![]() Modern replica of Lynx off Morro Bay, 2007 | |
History | |
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Name | Lynx |
Builder | Thomas Kemp, Fells Point, Baltimore |
Completed | 1812 |
Commissioned | 14 July 1812 (Comm. #325) |
Stricken | 13 April 1813 |
Fate | Captured by the Royal Navy |
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Name | Mosquidobit |
Acquired | By capture 13 April 1813 |
Fate | Sold 13 January 1820 |
General characteristics [1] | |
Type | Topsail schooner |
Tons burthen | 22392⁄94 (bm) |
Length |
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Beam | 24 ft 0 in (7.3 m) |
Depth of hold | 10 ft 3 in (3.1 m) |
Propulsion | Sail |
Complement |
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Armament |
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HMS Mosquidobit (sometimes Musquedobet or Musquidobit) was the Chesapeake-built six-gun schooner Lynx that the British Royal Navy captured and took into service in 1813. She was sold into commercial service in 1820 and nothing is known of her subsequent fate.
Owner-investors James Williams, Amos Williams and Levi Hollingsworth commissioned the noted shipbuilder Thomas Kemp to build a schooner for them. Lynx was built at Fells Point, Baltimore during the opening days of the War of 1812. She was commissioned on 14 July under captain Elisha Taylor.
Lynx was a bit larger than the typical swift pilot boats, after which Kemp modeled her. Kemp had increased her size to 97 feet (30 m) long by 24 feet (7.3 m) wide and 225 tons burthen (bm). She was fitted out as a trader though she carried a crew of 40 men and was armed with six 12-pounder long guns. She cost a little under $10,000.
Lynx was a letter of marque costing the owners $34,000 to secure the L of M. That is, she was an armed merchantman with the warrant to take as prizes enemy merchantmen during the normal course of business, should the opportunity arise. As a merchantman, her crew received a regular wage; they did not depend on prizes for their income.
Lynx served as a merchantman for less than a year. She made one voyage, to Bordeaux, France, and returned with a cargo of luxury goods. She was waiting with three other schooners to run the British blockade for a second voyage when the British captured her.
On 13 April 1813, Sir John Borlase Warren's squadron, consisting of San Domingo, Marlborough, Maidstone, Statira, Fantome, Mohawk and Highflyer blockaded four schooners in the Rappahannock River. The British sent a cutting out expedition in boats 15 miles upriver to capture the schooners at anchor. [2] The attacking British boats carried 105 men led by Lt. James Polkinghorne while the crews of the schooners numbered 160 in all.
Lynx and Arab quickly surrendered at the beginning of the attack. [3] Racer put up more resistance. The last schooner to be taken was Dolphin, which had been on a privateering cruise and consequently carried 100 men and 12 guns. [4] Under her captain, W.S. Stafford, she fought for about two hours before she struck. Stafford placed his losses at six killed and ten wounded. [5] American newspapers reported that the British lost 19 killed and forty wounded. [6] However, Polkinghorne's official report at the time gave his losses as two killed and 11 wounded. [2]
The British took three of the schooners into service. Lynx became Mosquidobit. Racer, of six guns, became Shelburne; Dolphin retained her name. [7] Lastly, it is not clear what became of Arab, of seven guns, which too had put up some resistance. [4] It was difficult for the British to free Arab and though they eventually succeeded, the vessel was apparently badly damaged and was not commissioned for British service. She was taken to Halifax where the Vice-Admiralty Court condemned her. [8] In July 1814, prize money remitted from Halifax for Racer, Lynx, Arab and a number of other vessels, was paid. [lower-alpha 1]
The Admiralty bought Lynx for £1,933 11s 5d (amended figure) and the British named her for the town of Musquodoboit Harbour, Nova Scotia, commissioning her under Lieutenant John Murray. [1] Mosquidobit joined the British fleet blockading the entrance to the Chesapeake Bay at Lynnhaven Bay (just inside the Virginia Capes). She was subsequently stationed in Nova Scotia. On 30 March 1814 she arrived in Portsmouth.
From September 1815 she was under the command of Joseph Giffiths until 1817. [1] Eventually Mosquidobit sailed to Deptford, England where her lines were taken off (surveyed and recorded) on 10 May 1816. She then sailed out of Cork on the Irish station where she served on anti-smuggling duties.
On 15 January 1817 Mosquidobit discovered Eleanor abandoned in the Irish Sea. Mosquidobit towed Eleanor in to Dublin. [10]
On 9 December 1818 Mosquidobit sent into Dublin the Dutch cutter Thetis, of Flushing. Mosquidobit had encountered Thetis off the Irish Coast and captured her after a long pursuit. Almost a year later, on 8 December 1819, Mosquidobit received a reward from the Custom-House, Dublin, for the second largest number of smugglers taken on the coast of Ireland, in the year ending 1 Oct 1819. [11] Griffiths paid her off in December; he was promoted to the rank of commander in August 1819. [12]
She was paid-off again in July 1819 but then reportedly served in the Mediterranean, sailing between Toulon and Marseilles.
By 1820, she had been decommissioned and on 13 January 1820, a Mr. Rundle purchased her for £410 and placed her in private service. [1]
A full-scale sailing replica of this schooner, the tall ship Lynx, was built at Rockport, Maine, in 2001 by Woods Maritime under President Woodson K Woods, and then operated in California. Her home is now Nantucket, Massachusetts, transferring from port of registry previously Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Lynx now sails the East Coast from Maine to St Petersburg, Florida, frequenting ports of Boothbay Harbor, Maine – Nantucket, Massachusetts – Martha's Vineyard – Annapolis, Maryland – St Simons Island, Georgia – and Tall Ship Event ports of call.
A model of the schooner as HMS Musquidobit is on display at the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
Chesapeake was a 38-gun wooden-hulled, three-masted heavy frigate of the United States Navy. She was one of the original six frigates whose construction was authorized by the Naval Act of 1794. Joshua Humphreys designed these frigates to be the young navy's capital ships. Chesapeake was originally designed as a 44-gun frigate, but construction delays, material shortages and budget problems caused builder Josiah Fox to alter his design to 38 guns. Launched at the Gosport Navy Yard on 2 December 1799, Chesapeake began her career during the Quasi-War with France and later saw service in the First Barbary War.
HMS Shannon was a 38-gun Leda-class frigate of the Royal Navy. She was launched in 1806 and served in the Napoleonic Wars and the War of 1812. She won a noteworthy naval victory on 1 June 1813, during the latter conflict, when she captured the United States Navy frigate USS Chesapeake in a bloody battle.
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 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.
Chasseur was a Baltimore Clipper commanded by Captains Pearl Durkee, William Wade (1813) and Thomas Boyle (1814-1815). She was one of the best equipped and crewed American privateers during the War of 1812.
HMS San Domingo was a 74-gun third-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 3 March 1809 at Woolwich. She was sold in 1816.
USS Viper – commissioned as USS Ferret – was a brig serving the United States Navy during the early days of the republic. Viper was assigned to enforce the Embargo Act of 1807 along the U.S. East Coast. During the War of 1812, while cruising in the Caribbean, she was captured by the more heavily armed British warships. She then served the Royal Navy as HMS Mohawk until the Navy sold her in 1814. While in British service she served in several actions that earned her crew the Naval General Service Medal,
Young Teazer was a United States privateer schooner that captured 12 British vessels, five of which made it to American ports. A member of her crew blew her up at Mahone Bay, Nova Scotia during the War of 1812 after a series of British warships chased her and after HMS Hogue trapped her. The schooner became famous for this deadly explosion, which killed most of her crew, and for the folklore about the ghostly "Teazer Light."
HMS Highflyer was originally an American privateer schooner built in 1811. As a privateer she took several British vessels as prizes. The Royal Navy captured her in 1813. She then participated in several raids on the Chesapeake and coastal Virginia before the Americans recaptured her later in 1813.
HMS Landrail was a Cuckoo-class schooner built by Thomas Sutton at Ringmore, Teignmouth. Like all her class she carried four 12-pounder carronades and had a crew of 20. She had a relatively uneventful career during the Napoleonic Wars and the War of 1812 until 1814 when she was taken in a notable action, and then retaken. She was sold in approximately 1818.
HMS Curlew (1812) was a Royal Navy Cruizer class brig-sloop built by (William) Good & Co., at Bridport and launched in 1812. She served with the Navy for only 10 years. During the War of 1812 she sailed from Halifax and captured several American privateers. Her greatest moment was her role in the 1819 British occupation of Ras Al Khaimah, leading to the signature of the General Maritime Treaty of 1820, which established the Trucial States, today the United Arab Emirates. Curlew was sold in 1822 in Bombay. She then had a 13 or so year career as an opium runner for James Matheson, one of the founders of the firm Jardine Matheson.
HMS Shelburne was the American letter of marque schooner Racer, built in Baltimore in 1811 and captured by the British in 1813. She served on the American coast, capturing the American brig Frolic. She also captured some merchantmen and was sold in Britain in 1817.
HMS Dolphin was the 12-gun American privateer schooner Dolphin that Admiral John Borlase Warren's squadron captured on 13 April 1813 and that the Royal Navy took into service. As HMS Dolphin she participated in boat actions on 29 April and 5 May 1813 for which the Admiralty issued a clasp for the Naval General Service Medal. Her ultimate fate is currently undocumented.
HMS Emulous was a Royal Navy 18-gun Cruizer-class brig-sloop, built by William Row at Newcastle and launched in 1806. She survived an inconclusive but bloody battle with a French frigate during the Napoleonic Wars and captured a number of prizes, including two privateers, on the Halifax station during the War of 1812 before she was wrecked in 1812.
The Battle of Rappahannock River was fought in 1813 during the War of 1812. A British force blockading the Rappahannock River of Virginia sent several hundred men in boats to attack four American privateers. Ultimately the British were victorious and the American ships were captured.
HMS Orpheus was a 36-gun Apollo-class fifth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy launched in 1809 from Deptford Dockyard. She was broken up in 1819.
HMS Canso was the American letter of marque schooner Lottery, launched in 1811, that a British squadron captured in 1813. The Royal Navy took Lottery into service as HMS Canso and she served during the War of 1812 and briefly thereafter. The navy sold her in 1816.
HMS Moselle was a Cruizer-class brig-sloop of the Royal Navy, launched in 1804. She served during the Napoleonic Wars in the Mediterranean, the Caribbean, and the North American station. She was sold in 1815.
Comet, an American schooner, was built in 1810 at Baltimore, Maryland. She was owned by "a group of wealthy Baltimore investors." Under Captain Thomas Boyle, who was a part owner of the schooner, Comet sailed from July 1812 to March 1814 as a privateer, which was a type of ships licensed by the United States during the War of 1812 to harass the British merchant vessels and divest their cargoes.
Several vessels have been named Lynx for the lynx: