HMS Parthian was launched at Deptford in 1808. During the Napoleonic Wars she captured one important French privateer, and several Danish, Dutch, and French merchantmen. After the war, Parthian captured a pirate schooner near Vera Cruz. Parthian was wrecked off Alexandria on 15 May 1828.
Commander John Balderton commissioned Parthian in March 1808.[1] On 5 November as Parthian was bringing dispatches back to England she encountered a corvette and three brigs in the Bay of Biscay at 48°N11°W / 48°N 11°W / 48; -11. Believing them to be English, Balderston sailed among them and signaled them to come too. As boats from the vessels approached Parthian, the men in them called out that they were French and that Parthian should surrender. Parthian exchanged fire with the French vessels and was able to out-sail them to escape. Balderston believed that one of the brigs was an English prize.[2]
Captain Balderston was murdered on 12 December 1808.[1] A master's mate, angry at being disrated, shot Captain Balderston as Parthian was getting under weigh from Plymouth for Cadiz. On 20 December the master's mate was tried for mutiny, found guilty, and sentenced to hang.[3]
In 1809 Commander Richard Harward assumed command.[1]
On 2 May 1809, Parthian was at 45°N90°W / 45°N 90°W / 45; -90 when she sighted a brig to her west. The British recognized the brig as the famous privateer Nouvelle Gironde, and gave chase. After a 36-hour chase that involved the use of sweeps in the light winds, the British captured her. Nouvelle Gironde was armed with four 12-pounder and ten 4-pounder guns. She had a complement of 86 men (of whom 56 were on board), under the command of M. Lecomte.[lower-alpha 1] She had been out 45 days.[6] During her cruise Nouvelle Gironde had captured eight prizes. She arrived at Plymouth on 11 May.[7] On 20 May Parthian sailed for Constantinople.
Commander Harward was promoted to post-captain on 31 July 1809.
In September 1809 Commander Henry Dawson assumed command on the Texel Station.[1]Parthian took part in the ill-fated Walcheren Campaign.[8] Commodore Owen placed Captain Dawson in charge of a division of gun boats covering the retreat of the rear guard during the evacuation in December.[9] (The previous commander, Captain Abraham Lowe, had moved to take command of Sabrina.[9]) Parthian was afterwards employed in the blockade of German rivers.
On 27 June 1810 Parthian assisted Die Bieni, at sea. The vessel's owners provided a reward.[10]
In January 1810 Lloyd's List reported that Parthian had recaptured Thames, Greeve, master and sent her into Fowey. Thames had been returning to Liverpool from the Braziles when a French privateer had captured her.[11]
Parthian captured the Dutch schuytsVrou Belina, Drei Gesusters, Vrou Catharina, Julia, Argus, Drei Gebroeders, Wilhelmina, Goede Hope, Julia, Wedurve, and Wees on 21 April and 1 May 1810. Also, on 28 May Parthian recaptured Clyde.[12][13]
Three of these may have been the three vessels laden with pitch, tar, rope, seed, and linseed that Parthian brought into Yarmouth on 11 May. The vessels had been sailing from Oldenburgh to Amsterdam when they were captured.[14]
On 4 August 1810 Albertina, Brand, master, came into Hull. She had been sailing from Stettin when Parthian detained her.[15] Captain Dawson received promotion to post-captain on 1 August 1811.
In August 1811 Commander James Tomlinson assumed command.[1]
Parthian, Pincher, and Thrasher were in company on 22 and 25 October when they captured To Wenner, Esperance, and Jeune Remmer.[16] A Danish vessel that was a prize to the three British ships stranded on Sandy Island. It was expected that part of her cargo of pitch, tar, oil, and fish would be saved.[17]
On 29 December Parthian captured the Danish galiotDorothea Elizabeth. Then on 31 December Parthian detained Gute Hoffnung.[18]
Parthian was in company with Chanticleer when they captured the Prussian brig Jobb on 2 January 1812.[19]Job arrived in Yarmouth.
On 1 February 1812 Parthian captured Anna Andrina. The next day she took goods out of a Danish vessel.[20]
In February 1812 Commander James Garrety assumed command.[1]War with America broke out in July 1812. On 1 August Parthian and the schooner Linnet captured the American brig Nancy.[21][lower-alpha 2]Nancy arrived in Portsmouth.
Parthian was laid up at Portsmouth in November 1813.[1]
Post-war career
Parthian underwent repair and refitting at Portsmouth between June 1817 and October 1818. Commander Wilson Biggland commissioned her in August 1818 for the Jamaica Station.[1]
Commander Whitworth Lloyd recommissioned Parthian in August 1820 at Portsmouth, for Jamaica.[1]
On 15 February 1823 Commander George Barrington was appointed to command Parthian at Plymouth and the Nore.[1] Ship arrival and departure data show Parthian subsequently sailing between Plymouth or Falmouth and Lisbon or Cadiz with mails or a messenger.
In mid-1824 Parthian was in the Caribbean. In the first half of 1824, two British vessels, Pilgrim and Shannon, sailed from Campeachy, Mexico for Bristol and Cork, respectively. Neither arrived at their destination and were initially believed to have foundered in the Atlantic Ocean with the loss of all hands.[23] However, pirates had captured both, murdered the crews, and burnt the vessels. Shannon was burnt in the Laguna de Términos and the pirates stuck her captain's head on a post on shore. The pirate vessel was a pilot schooner armed with one 8-pounder gun, with a crew of 36 men under the command of Juan el Valenciano, and owned by Sr. Molas of Yalafar[24][25]
On 21 June Parthian arrived at Sacrificios from Falmouth. On 24 June she captured a pirate pilot schooner on the coast off Tobasco. Parthian took the schooner to Vera Cruz and there commissioned her to sail for the protection of the trade. On her the British found Pilgrim's letter bag, and a quantity of clothes, among them several shirts with Captain Watson's initials. They also found a pilot certificate for Pilgrim, Shannon's crewlist, a telescope inscribed "Peart" (the name of Shannon's master), and a quantity of English flags, sextants, and telescopes.[26] In 1832 bounty money was paid for "the capture and destruction of a piratical vessel, name unknown".[lower-alpha 3]
A report dated Alvarado, Veracruz, 28 June, stated that Parthian had passed by Sacrificios and seen a number of vessels anchored there that had been taken by pirates. Because the waters were shallow and Parthian had no pilot, she did not go closer. She did capture a small pilot boat whose crew saved themselves by swimming ashore. A report dated Mexico, 30 June, stated that Parthian had captured a pirate schooner off Silsa. It was believed that the pirate vessel was the one that had taken the French brig Ancienne and put her captain and supercargo ashore 40 leagues from Alvarado.[28]Parthian arrived at Plymouth on 13 September. She had sailed from Vera Cruz on 19 July, and Havana on 13 August.
On 3 January 1825 Parthian and six other men-of-war arrived at Falmouth from an "experimental cruise". In March she arrived at Portsmouth from Newfoundland. Commander Barrington received promotion to post-captain on 27 March 1826.[29]
Between March and June 1826 Parthian was at Deptford, undergoing fitting for sea. Commander Henry Byam Martin commissioned her in March for the Mediterranean.[1] (He had received promotion to the rank of Commander on 8 April 1825.[30]) She sailed from Plymouth on 5 July, bound for the Mediterranean. She arrived at Malta on 2 August. Parthian sailed from Malta on 8 August 1826 with a convoy for Smyrna and the Dardanelles. She and HMSSeringapatam were in Smyrna on 19 September.[31] On 19 October Parthian arrived in Trieste.
On 28 April 1827 Commander George Frederick Hotham replaced Commander Martin.[32]
Fate
Parthian was wrecked off Alexandria on 15 May 1828 while bringing dispatches. She was sailing along the coast at night when she grounded off shore. Her anchors failed and the sea pushed her on to the shore between Marabout (Marabut) Island and Arab's Tower. Cables enabled the entire crew to reach shore, where they established a camp. HMSWeazel arrived later that day and took the crew to Alexandria. The subsequent court martial blamed a strong southerly current that had carried Parthian further west than Captain Hotham and the sailing master had realized. The court martial board admonished them to be more careful in the future when sailing close to shore.[33]
Notes
↑ Nouvelle Gironde, of 120 tons (French; "of load"), had been commissioned in March 1808 at Bordeaux, under Alexis Marrauld. From November 1808, she was under a Captain Lecomte, with 10 officers and 66 to 70 men, and was armed with twelve 4-pounder guns and four 12-pounder carronades.[4]Nouvelle Gironde was offered at auction in Plymouth on 11 July 1809. The advertisement gave her length as 76ft 2in (23.2m), her breadth as 23ft 2in (7.1m), her depth in the pump well as 10ft (3.0m), and her burthen as 17771⁄94.[5]
↑ A first-class share of the prize money was worth £74 19s9+1⁄2d; a sixth-class share, that of an ordinary seaman, was worth £1 6s 3+3⁄4d.[22]
↑ A first-class share was worth £51 15s; a sixth-class share was worth 14s 0+3⁄4d.[27]
HMS Calypso was a Royal Navy Cruizer-class brig-sloop. She was built at Deptford Wharf between 1804 and 1805, and launched in 1805. She served in the North Sea and the Baltic, most notably at the Battle of Lyngør, which effectively ended the Gunboat War. Calypso was broken up in March 1821.
HMS Surinam was a Cruizer-class brig-sloop built by Obadiah Ayles at Topsham, Exeter and launched in 1805. She captured one privateer during her twenty-year career and took part in two campaigns before she was broken up in 1825.
HMS Charybdis was a Royal Navy Cruizer-class brig-sloop built by Mark Richards and John Davidson at Hythe, and launched in 1809. She captured two American prizes during the War of 1812 before she was laid up in 1815 and sold in 1819. She apparently then became the whaler Greenwich, which made three voyages for Samuel Enderby & Sons and one for Daniel Bennett & Son. She was wrecked in the Seychelles in 1833 on her fourth whaling voyage.
HMS Phipps was the Dutch privateer Two Lydias, launched in 1807, that the British Royal Navy captured in 1808 and took into service as HMS Phipps. Phipps captured two privateers, took part in a notable action, and her crew was subjected to mercury poisoning. She was sold for breaking up in 1812.
HMS Rover was a Royal Navy Cruizer-class brig-sloop laid down in 1804 but not launched until 1808. She served in the North Sea, off the north coast of Spain, in the Channel, and on the North American station. She captured two letters-of-marque and numerous merchant vessels before being laid-up in 1815. She then sat unused until she was sold in 1828. She became a whaler that made four voyages to the British southern whale fishery between 1830 and 1848. She was last listed in 1848.
HMS Briseis was a 10-gun Cherokee- class brig-sloop of the Royal Navy, launched in 1808 at Upnor, on the River Medway. She participated in one notable single ship action before she wrecked in 1816.
Resolution was a brig built in Spain and launched in 1800 that was probably a prize. The Brethren's Society for the Furtherance of the Gospel among the Heathen purchased her in 1802 for service as a Moravian Church mission ship. These vessels made an annual voyage from London to the Moravian Church mission stations in Labrador every summer bringing provisions and exchanging missionaries. The Church sold her in 1808 and she was wrecked on the coast of Africa in 1810.
Antelope was launched at Nantes in 1804 under another name. The British captured her and the High Court of Admiralty condemned her on 1 June 1807. She sailed to the Pacific, possibly as a whaler, where she captured a Spanish vessels. In 1811 she made one voyage to India for the British East India Company. She next traded with South America and the Mediterranean. A United States privateer captured her in 1814, but the Royal Navy quickly recaptured her. She was probably broken up circa 1824.
HMS Juniper was launched at Bermuda in 1809 for the British Royal Navy. She participated in one campaign for which her crew was awarded the Naval General Service Medal (1847) with clasp "San Sebastian". She also participated in the capture of several merchant ships. The Navy sold her in 1814.
HMS Bramble was launched in Bermuda in 1809. She had a relatively brief and uneventful career before the Royal Navy sold her in December 1815. She became the mercantile Bramble, and was last listed in 1824.
Général Pérignon was a brig launched at Saint-Malo in February 1804 as a privateer. She captured numerous British merchant vessels over several cruises. In January 1810 the British Royal Navy captured her. She was sold in March 1810 and became a coaster sailing between Plymouth and London under her original name, or as Intention. She was last listed in 1816.
HMS Argus was launched in 1798 at Bordeaux as Argus. She became a privateer that the British Royal Navy (RN) captured in 1799. She served from April 1803 until she was broken up in April 1811.
Thames was launched in 1807 in Howden. She first sailed as a West Indiaman, and later traded with Brazil. Privateers captured her twice. The first time the British Royal Navy was able swiftly to recapture her. The second time Thames's American captor sent her into Portland, Maine after a single ship action.
Backhouse was launched in 1798 at Dartmouth. In all, she made four voyages as a slave ship in the triangular trade in enslaved people. Between the second and the third, and after the fourth, she was a West Indiaman. A French privateer captured her early in 1810 as she was returning to Britain from Brazil.
HMS Growler was a Archer-class gun-brig built for the British Royal Navy and launched in 1804. She captured several French privateers and one Danish privateer, and took part in two actions that earned her crew the Naval General Service Medal (NGSM). She was sold in 1815.
HMS Intelligent was launched in 1805 at Bridport as a Confounder-class gunbrig. She was the only Royal Navy vessel to be named Intelligent. She had an uneventful career. The Admiralty tried to sell her in 1805, but the sale fell through and she became a mooring lighter that was still in service in 1864.
HMS Favorite was an 18-gun Cormorant-class ship-sloop, launched in 1806 and broken up in 1821. In her career she sailed as far North America, the Caribbean, Africa, South America, and the Far East. She captured or recaptured several merchant ships and a handful of privateers.
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 Johns Newfoundland on 8 October 1812.
HMS Pioneer was a Pigmy–class schooner of the Royal Navy, launched in 1810 as a cutter. During her service with the Navy she captured one French privateer and assisted at the capture of another. In 1823–1824 she underwent fitting for the Coast Guard blockade. She then served with the Coast Guard to 1845. She was sold at Plymouth in 1849.
HMS Zephyr was a 14-gun Crocus-class brig of the Royal Navy built by Nicholas Diddams at Portsmouth Dockyard and launched there in 1809. During her service she captured two armed vessels. The Navy sold her in 1818 for breaking up.
References
Demerliac, Alain (2003). La Marine du Consulat et du Premier Empire: Nomenclature des Navires Français de 1800 à 1815 (in French). Éditions Ancre. ISBN9782903179304. OCLC492784876.
Hepper, David J. (1994). British Warship Losses in the Age of Sail, 1650–1859. Rotherfield: Jean Boudriot. ISBN0-948864-30-3.
Winfield, Rif (2008). British Warships in the Age of Sail 1793–1817: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates. Seaforth Publishing. ISBN978-1-86176-246-7.
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