Napoleonic Wars
Commander Francis Douglas commissioned her in May 1808 for the Downs. [1] Douglas had been first lieutenant of HMS Repulse (1780) at the mutiny at The Nore in 1797. [2]
On 19 February 1809 Peruvian was in company with the sloop Osprey when Osprey captured the Vrouw Gesina. [3] In May Peruvian captured the Commerce, Rook, master, and sent her into The Downs. [4]
Then on 14 January 1810 Peruvian sailed for the Leeward Islands. Three days later Peruvian was in sight, and so entitled to share, together with a number of other vessels, in the prize money arising from the recapture of the Toms by Hyperion. [5] In November 1810 Commander Francis Dickinson took command, but he died on 23 April 1812. [1]
War of 1812
In 1812 Peruvian was under Lieutenant Amos F. Westropp, in the West Indies. [1] He was promoted to Commander in August. On 12 October 1812, Peruvian captured the sloop Prevyonte. [6] Twelve days later Peruvian captured the American privateer schooner Yankee off Sombrero, Anguilla. Yankee had 7 guns and a crew of 44 men. She was 38 days out of Salem, but had made no captures. [7] [8] Peruvian sent Yankee into Antigua. [9] American records state that the privateer was Yankee American, 77 tons burthen, T. Pillsbury, master. [10]
In 1813, under Commander George Kippen, Peruvian was on the American Station. [1] On 6 February, she was returning to her station from St. Thomas, when around seventy-nine miles (127 km) east by north of Sombrero, she encountered an American privateer. During the last two hours of the 15-hour chase, the privateer used her stern guns to fire continuously at Peruvian. Eventually Peruvian got within pistol shot and fired her bow guns, with her marines also firing. The privateer surrendered. She turned out to be John, of 16 guns and a crew of 100 men. [11] John, of Salem, was under the command of Captain James M. Fairfield and was on her second cruise. [12] At the time of the capture Peruvian was apparently in company with Cumberland. [13] The report in Lloyd's List describes John as having 20 guns and 93 men and surrendering after a chase of 13 hours. Peruvian sent John into St Thomas, where she arrived on 10 February 1813. [14] The head money bill specified that 90 men had been captured. [15]
On 6 May the William, of Wilmington, Holman, master, arrived at Antigua as a prize to Peruvian. [16] On 8 November, Peruvian was at St Thomas with Marlborough, Venus, and Espiegle to gather a convoy of some 40 merchant to convoy back to Britain. [17]
In August 1814, Peruvian took part in an expedition up the Penobscot River in Maine. She joined Sylph, Dragon, Endymion, Bacchante, as well as some transports. Bulwark, Tenedos, Rifleman, and Pictou also joined. On the evening of 31 August, Sylph, Peruvian, and the transport Harmony, accompanied by a boat from Dragon, embarked marines, foot soldiers and a detachment from the Royal Artillery, to move up the Penobscot under the command of Captain Robert Barrie of Dragon. [18] The objective was the American frigate Adams, of twenty-six 18 pounders, which had taken refuge some 27 miles up stream at Hampden, Maine. Here Adams had landed her guns and fortified a position on the bank with fifteen 18-pounders commanding the river. Moving up the river took two days, but eventually, after the Battle of Hampden, the British were able to capture the American defenders at Bangor, though not until after the Americans had burnt the Adams. The British also captured 11 other ships and destroyed six. The British lost only one man killed, a sailor from Dragon, and had several soldiers wounded. [19]
In October 1814 Commander James Kearney White took over command. [1] On 22 December Peruvian detained the Spanish vessel Dolores, which was condemned as a "droit of Admiralty". [20]
Around 21 January 1815 Peruvian sent into Bermuda the Rufus, King, master, which had been sailing from Charleston to Bordeaux. [21] On 8 April Peruvian left Bermuda for home.
Ascension Island
Peruvian, still under Captain White, together with her sister ship Zenobia, under Captain Nicholas Charles Dobree, had been part of the flotilla under Rear Admiral George Cockburn that had taken Napoleon into his final exile at St Helena. [23] (On the way Peruvian had had to make a detour to Guernsey to pick up a supply of French wine for Napoleon.)
Cockburn was concerned that the French might use Ascension Island, uninhabited at the time, [24] to stage a rescue mission. He therefore decided to claim and garrison the island. On 22 October 1815, at 5pm, Peruvian and Zenobia anchored in Clarence Bay. The ships' logs record that at 5.30pm, White and Dobree came ashore, raised the Jack, and took possession of the island in the name of His Britannic Majesty, King George III. Zenobia left shortly thereafter but Peruvian stayed until spring. [25]
Napoleon died on St Helena in 1821 and the Admiralty wanted to withdraw the garrison. However, Sir George Collier, Commodore of the West Africa Squadron, persuaded the Admiralty to retain it as it had become a victualling station for the vessels of the squadron, which was engaged in anti-slavery patrols. It also provided a sanatorium for the squadron's ships and crew.
Ascension Island was later designated "HMS Ascension", a "Stone sloop of War of the smaller class". [24]
Nautilus was a schooner launched in 1799. The United States Navy purchased her in May 1803 and commissioned her USS Nautilus; she thus became the first ship to bear that name. She served in the First Barbary War. She was altered to a brigantine. The British captured Nautilus early in the War of 1812 and renamed her HMS Emulous. After her service with the Royal Navy, the Admiralty sold her in 1817.
HMS Clio was Cruizer-class brig-sloop of the Royal Navy, launched at James Betts' shipyard in Mistleythorn in Essex on 10 January 1807. Her establishment was 71 officers and men, 24 boys and 20 marines. She served in the Baltic during the Napoleonic Wars, accomplished the re-establishment of British rule on the Falkland Islands in 1833, and participated in the First Opium War. She was broken up in 1845.
HMS Poictiers was a 74-gun Royal Navy third rate. This ship of the line was launched on 9 December 1809 at Upnor. During the War of 1812 she was part of blockade of the United States. She was broken up in 1857.
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 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 Sophie was an 18-gun Cruizer class brig-sloop of the Royal Navy. She served during the Napoleonic Wars and the War of 1812. During the War of 1812 Sophie participated in the economic war against American trade, capturing or destroying numerous small merchant vessels, and in an unsuccessful attack on Fort Bowyer, Alabama. Later, she moved to the East Indies where she served in the First Anglo-Burmese War. The Admiralty sold Sophie in 1825.
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 Zenobia was an 18-gun Cruizer-class brig-sloop launched 7 October 1807 by Brindley at King’s Lynn. Although she served during the Napoleonic Wars she is known for her role in two events, the claiming of Ascension Island for Great Britain in 1815, and the naming of the Saumarez Reefs in 1823. She was broken up in 1835.
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 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. 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 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.
HMS Linnet was originally His Majesty’s revenue cutter Speedwell, launched in 1797, that the Royal Navy purchased in 1806. Linnet captured a number of privateers before the French frigate Gloire captured her in 1813. The French sold or transferred her to the Americans, who operated her as the privateer Bunkers Hill. In March 1814 the British recaptured her, but did not return her to service.
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.
HMS Doterel, was an 18-gun Cruizer-class brig-sloop of the British Royal Navy. Launched on 6 October 1808, she saw action in the Napoleonic Wars and in the War of 1812. In February 1809 she took part in the Battle of Les Sables-d'Olonne, then in April the Battle of Basque Roads. She was laid up in 1827 at Bermuda, but not broken up until 1855.
Rifleman was a Cruizer-class brig-sloop launched in 1809 for the Royal Navy. She served in the North Sea, on the Halifax and Jamaica stations, and in the Mediterranean. During her service she recaptured a Royal Navy vessel in Danish service, and two privateers. The Navy sold her in 1836 and she proceed to sail as a merchantman and whaler between 1837 and 1856.
HMS Derwent was launched in 1807 and later that year became one of the first ships sent by the British Royal Navy to suppress the slave trade.
HMS Nimrod was a brig-sloop of the British Royal Navy, launched in 1812. She spent her war years in north American waters where she captured one small privateer, assisted in the capture of another, and captured or destroyed some 50 American vessels. After the war she captured smugglers and assisted the civil authorities in maintaining order in Tyne. She was wrecked in 1827 and so damaged that the Navy decided she was not worth repairing. A private ship-owner purchased Nimrod and repaired her. She then went on to spend some 20 years trading between Britain and Charleston, the Mediterranean, Australia, and India. She was last listed in 1851.
Invincible Napoleon was a three-masted French privateer commissioned in Bayonne in Spring 1804. She made numerous cruises until 1813–1814 when the British and the Americans repeatedly captured her. In her brief career as an American privateer she captured some 14 vessels. She finally ending up in British hands and was taken to Halifax, Nova Scotia as a prize.
Lion was launched in 1803 in Turkey, or 1802 in Spain. British owners acquired her in 1809, probably by purchase of a prize. She was a merchantman and letter of marque. She captured an American privateer in a notable single-ship action in 1813, some months before Lion was wrecked in 1813.
HMS Barbadoes was a 16-gun vessel, the American Herald, captured in 1813. The Royal Navy took her into service as HMS Barbadoes She captured a number of merchantmen and privateers before she was paid-off in May 1816. In 1814–1815 she also captured three Spanish and French vessels carrying over 1100 slaves. Barbadoes became a powder ship in Jamaica that was later wrecked with her remains being sold.
United Kingdom
