HMS Mackerel (1804)

Last updated

History
Naval Ensign of the United Kingdom.svg United Kingdom
NameHMS Mackerel
Ordered23 June 1803
BuilderGoodrich & Co. (prime contractor), Bermuda
Laid down1803
Launched1804
FateSold 14 December 1815
General characteristics [1]
Type Ballahoo-class schooner
Tons burthen70 41⁄94 (bm)
Length
  • Overall: 55 ft 2 in (16.8 m)
  • Keel: 40 ft 10+1⁄2 in (12.5 m)
Beam18 ft 0 in (5.5 m)
Depth of hold9 ft 0 in (2.7 m)
Sail planSchooner
Complement20
Armament4 × 12-pounder carronades

HMS Mackerel was a Royal Navy Ballahoo-class schooner of four 12-pounder carronades and a crew of 20. The prime contractor for the vessel was Goodrich & Co., in Bermuda, and she was launched in 1804. [1] Given that she served entirely during the Napoleonic Wars and the War of 1812, she had an unusually peaceful and uneventful career, primarily on the Newfoundland Station, before she was sold in 1815.

Contents

Service

She was commissioned in May 1804 at Bermuda under Lieutenant Peter S. Prieur for the Newfoundland station. Later that year Lieutenant Richard Williams, who had received his promotion on 13 December 1804, assumed command, after serving as a Master's Mate on Isis. [2] Williams joined Mackerel in Bermuda, where he fitted her out. One of her initial accomplishments was to salvage the main deck guns and bower anchor from Tartar when Tartar grounded in Murray's Roads, Bermuda. (Tartar was later refloated.) Next, Mackerel, with 57 French prisoners on board, narrowly escaped being wrecked in gale in the Bermudas. For his services he received the thanks of Admiral Sir Andrew Mitchel, chief of the Halifax, Nova Scotia, station. Mackerel then patrolled the southwest coast of Newfoundland. Williams seized the cargoes of whale oil of two American vessels poaching there and ordered the Americans to leave British waters. During this time Mackerel twice had the honour of bearing the flag of Admiral Sir Erasmus Gower. [3]

In 1805 Lieutenant John G.M'B. McKillop succeeded Williams. [2]

His replacement, in 1807, was Lieutenant Thomas Bishop. [2] In November 1808 he sailed her to Britain. On the way she encountered a gale and had to throw all her guns overboard to lighten her. [2]

Between 22 November 1808 and 19 February 1809 Mackerel was in Portsmouth, refitting. [1] In February Lieutenant William Carter took command at Spithead and sailed her back to Newfoundland. Late in the year Lieutenant Thomas Lee assumed command and sailed her on the Newfoundland station on coast patrol and fisheries duties. [4]

By 1812 Lieutenant Parker had taken command of Mackerel, and on 15 April 1812 sailed for South America. [5] Apparently, she called at New York in June to deliver some official dispatches. The acting commander reported that her commander had been killed when a sailor fell from a mast and landed on him. [6] [7] [a]

As Mackerel left New York on 18 June she passed the USS United States under Captain Stephen Decatur. Apparently war had been declared two days earlier, but the news only arrived in New York on 20 June. [6] After the frigate Belvidera arrived in Nova Scotia with the news that war had been declared and that the USS President, in company with the USS Congress and the USS United States, had fired on her, Mackerel carried the news to Portsmouth, arriving there on 27 July. [8]

She was still at Portsmouth on 31 July when the British authorities seized the American ships there and at Spithead on the outbreak of the War of 1812. She therefore shared, with numerous other vessels, in the subsequent prize money for these vessels: Belleville, Aeos, Janus, Ganges, and Leonidas. [b]

On 14 August Mackerel accompanied Admiral Sir John Borlase Warren, who was sailing to Halifax, Nova Scotia, on San Domingo, together with Poictiers, Sophie, and Magnet. Magnet disappeared during the voyage and was presumed foundered with all hands.

Fate

Lieutenant Thomas Hughes recommissioned her in December 1812 and remained in command into 1815. In October 1813 she was reported sailing from Cadiz to London. The Admiralty put the "Mackarel schooner, of 70 tons" up for sale on 30 November 1815. [10] She was sold at Plymouth on 14 December 1815 for £400. [1]

Notes

  1. ↑ The National Maritime Museum database confirms that Lieutenant Parker was killed. [5]
  2. ↑ So many vessels shared in the prize money that the amounts per man were small. A second-class share, that of a lieutenant, was £3 11s; a sixth-class share, that of an ordinary seaman, was 4s 1d. [9]

Citations

  1. 1 2 3 4 Winfield (2008), p. 359.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Newfoundland squadrons (1801–1805)
  3. ↑ Marshall (1835), pp. 315–6.
  4. ↑ Bannister (2003), pp. 184–5.
  5. 1 2 "NMM, vessel ID 370717" (PDF). Warship Histories, vol ii. National Maritime Museum. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2 August 2011. Retrieved 30 July 2011.
  6. 1 2 Allison (2005), p. 113.
  7. ↑ The European Magazine, and London Review, Vol. 62, p.74.
  8. ↑ Griffis (1887), p. 1.
  9. ↑ "No. 17135". The London Gazette . 11 May 1816. p. 888.
  10. ↑ "No. 17086". The London Gazette . 2 December 1815. p. 2399.

Related Research Articles

HMS <i>Tonnant</i> 80-gun ship of the line

HMS Tonnant was an 80-gun ship of the line of the Royal Navy. She had previously been Tonnant of the French Navy and the lead ship of the Tonnant class. The British captured her in August 1793 during the Siege of Toulon but the French recaptured her when the siege was broken in December. Rear-Admiral Horatio Nelson captured her at Aboukir Bay off the coast of Egypt at the Battle of the Nile on 1 August 1798. She was taken into British service as HMS Tonnant. She went on to fight at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805, during the Napoleonic Wars.

HMS Heron was originally the merchant vessel Jason, launched at Newcastle in 1803, that the Admiralty purchased in 1804 for the Royal Navy for use as 16-gun ship-sloop under the name HMS Heron. During the Napoleonic Wars she served as a convoy escort on the Leeward Islands station. Then in 1810 the Admiralty had her converted into a bomb vessel and renamed her HMS Volcano. As Volcano she served during the War of 1812, and in particular participated in the Battle of Baltimore. The Admiralty sold her in 1816. New owners returned her to mercantile service under her original name of Jason. She was wrecked in 1821.

HMS <i>Fantome</i> (1810)

HMS Fantome was an 18-gun brig-sloop of the Royal Navy. She was originally a French privateer brig named Fantôme, which the British captured in 1810 and commissioned into British service. Fantome saw extensive action in the War of 1812 until she was lost in a shipwreck at Prospect, Nova Scotia, near Halifax in 1814.

HMS <i>Belvidera</i> (1809) Frigate of the Royal Navy

HMS Belvidera was a Royal Navy 36-gun Apollo-class frigate built in Deptford in 1809. She saw action in the Napoleonic Wars and the War of 1812 and continued a busy career at sea into the middle of the 19th century. In 1846 she was reduced to harbour service, in 1860 she became a receiving ship, and she was finally disposed of in 1906.

HMS <i>Gladiator</i> (1783) British fifth-rate frigate (1783–1817)

HMS Gladiator was a 44-gun fifth-rate Roebuck-class ship of the Royal Navy. She was launched on 20 January 1783 by Henry Adams of Bucklers Hard. She spent her entire career on harbour service, never putting to sea. Even so, her crew earned prize money for the seizure of two Russian and five American ships. Her static existence made her an excellent venue for courts-martial and a number of notable ones took place aboard her. She was broken up in 1817.

HMS <i>Avon</i> (1805) Brig-sloop of the Royal Navy

HMS Avon was a Royal Navy Cruizer-class brig-sloop built at Falmouth and launched in 1805. In the War of 1812 she fought a desperate action with USS Wasp that resulted in Avon sinking on 27 August 1814.

HMS Pictou was a 14-gun schooner that the Royal Navy captured in 1813. She served briefly on the Royal Navy's North American station, capturing one or two merchantmen before the American frigate USS Constitution captured her during the War of 1812.

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

HMS Forester was a Royal Navy 18-gun Cruizer-class brig-sloop built by John King and launched in 1806 at Dover. She had a relatively uneventful career before the Navy sold her in 1819.

HMS <i>Tartar</i> (1801) Narcissus-class frigate

HMS Tartar was a 32-gun fifth-rate Narcissus-class frigate of the Royal Navy, built at Frindsbury and launched in 1801. She captured privateers on the Jamaica station and fought in the Gunboat War and elsewhere in the Baltic Sea before being lost to grounding off Estonia in 1811.

HMS <i>Hazard</i> (1794) Sloop of the Royal Navy

HMS Hazard was a 16-gun Royal Navy Cormorant-class ship-sloop built by Josiah & Thomas Brindley at Frindsbury, Kent, and launched in 1794. She served in the French Revolutionary Wars and throughout the Napoleonic Wars. She captured numerous prizes, and participated in a notable ship action against the French frigate Topaze, as well as in several other actions and campaigns, three of which earned her crew clasps to the Naval General Service Medal. Hazard was sold in 1817.

HMS Olympia was an Adonis-class schooner of the Royal Navy during the Napoleonic War. She was built at Bermuda using Bermudan cedar and completed in 1806. In March 1811 the French captured her, but the British recaptured her in October. During her career, she served as far afield as Buenos Aires, Île Bourbon, and Cape of Good Hope. The Admiralty sold her in 1815.

HMS <i>Epervier</i> (1812) Brig-sloop of the Royal Navy

HMS Epervier was an 18-gun Cruizer-class brig-sloop of the Royal Navy, built by Ross at Rochester, England, and launched on 2 December 1812. USS Peacock captured her in 1814 and took her into service. USS Epervier disappeared in 1815 while carrying dispatches reporting the signing of a treaty with the Dey of Algiers.

HMS Herring was a Royal Navy Ballahoo-class schooner of four 12-pounder carronades and a crew of 20. The prime contractor for the vessel was Goodrich & Co., in Bermuda, and she was launched in 1804. She spent most of her career in North American waters though she did spend two years sailing between Britain and Spain before returning to North America where she foundered in 1813.

HMS Cuttle was a Royal Navy Ballahoo-class schooner of four 12-pounder carronades and a crew of 20. The prime contractor for the vessel was Goodrich & Co., in Bermuda, and she was launched in 1807. She was broken up in 1814.

HMS Bream was a British Royal Navy Ballahoo-class schooner of four 12-pounder carronades and a crew of 20. The prime contractor for the vessel was Goodrich & Co., in Bermuda, and she was launched in 1807. Bream operated primarily in North American waters and had an uneventful career until the War of 1812. She then captured two small American privateers and assisted in the recovery of a third, much larger one. She also captured a number of small prizes before she was sold or broken up in 1816.

Puissant was built in 1781-82 to a design by Antoine Groignard as a Pégase class 74-gun ship of the line. Her captain handed her over to the British at Toulon on 29 August 1793. She arrived at Portsmouth on 3 May 1794. She then remained there as an unarmed receiving ship, sheer hulk, and flagship until her sale in 1816.

HMS Abundance was a Royal Navy transport launched and purchased in 1799. The Admiralty sold her in 1823.

HMS Magnet was the former French privateer San Joseph or San Josepho, built in 1807, that the British captured in 1809. The Royal Navy took her into service as HMS Magnet. She disappeared, presumed to have foundered with all hands, while sailing to Halifax, Nova Scotia, in August or September 1812.

HMS Alert was the collier Oxford, launched at Howdon in 1803 that the Royal Navy purchased in 1804 and renamed HMS Alert. She had a mundane career in the Royal Navy escorting convoys until in 1812, shortly after the outbreak of the War of 1812, she had the misfortune to encounter the frigate USS Essex, which captured Alert. The US Navy used Alert as a storeship and a receiving ship until it had her broken up in 1829.

HMS Avenger was the collier Thames, launched in 1803, that the Royal Navy purchased in 1804 and renamed. During her service she captured a number of prizes. She also captured one French privateer and participated in the capture of the Danish island of Anholt. She wrecked at St. John's, Newfoundland on 8 October 1812.

References

This article includes data released under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported UK: England & Wales Licence, by the National Maritime Museum, as part of the Warship Histories project.

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.