| History | |
|---|---|
 United Kingdom | |
| Name | HMS Morne Fortunee |
| Operator | Royal Navy |
| Acquired | 1804 by capture of a prize |
| Honours and awards |
|
| Fate | Foundered 9 January 1809 |
| General characteristics [1] | |
| Tons burthen | 184 (bm) |
| Propulsion | Sails |
| Sail plan | Brig |
| Complement | 60 |
HMS Morne Fortunee was the French privateer Regulus that British Royal Navy captured in 1804. In 1806 the Royal Navy commissioned her. She captured some small privateers and took part in a number of other engagements. She foundered in 1809.
At 10am on 13 December 1804, the frigate HMS Princess Charlotte was four leagues west of Cape Antonio when she sighted an unknown brig. After a chase of seven hours southward, Princess Charlotte caught up with her quarry at 30°50′N85°32′W / 30.833°N 85.533°W . The brig surrendered after her pursuer had fired four or five shots. The quarry was the French privateer Regulus, out of Guadaloupe. She was pierced for 14 guns but had only 11 on board, having thrown two overboard during the chase. She had a crew of 88 men under the command of Citizen Jacque Mathieu. Captain F.F. Gardner of Princess Charlotte described Regulus as "a very fine Vessel" that "sails remarkably well" and is "perfectly adapted for His Majesty's Service". [2]
Lieutenant John Rorie commissioned Morne Fortunee in 1806. [1]
On 6 April Morne Fortunee recaptured Industry and took her into Port Royal where she was to unload, having sprung a leak. Industry, Galt, master, had sailed from Port Royal on 2 April for Dublin with the fleet, but a French privateer had captured her on the 6th and taken most of her crew and some valuable articles. [3]
After a chase of two hours off Cape Beata on the island of Hispaniola, Morne Fortunee on 16 May 1806 captured the French privateer Luni. Luni, of two guns and 47 men, was four days out of San Domingo but had not captured anything. [4]
On 3 June Morne Fortunee drove the Spanish letter of marque schooner Aimable Jenette ashore between Saona Island and Cape Euganna. It was impossible to get her off so Rorie sent his boats in to destroy her. Aimable Jenette had been armed with two guns and had had a crew of 20 men. [4]
In June Lieutenant John Brown replaced Rorie. On 18 June Brown and Morne Fotunee took the French privateer schooner Hope of St. Pierre's, Martinique. Brown has sighted a suspicious sail and gave chase, and after two hours was able to come up with and capture her. Hope had lost her main-mast and foretop-mast in am earlier squall. She was armed with four guns and had a crew of 44. She had been out for seven days but had taken nothing. [5]
In November Lloyd's List reported that Morne Fortunee had detained Attempt, of and from Salem, Massachusetts, which had been sailing to Martinique with naval stores. Morne Fortunee took Attempt into Saint Lucia. [6]
Lieutenant J.J. Rorie replaced Brown in command of Morne Fortunee during 1807.
On 1 January 1807 the frigates HMS Latona, Anson, Arethusa, and Fisgard captured the Dutch island of Curacao. Morne Fortunee was not mentioned in the letter describing the action. However, Lieutenant Rorie claimed a share of the prize money arising from the capture, a claim that was disputed. [7] By 1849 when the Admiralty awarded the NGSM for the action, Morne Fortunee and Rorie were listed together with the four frigates. [8]
On 13 January Morne Fortunee captured Nuestra Senora del Carmen. [9]
On 8 July Rorie observed a Spanish privateer schooner near Point Tunacas and after a chase of about three hours, succeeded in driving on shore. Rorie immediately opened fire and succeeded in destroying his quarry. She turned out to be Babillon, of two 6-pounder guns and 45 men. She was three days out of Coro but had not captured anything. Rorie reported a "particular Satisfaction" at having destroyed Babillon as she had been a "considerable Annoyance to the Curacoa Trade." [7]
While off the south side of the Pedro Bank, Morne Fortunee gave chase to a Spanish felucca. After a chase of 24 hours, Morne Fortunee captured Santo Christo, a letter of marque armed with one long 12-pounder and with 15 men on board. She had been sailing from Cuba for Portobelo, Colón. [10]
On 27 March the boats of Morne Fortunee joined those of Ulysses, Castor, and Hippomenes in an attempt to cut out the 16-gun French brig Griffon at Marin, Martinique. [1] They succeeded in capturing a battery but were driven back empty handed, having suffered heavy casualties from the brig's fire. [11]
On 18 May Morne Fortunee captured a letter of marque schooner. [12]
On 12 December Morne Fortunee, again under the command of Lieutenant John Brown, discovered the French 16-gun brig Cygne and two schooners off the Pearl Rock, Saint-Pierre, Martinique.
Morne Fortunee joined the frigate HMS Circe, the ship-sloop Stork, the brig-sloop Epervier, and the advice boat Express in an action against the squadron. The British suffered heavy casualties. The next day HMS Amaranthe arrived and the British eventually succeeded in destroying Cygne. In all, the British lost some 12 men killed, 31 wounded, and 26 missing (drowned or prisoners) for little gain. Morne Fortunee suffered no losses. [13]
Cygne was armed with 18 guns and carried a crew of 140 men. She had been carrying flour, guns and cartridge paper for the relief of Martinique. The French schooners were armed and were carrying flour. [13] In 1847 the Admiralty authorized the award of the NGSM with the clasp "Off The Pearl Rock 13 Decr. 1808" to the then living survivors of the battle. [14]
Morne Fortunee shared with Captain, Pompee, and Amaranthe in the prize money pool of £772 3s 3d for the capture of Frederick on 30 December 1808. This money was paid in June 1829. [15]
Morne Fortunee was off Martinique on 9 January 1809 when a squall came up and overset her. Lieutenant Brown and 40 of her crew drowned. [16] Only the ship's clerk and 18 men were saved. [17]
HMS Centaur was a 74-gun third rate of the Royal Navy, launched on 14 March 1797 at Woolwich. She served as Sir Samuel Hood's flagship in the Leeward Islands and the Channel. During her 22-year career Centaur saw action in the Mediterranean, the Channel, the West Indies, and the Baltic, fighting the French, the Dutch, the Danes, and the Russians. She was broken up in 1819.
HMS Reindeer was a Royal Navy 18-gun Cruizer-class brig-sloop of the Royal Navy, built by Samuel & Daniel Brent at Rotherhithe and was launched in 1804. She was built of fir, which made for more rapid construction at the expense of durability. Reindeer fought in the Napoleonic Wars before succumbing in 1814 to the guns of USS Wasp during the War of 1812.
Franchise was launched in 1798 as a 40-gun Coquille-class frigate of the French Navy. The British captured her in 1803 and took her into the Royal Navy under her existing name. In the war on commerce during the Napoleonic Wars she was more protector than prize-taker, capturing many small privateers but few commercial prizes. She was also at the battle of Copenhagen. She was broken up in 1815.
HMS Wolverine was a Royal Navy 18-gun Cruizer-class brig-sloop, launched in 1805 at Topsham, near Exeter. Early in her career she was involved in two fratricidal incidents, one involving a British frigate and then a newsworthy case in which she helped capture a British slave ship. She later captured a small naval vessel and several privateers, and took part in the invasion of Martinique, and during the War of 1812, in the attack on Baltimore. Wolverine was decommissioned in August or September 1815 and was sold on 15 February 1816.
HMS Amaranthe was an 18-gun Royal Navy Cruizer-class brig-sloop built by John Dudman at Deptford Wharf and launched in 1804. She served in the Caribbean, taking part in an action and two campaigns that gained those members of her crew that survived until 1847 the NGSM. She was sold in 1815.
HMS Circe was a Royal Navy 32-gun fifth-rate frigate, built by Master Shipwright Joseph Tucker at Plymouth Dockyard, and launched in 1804. She served in the Caribbean during the Napoleonic Wars, and participated in an action and a campaign for which in 1847 in the Admiralty authorised the issuance of the Naval General Service Medal with clasps. The action, off the Pearl Rock, near Saint-Pierre, Martinique, was a debacle that cost Circe dearly. However, she also had some success in capturing privateers and a French brig. She was sold in 1814.
HMS Druid was a 32-gun Hermione-class fifth-rate frigate of the British Royal Navy, launched in 1783 at Bristol. She served in the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars, capturing numerous small prizes. One of her commanders, Captain Philip Broke, described Druid as a "point of honour ship", i.e., a ship too large to run but too small to fight. He and his biographer's view was that it was a disgrace to use a ship like her as a warship. She was broken up in 1813, after a thirty-year career.
HMS Epervier was a French 16-gun Alcyon-class brig. HMS Egyptienne captured her in the Atlantic Ocean on 27 July 1803; she was taken into Royal Navy service under her existing name. Before being broken up in 1811 she captured several prizes and was present at the Battle of San Domingo. Her crew received a clasp to the Naval General Service Medal for their participation in that battle and another for an action in December 1808. She was laid up in late 1810 and was sold in 1811.
HMS Favourite was a 16-gun Cormorant-class sloop of the Royal Navy, launched in 1794 at Rotherhithe. The French captured her in 1806 and renamed her Favorite. However, the British recaptured her in 1807 and renamed her HMS Goree. She became a prison ship in 1810 and was broken up in Bermuda in 1817.
Surveillante entered service as a 40-gun Virginie-class frigate of the French Navy. She was surrendered to the British in 1803, after which she served in the Royal Navy, classed under the British system as a 38-gun vessel, until 1814 when she was decommissioned. HMS Surveillante had a long and active career under two successful and distinguished commanders, from the Baltic to the northwestern coasts of France, Spain and Portugal, and was present at the Battle of Copenhagen (1807) and throughout the Peninsula War. Her record as a taker of prizes is notable for its success, particularly towards the end of her career.
HMS Hippomenes was a former Dutch corvette built in Vlissingen in 1797 for the Batavian Republic. The British captured her in 1803 and she served with the Royal Navy until sold in 1813. With the Royal Navy she participated in two notable single-ship actions in the West Indies.
HMS Belette was an 18-gun Cruizer-class brig-sloop, built by King at Dover and launched on 21 March 1806. During the Napoleonic Wars she served with some success in the Baltic and the Caribbean. Belette was lost in the Kattegat in 1812 when she hit a rock off Læsø.
HMS Ferret was a Royal Navy Cruizer-class brig-sloop built by Benjamin Tanner at Dartmouth and launched in 1806, 19 months late. She served on the Jamaica, Halifax, and Leith stations during which time she took three privateers as prizes before she was wrecked in 1813.
HMS Superieure was the French privateer Supérieure, which was built in 1801 in Baltimore, Maryland, and which the British captured in 1803 in the West Indies, and took into the Royal Navy. She spent most of her career on the Jamaica and Leeward Islands stations, where she captured numerous privateers. She participated in several notable single-ship actions, including one in which she harassed a frigate, and two campaigns that would, in 1847, earn her surviving crew members the Naval General Service Medal (NGSM). She was laid-up in Britain in 1810 and sold in 1814.
HMS Clyde was a Royal Navy Artois-class frigate built at Chatham Dockyard of fir, and launched in 1796. In 1797, she was one of only two ships whose captains were able to maintain some control over their vessels during the Nore mutiny. In 1805, HMS Clyde was dismantled and rebuilt at Woolwich Dockyard; she was relaunched on 23 February 1806. She was ultimately sold in August 1814.
Junon was a 40-gun Minerve-class frigate of the French Navy.
HMS Diligent was the French naval brig Diligent, launched in 1800, that HMS Renard captured in 1806. The Royal Navy took her into service under her existing name, which it later changed, first to Prudente, and then to Wolf. During her two years of active duty with the Royal Navy she captured two small privateers. Wolf was laid up in 1808 and sold in 1811.
HMS Express was the name-ship of a class of two schooner-rigged advice-boats of the Royal Navy. Express was launched in 1800 and served until she was sold in 1813. During her career she served in one action and one campaign that in 1847 qualified her surviving crew members for clasps to the Naval General Service Medal.
HMS Grenada was the French schooner Harmonie, launched in 1800 and armed at Cayenne in 1803 as a privateer. Boats of a squadron of the British Royal Navy cut her out from the harbour of Le Marin, Martinique, on 16 November 1803. The citizens of Grenada purchased her and donated her to the Royal Navy, which commissioned her in 1804 as HMS Grenada. She was later converted to a brig. She captured nine small French privateers before being sold for breaking up in 1810.
Cygne was an Abeille-class 16-gun brig of the French Navy, launched in 1806.
