USS Growler was a 112-ton sloop-of-war, armed with ten 18-pounders and one 6-pounder, during the War of 1812. The United States Navy purchased Growler on Lake Champlain in 1812. The British captured her in 1813 and renamed her HMS Chub or Chubb. The Americans recaptured her at the Battle of Lake Champlain. She was sold in 1815.
HMS Fly was a Swan-class ship sloop of the Royal Navy, launched on 14 September 1776. She performed mainly convoy escort duties during the French Revolutionary Wars, though she did capture three privateers. She foundered and was lost with all hands early in 1802.
Vénus was a corvette of the French Navy that the British captured in 1800. Renamed HMS Scout, she served briefly in the Channel before being wrecked in 1801, a few days after taking a major prize.
Sixteen ships of the Royal Navy have borne the name HMS Alert, while another was planned:
HMS Bermuda was an 18-gun sloop of the Royal Navy.
HMS Cormorant was a 16-gun ship sloop of the Cormorant class in the Royal Navy, launched in 1794 at Rotherhithe. She captured four French privateers before an accidental fire destroyed her in 1796.
HMS Magnet was a Cruizer-class brig-sloop built at Robert Guillaume’s yard at Northam and launched in 1807. She served in the Baltic, where she took two prizes, one an armed privateer, before wrecking in 1809.
Three, and possibly four, vessels of the Royal Navy have borne the name HMS Placentia, after locations in Newfoundland, including Placentia Bay and the town of Placentia:
HDMS Søormen was a 12-gun cutter of the Royal Dano-Norwegian Navy, built in 1789. After being captured by the British in 1808 she was added to the Royal Navy as HMS Salorman. She was wrecked in 1809.
HMS Alban was one of twelve Adonis-class schooners of the Royal Navy and was launched in 1806. She served during the Napoleonic Wars. During the Gunboat War she took part in two engagements with Danish gunboats, during the second of which the Danes captured her. The British recaptured her seven months later, but she was wrecked in 1812.
HMS Incendiary was an 8-gun fireship of the Royal Navy. She was present at a number of major battles during the French Revolutionary Wars, and captured, or participated in the capture, of several armed vessels. In January 1801 she was in the Gulf of Cadiz where she encountered Admiral Ganteume's squadron. The 80-gun French Navy ship of the line Indivisible received the credit for the actual capture.
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.
The Placentia class was a class of two sloops of the Royal Navy. John Henslow designed the small sloops for coastal patrol duties off Newfoundland. Their role was "to protect the fisheries and inquiring into abuses. The vessels would sit in the harbour of St Johns over the winter, and then in the spring would be fitted out to visit the ports on the station as soon as the ice had melted.
HMS Trepassey was the second vessel of her two vessel class, with both vessels being launched in 1789. John Henslow designed the small sloops for coastal patrol duties off Newfoundland, "to protect the fisheries and inquiring into abuses." In 1793, after the outbreak of the French Revolutionary Wars, she accepted the surrender of Miquelon. This appears to have been the highpoint of her career. She disappears from the records in 1807.
His Majesty's hired armed cutter Admiral Mitchell served under two contracts for the British Royal Navy, one at the end of the French Revolutionary Wars and the second at the beginning of the Napoleonic Wars. She participated in several notable small engagements and actions. In 1806 the Admiralty purchased her and took her into service as the Sir Andrew Mitchell in 1807.
Two vessels have borne the designation, His Majesty's hired armed cutter Lion. The first served during the French Revolutionary Wars, capturing five privateers and several merchant vessels. The second served briefly at the start of the Napoleonic Wars. Both vessels operated in the Channel. The two cutters may have been the same vessel; at this juncture it is impossible to know. French records report that the French captured the second Lion in 1808 and that she served in the French Navy until 1809.
HMS Spitfire was the French 6-gun privateer schooner Poulette, launched in 1793, that the Royal Navy captured that same year. Lieutenant John Perkins commissioned her in April. Under Perkins she was part of Commodore John Ford's squadron at Jamaica. She was lost with all hands off Saint-Domingue, Hispaniola, in February 1794.
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.
HMS Requin was the French Navy cutter Requin, launched at Boulogne in 1794. HMS Thalia captured Requin in 1795. Requin captured one small French privateer and participated in the capture of Suriname before wrecking in 1801.
HMS True Briton was a cutter the Royal Navy purchased in 1778. In 1779 she participated in a successful operation that resulted in the capture of a French frigate and several other naval vessels. The French Navy captured True Briton in 1780. She became the mercantile Tartare. The Royal Navy recaptured her and recommissioned her as HMS True Briton. The Navy laid her up in 1783 and sold her in 1785.
Great Britain