Pilote was under the command of Lieutenant Charles Seymour Lynn on 5 December 1782 when she captured the Dutch ship Fortunée. [16] She was paid off in May 1783 and then Lynn recommissioned her. [10]
Between 1786 and 1787 Pilote was under the command of Lieutenant Warwick Oben. [10]
From 1791 she was still in the Irish Sea and under the command of Lieutenant Henry Gunter. [10] In March 1793 she was driven on shore at Waterford from her moorings. [17]
Between June and July 1794 Pilote was yet again at Plymouth undergoing work, this time for conversion to a brig. [1] Pilote was under the command of Lieutenant Jackson Dowsing when she captured the French vessel Maria Theresa. [18]
Pilote was among the many vessels that benefited from the proceeds of the Dutch men of war, East Indiamen, and other merchant vessels that the navy seized at Plymouth on 20 January 1795. [19]
In 1795 Pilote was under the command of Lieutenant Farmery Predam Epworth. [1] While in Pilote he carried dispatches to the West Indies and the Channel Fleet. He received promotion to Commander in Wasp in December 1796. [20]
In 1797 she was under the command of Lieutenant Henry Compton. On 26 May she captured the French privateer lugger Justine Adélaïde. Pilote had seen a convoy safely to St Helens when she encountered and captured Justine Adélaïde ten leagues SSE from Beachy Head. Justine Adélaïde mounted two guns and two swivel guns, carried a chest of small arms, and had a crew of 20 men. She was three days out of Fecamp, but had taken nothing. [21] [b]
On 12 July Pilote captured the Danish ship Emilie, and her cargo. In June 1798 Pilote recaptured the brig Amity. [23]
On 28 June Pilote was in company with the 50-gun fourth rate Romney, Wolverine, and Plover, also later Daphne, and possibly the 24-gun post ship Champion, when they fell in with a Swedish convoy of 21 merchant vessels and their escort, a 44-gun frigate. Because Sweden and Britain were not at war, Captain Lawford of Romney shadowed the convoy while sending a lieutenant back to the Admiralty for instructions. On 30 June the lieutenant returned, but his instructions are now lost. Lawford decided to detain the Swedish merchant vessels, which he did on 1 and 2 July, without the Swedish frigate intervening. Ultimately, the Swedish vessels sailed into Margate where they were held for some months before the authorities sent most on their way. [24] Prize money for some part of the capture was paid in June 1804. [25] [26]
The "Principal Officers and Commissioners of His Majesty's Navy" offered "His Majesty's Brig Pilote, of the Burthen of 218 Tons, Coppered and Copper-fastened, with Masts, Yards, Furniture, and Stores, as per Inventory" at Sheerness on 29 April 1799. [27] They sold Pilote at Sheerness in May to Robert Elliot for £920. [1]
HMS Hydra launched in 1797 was a fifth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy. From 1813 to 1817 she served as a troopship. She was sold in 1820.
HMS Porcupine was a 24-gun Porcupine-class sixth-rate post ship of the Royal Navy built in 1777 and broken up in 1805. During her career she saw service in the American War of Independence and the French Revolutionary Wars.
His Majesty's Hired armed cutter Lurcher was a 12-gun cutter that served the Royal Navy from 15 August 1795 until 15 January 1801 when a French privateer captured her in the Channel.
During the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, British vessels captured at least 12 French warships and privateers named Espoir, which means “Hope” in French. In only one case was there mention of an exchange of fire or casualties. In general, the privateers tried to escape, and failing that surrendered.
HMS Moucheron was a French privateer, built in 1799, that the British captured in 1801. The British government purchased her in 1802 for the Royal Navy. She foundered in 1807 in the Mediterranean without leaving a trace.
HMS Jupiter was a 50-gun Portland-class fourth-rate ship of the Royal Navy. She served during the American War of Independence, the French Revolutionary Wars, and the Napoleonic Wars in a career that spanned thirty years. She was also one of the fastest ships in the Royal Navy as shown by her attempt to capture the cutter Eclipse under Nathaniel Fanning.
HMS Crescent was a 28-gun Enterprise-class sixth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy. Crescent was launched in 1779. The French captured her in 1781. She was wrecked in 1786.
HMS Sprightly was a 10-gun cutter of the Royal Navy, built to a design by John Williams, and the name ship of her two-vessel class of cutters. She was launched in 1778. The French captured and scuttled her off the Andulasian coast in 1801.
HMS Greyhound was a cutter that the British Admiralty purchased in 1780 and renamed Viper in 1781. Viper captured several French privateers in the waters around Great Britain, and took part in a notable engagement. She was sold in October 1809.
At least two vessels known as His Majesty's hired armed lugger Nile served the Royal Navy during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. These may have been the same vessel on sequential contracts.
Mutin was a 14-gun cutter of the French Navy, the lead ship of the Mutin class of five naval cutters. She was launched in 1778 and the Royal Navy captured her the next year, taking her into service as HMS Mutine. The Royal Navy renamed her HMS Pigmy in 1798. She was lost in 1805.
Prince William was built in Newcastle in 1788. She then traded between England and the Baltic. The Royal Navy first hired her in 1797. His Majesty's hired armed ship Prince William served on two contracts, one during the French Revolutionary Wars and one during the Napoleonic Wars. The Admiralty returned her to her owners at the end of each contract.
HMS Resolution was a cutter that the Royal Navy purchased in 1779. She captured two French privateers in 1781 and a Dutch privateer in 1783 after a single ship action. Resolution captured one more small French privateer in June 1797; later that month Resolution went missing in the North Sea, presumed to have foundered.
The French brig Suffisante was launched in 1793 for the French Navy. In 1795 the Royal Navy captured her and took her into service under her existing name. HMS Suffisante captured seven privateers during her career, as well as recapturing some British merchantmen and capturing a number of prizes, some of them valuable. She was lost in December 1803 when she grounded in poor weather in Cork harbour.
His Majesty's hired armed schooner Lady Charlotte served the British Royal Navy on contract between 28 October 1799 and 28 October 1801. She had a burthen of 120 85⁄94 tons (bm), and was armed with twelve 12-pounder carronades. As a hired armed vessel she captured several privateers and recaptured a number of British merchant vessels. After her service with the Royal Navy, she apparently sailed as a letter of marque until the French captured her in 1806.
HMS Barbuda was commissioned into the Royal Navy in 1780 after having briefly served as an American privateer. Barbuda was one of the two sloops that captured Demerara and Essequibo in 1781, but the French Navy captured her there in 1782 and took her into service as Barboude. The French Navy sold her to private owners in 1786, and she served briefly as a privateer in early 1793 before the French Navy purchased her again and named her Légère. She served them until mid-1796 when the Royal Navy captured her and took her into service as HMS Legere. She was wrecked off the coast of Colombia, without loss of life, in February 1801.
His Majesty's Hired armed lugger Speedwell served the Royal Navy on contract between 11 June 1796 and 31 October 1801. She had a burthen of 15215⁄94 tons (bm), and was armed with fourteen 4-pounder guns.
HMS Speedwell was a mercantile vessel that the Admiralty purchased in 1780. During the American Revolutionary War she served at Gibraltar during the Great Siege. In 1796 she was converted to a brig. Although she did capture two French privateers and participate in an incident in which the Royal Navy violated Swedish neutrality, her service in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars was apparently relatively uneventful. A storm in February 1807 destroyed her, causing the loss of her entire crew.
Jalouse was an 18-gun Belliqueuse-class brig-corvette of the French Navy, built to a design by Pierre-Alexandre-Laurent Forfait, and launched in 1794 at Honfleur. The Royal Navy captured her in May 1797 and took her into service under her existing name. In British service she served primarily on the North Sea station where she captured three small French privateers, and many Dutch merchant vessels. She also participated with other British warships in two or three major cutting-out expeditions. She was broken up in 1807.
El Corso was launched in Spain in 1791 as a naval brig. the British Royal Navy captured her in 1796 and took her into service as HMS Corso. She then served in the Mediterranean where she captured numerous small vessels, the great majority of which were merchant vessels. In 1802 she sailed to England. From July 1802 to her sale in September 1814 she served as a receiving ship.