work of the ardent abolitionists, Granville Sharp, Thomas Clarkson, Henry Thornton, and Thomas's brother, John Clarkson, who is considered one of the founding fathers of Sierra Leone. The company was the successor to the St. George Bay Company, a corporate body established in 1790 that re-established Granville Town in 1791 for the 60 remaining Old Settlers.

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.

The ship that became Mary Ann was built in 1772 in France and the British captured her c. 1778. Her name may have been Ariadne until 1786 when she started to engage in whaling. Next, as Mary Ann, she made one voyage transporting convicts to New South Wales from England. In 1794 the French captured her, but by 1797 she was back in her owners' hands. She then made a slave trading voyage. Next, she became a West Indiaman, trading between London or Liverpool to Demerara. It was on one of those voyages in November 1801 that a French privateer captured her.

The British Royal Navy purchased HMS Shark on the stocks in 1775. She was launched in 1776, and in 1778 converted to a fireship and renamed HMS Salamander. The Navy sold her in 1783. She then became the mercantile Salamander. In the 1780s she was in the northern whale fishery. In 1791 she transported convicts to Australia. She then became a whaling ship in the southern whale fishery for a number of years, before becoming a general transport and then a slave ship. In 1804 the French captured her, but the Royal Navy recaptured her. Although she is last listed in 1811, she does not appear in Lloyd's List (LL) ship arrival and departure (SAD) data after 1804.

HMS Flirt was launched in 1782 but was completed too late to see any significant service in the American War of Independence. She then spent most of the years of peace in British waters. She sailed to Jamaica in 1791, but was laid up in Deptford in November 1792, and did not return to service before being sold in 1795. Daniel Bennett purchased her, had her almost rebuilt, and then employed her as a whaler in the Southern Whale Fishery. A French privateer captured her in 1803 as Flirt was returning to Britain from a whaling voyage.

Butterworth was launched in 1778 in France as the highly successful 32-gun privateer Américaine, of Granville. The British Royal Navy captured her early in 1781. She first appeared in a commercial role in 1784 as America, and was renamed in 1785 as Butterworth. She served primarily as a whaler in the Greenland whale fisheries. New owners purchased her in 1789. She underwent a great repair in 1791 that increased her size by almost 20%. She is most famous for her role in the "Butterworth Squadron", which took her and two ship's tenders on an exploration, sealing, otter fur, and whaling voyage to Alaska and the Pacific Coast of North America. She and her consorts are widely credited with being the first European vessels to enter, in 1794, what is now Honolulu harbour. After her return to England in 1795, Butterworth went on three more whaling voyages to the South Pacific, then Africa, and then the South Pacific again. In 1802 she was outward bound on her fourth of these voyage, this to the South Pacific, when she was lost.

HMS <i>Alderney</i> (1757) Sloop of the Royal Navy

HMS Alderney was a 10-gun Alderney-class sloop of the Royal Navy that saw active service during the Seven Years' War and the American Revolutionary War. Launched in 1757, she was principally deployed in the North Sea to protect British fishing fleets and merchant trade. In this capacity she captured two American privateers, Hawk in 1779 and the 12-gun Lady Washington in 1780. She was removed from Navy service at the conclusion of the American Revolutionary War, and sold into private hands at Deptford Dockyard on 1 May 1783. She became the whaler Alderney that operated between 1784 and 1797, when the Spaniards captured her off Chile.

Canada was launched at King's Yard in 1779 for the Royal Navy, which sold her circa 1782 at the end of the war. Her name while in Royal Navy service is unknown as of November 2022. John St Barbe purchased her and named her Adriatic, but renamed her Canada circa 1786. She made three seal hunting and whaling voyages between 1791 and 1799 under that name. On the first of these a French privateer captured her, but a British merchant ship recaptured her. She was lost at South Georgia in 1800 on her fourth voyage to the southern whale fishery.

Blonde was a Coquette-class corvette of the French Navy, launched in 1781. The British Royal Navy captured her in 1793 and sold her in 1794, without apparently ever actually having taken her into service. Mercantile interests purchased her and initially named her Prince, but then renamed her Princess. She became a whaler until a French privateer captured her in 1796 during Princess's first whaling voyage.

Wilding was launched at Liverpool in 1788 and spent much of her career as a West Indiaman, sailing between Liverpool and Jamaica. During this time, in November 1794, she participated in a single-ship action during which her opponent, a French privateer, blew up. In 1798 after a series of captures and recaptures she briefly became a transport for the French Navy, but a final recapture returned her to British hands. Later, she made one voyage to the South Pacific as a whaler, and one voyage to the Cape of Good Hope as a victualler for the 1795-1796 invasion of the Cape. She traded with the West Indies, Africa, the United States, and Russia. Her crew abandoned her in September 1824, dismasted and in a sinking state.

Thornton was a cutter launched in 1793 at Southampton that the Sierra Leone Company purchased to assist in their activities. A French squadron destroyed her at Sierra Leone in September 1794.

Morse was launched in 1747 for the British Royal Navy, but under another name. After 1775 she was John and Alice (1775), Potomack (1776–1779), Betsy (1780-1781), and then in 1782 Resolution. In 1784 S. Mellish purchased her and she became the whaler Morse. She initially engaged in whale hunting in the British northern whale fishery. Then from 1787 she made numerous voyages as a whaler primarily in the southern whale fishery, but with some returns to the northern fishery. There is no further mention of her in Lloyd's List Ship arrival and departure (SAD) data after August 1802.

Spy was built in France in 1780, almost surely under another name, and taken in prize. The British East India Company (EIC) purchased her in 1781 and used her for almost two years as a fast packet vessel and cruiser based in St Helena. It then sold her and she became a London-based slave ship, making two voyages in the triangular trade carrying enslaved people from West Africa to the West Indies. She then became a whaler, making seven whaling voyages between 1786 and 1795. She was probably wrecked in August 1795 on a voyage as a government transport.

Nimble was built in Folkestone in 1781, possibly under another name. In 1786 Nimble was almost rebuilt and lengthened. Between 1786 and 1798 she made nine voyages as a whaler in the British Southern Whale Fishery. Between 1799 and 1804 she made four voyages from Liverpool as a slave ship in the triangular trade in enslaved people. On her first voyage as to gather captives she detained a neutral vessel, an action that resulted in a court case. On her second voyage to gather captives, a French privateer captured her, but the Royal Navy recaptured her. She was wrecked in 1804 or so after she had delivered her captives to St Thomas.

Several ships have been named Mentor:

Sea Horse was launched in 1782 at Gravesend for the Hudson's Bay Company. She then became a merchantman that a French naval squadron captured in 1795. She next became the Spanish merchantman Principe Fernando, which a Guernsey privateer recaptured in January 1800. She became a merchantman again, and then made one voyage as a whaler. She became a Government transport and it was as a transport that she was wrecked in 1816 with great loss of life.

Belisarius was launched in Massachusetts in 1781. The British Royal Navy captured later that year and took her into service as HMS Bellisarius. She captured several American privateers, including one in a single ship action, before the Navy sold her in 1783. Her new owners sailed her as a merchantman between London and British Honduras. In 1787 she carried emigrants to Sierra Leone for the Committee for the Relief of the Black Poor, before returning to trading with Honduras. She was wrecked in September 1787.

Chaser was built in the East Indies in 1778. The Royal Navy purchased her in 1781 and commissioned her as HMS Chaser. A French frigate captured her in 1782 but the Royal Navy recaptured her in 1783 and took her back into service. She was present at a major battle and then sailed to England where the Navy sold her in 1784. As the mercantile Chaser she made five or six voyages as a whaler in the British northern whale fishery and then two to the southern whale fishery. On her way home from the second a French privateer captured her, but some of her crew recaptured her. Next, she began trading with Honduras but was wrecked in late 1795 as she was returning from there to London.

Chaser first appeared under that name in British records in 1786. She had been launched in 1771 at Philadelphia under another name, probably Lord North. Lord North became Cotton Planter, and then Planter, before she became Chaser. Between 1786 and 1790 Chaser made four voyages as a whaler in the British southern whale fishery. She then became a merchantman. In 1794 a privateer captured her but the Spanish recaptured her. She became a Liverpool-based Slave ship in the triangular trade in enslaved people. In 1796 she was condemned in West Africa on her first voyage in the triangular trade before she could embark any enslaved people.

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.