On 28 July 1810 Poictiers shared with Seine and Shannon in the recapture of the Starling.[3] On 22 April 1811, Poictiers, Caledonia and the hired armedcutterNimrod captured the French vessel Auguste. They removed her cargo of casks of wine and destroyed the ship.[4]
On 14 August Poictiers accompanied Admiral Sir John Borlase Warren, who was sailing to Halifax, Nova Scotia, on San Domingo, together with Sophie, Magnet, and Mackerel. Magnet disappeared during the voyage and was presumed foundered with all hands.
On 18 October 1812, Poictiers participated in an action where she rescued Frolic by capturing USSWasp, commanded by Jacob Jones. Four hours after Wasp had captured Frolic, Captain Sir John Poer Beresford hove in sight and captured Wasp and recaptured Frolic.[6] He then brought both to Bermuda. Frolic returned to duty and Wasp became HMS Loup Cervier. In November 1818 the proceeds of the sales of ordnance stores and head-money for the men captured on board Wasp, also for ordnance stores recaptured on board Frolic was paid.[lower-alpha 1]
Thereafter, Poictiers captured a number of merchant vessels, alone or with other ships.[8]
29 October: the brig Little William, of the Isle of Mayo and sailing to Philadelphia;
3 November: the brig Logan, from Boston, sailing to Baltimore;
25 November: the ship Rebecca, from Philadelphia and sailing to Madeira;
11 December: schooner Betsy, from Providence (Rhode Island), sailing to Norfolk;
December: ship Pekin, from Boston sailing to Alexandria (Poictiers in company with Acasta).
One of these may or may not have been a ship from Brazil carrying a cargo of hides and tallow that USSArgus had captured. Poictiers recaptured the ship off the Virginia Capes in mid-December and sent her into Bermuda.[9]
On 28 December Poictiers and Acasta captured the American letter of marqueHerald, of 18 guns (10 mounted), and 50 men, as Herald was sailing from Bordeaux to Baltimore.[10]Herald, prior to herself being captured, had taken a ship, a brig, and a schooner. The cargo of the ship Friendship alone had an estimated value of US$400,000.[11]Poictiers was in company with Acasta and Maidstone.[8]
More captures followed.
Poictiers took the American schooner Highflyer, of five guns and 72 men, on 9 January 1813. She was on her return from the West Indies, where she had made several captures.[12] Under the command of Captain Jeremiah Grant, Highflyer, of Baltimore, had captured two ships, four brigs, one schooner and one sloop; three of these vessels had been armed.[11] The Royal Navy took Highflyer into service under her existing name.
In early January 1813, the warships of the squadron blockading New York, of which Poictiers was one, captured a number of vessels:[13]
Schooners Syren and Tropic, sailing from New York to Charleston;
Sloop Almira, New York to Fredericksburg;
Brig Industry, Rhode Island to Virginia; and,
Brig Caroline, Charleston to New York.
The British armed Syren with one gun and gave her a crew of 40 men. She then captured American Eagle, Herlitz, master, which had been sailing from Cadiz to New York.[13]
17 January 1813: ship Lydia, from Rhode Islands sailing to Norfolk (Poictiers in company with Acasta and Maidstone; and,
January: schooner Rhoda (Poictiers and Acasta).
24 February: American brigs Gustavus and Staunch (Poictiers shared with six other British ships);[14]
24 February: American brig Hannah (Poictiers with the same six other British ships).[lower-alpha 2]
29 March 1813: American ship Montesquieu (Poictiers in company with Belvidera and the actual captor, the schooner Paz).[lower-alpha 3]
17 April: Portuguese schooner Alliance, sailing from Philadelphia to Jamaica with a cargo of flour, and sent in to Bermuda;[18]
28 April: English schooner Bermuda recaptured while sailing from Bermuda to Philadelphia, and used as a tender to Poictiers;[18]
1 May: American sloop Providence sailing from Philadelphia to Boston with a cargo of flour and corn, and sent in to Bermuda;[18] and
10 May: American sloop Factor sailing from Philadelphia to Boston with a cargo of cotton, cargo removed and vessel set adrift.[18]
Poictiers was part of a squadron of 12 ships that shared in the capture on 13 and 14 March of Christina and Massatoit.[19]
Poictiers fired a few ineffectual shots. The position of the channel made it necessary for Yankee to pass close to Poictiers
On 4 (or 5) July 1813 the American smackYankee captured the brig Eagle, which was serving as a tender to Poictiers. The Americans put 40 militiamen on board Yankee and sailed her where Eagle was known to be patrolling. The militiamen concealed themselves while on Yankee's deck there were three men dressed as fishermen, and a calf, a goose, and a sheep were tethered. When Yankee encountered Eagle, Eagle fell for the bait of fresh meat and came alongside. The Americans, under Sailing-Master Percival, came out of hiding and fired their small arms. Although Eagle carried a brass 32-pounder howitzer loaded with canister, she was unable to get off a shot. The Americans then took Eagle into New York. Eagle had two men killed, including her commander Master's Mate H. Morris, and Midshipman W. Price mortally wounded. The remaining eight seamen were taken prisoner.[20][lower-alpha 4]
Poictiers captures 'Yorktown', 1813, by Irwin John Bevan
Poictiers, with Poictiers and Maidstone in company, captured Yorktown, of 20 guns and 140 men, on 17 July. Yorktown, under Captain T. W. Story, had taken 11 prizes, including Manchester, before Maidstone captured Yorktown after a four-hour chase. The British sent Yorktown and her crew into Halifax, Nova Scotia.[22][lower-alpha 5][lower-alpha 6]
Poictiers in company with Maidstone and Nimrod captured several vessels.
13 August 1813: brig Anna, of 125 tons, Diego Martinez, master, sailing from Newhaven to Laguira.[25][lower-alpha 7]
These incidents aside, Poictiers had an uneventful war, though there is a record of one humorous incident. The exhibit center of the town of Lewes, Delaware, has a framed copy of a handwritten letter from Captain Beresford to the town's chief magistrate. Dated 16 March 1813, the letter says:
Sir,
As soon as you receive this, I request you will send 20 live bullocks with a proportionate quantity of vegetables and hay to the Poictiers for the use of Britannic Majesty's squadron now at this anchorage, which will be immediately paid for at the Philadelphia prices. If you refuse to comply with this request I shall be under necessity of destroying your town. I have the honor to be, sir, your very obedient servant,
J. P. Beresford
Commodore and commander of the British Squadron in the Mouth of the Delaware.
Col. Samuel Boyer Davis, commander of American troops in Lewes, refused the demand, so on 6 and 7 April Beresford shelled the town, killing a chicken and wounding a pig. There is a cannonball from Poictiers lodged in the stone foundation of Lewes's Marine Museum.[27]
In November 1813 Poictiers was at Halifax, Nova Scotia, preparing to escort a convoy of merchant vessels to England when a gale hit the city. It destroyed or damaged many vessels, though Poictiers was able to ride out the gale.
Poictiers underwent a "Large Repair" at Chatham between April 1815 September 1817. She was fitted at Sheerness as a guard ship between March 1836 and September 1837. She remained in that role at Chatham until March 1848 when she became a depot ship until 1850. In 1857 she was sold out of service and broken up, the breaking up being completed on 23 March 1857.[2]
Postscript
HMS Poictiers figurehead, a sometime replacement of the original
Poictier's figurehead went to the small museum in Chatham Dockyard. In the 1920s, the figurehead was moved to Sheerness and placed on display inside the dockyard but towards the 1980s, the condition of the wood was such that the figure fell apart, leaving no single piece that could reasonably be salvaged for purposes of reconstruction.
The pieces were therefore used, in conjunction with archive photographs, to carve a replica. Andy Peters was commissioned to analyse samples of the paint and to carry out the carving. He then created a sculpture that provides a record of the figure's former glory, complete with gold leaf detailing.[30] Since 2008, the replica has been on display for public viewing at the Blue Town Heritage Centre alongside the original figurehead from HMSScylla after Peel Holdings donated the pair.
Notes
↑ A first-class share was worth £64 7s; a sixth-class share, the share of an ordinary seaman, was worth 5s 9+3⁄4d.[7]
↑ A cargo of molasses on Hannah resulted in an award of prize money in June 1818 that amounted to £6 7s 6d for a first-class share, and 9d for a sixth-class share;[15]
↑ A first-class share of the ransom was worth £1704 9s 5d; a sixth-class share was worth £7 14s 10d.[17] For an ordinary seaman, the amount was worth about four to five months' pay. For a captain, the first-class share was worth more than four or five years' pay. This payment represented money reserved to answer Paz's claims before the Vice-Court of Admiralty at Halifax. Lieutenant Perry Dumaresque, captain of Paz, had objected to Montesquieu being ransomed rather than sold as a prize.
↑ The British recaptured Eagle in September 1813 (though under what name and by whom is unclear), and renamed her HMS Chubb. She was sold in 1822.[21]
↑ The Haifax Vie-admiralty records give the name of York Ton'"'s master as A. Ricker.[23]
↑ The head-money and final payment of hull and stores of Herald and Highflyer amounted to £52 6s 4d for a first-class share. A sixth-class share was worth 5s 3d.[24]
↑ A first-class share of the prize money was worth £129 6+1⁄4d; a sixth-class share was worth £1 7d.[26]
↑ "HMS Poictiers figurehead". Maritima Woodcarving. Retrieved 8 November 2023. The figurehead was then placed as a shore exhibit at the Sheerness dockyard.
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.
HMS Acasta was a 40-gun Royal Navy fifth-rate frigate. She saw service in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, as well as the War of 1812. Although she never took part in any notable single-ship actions nor saw action in a major battle though she was at the Battle of San Domingo, she captured numerous prizes and rid the seas of many Spanish, French and American privateers. She was finally broken up in 1821.
HMS Niemen was a Royal Navy 38-gun fifth-rate frigate. She began her career as the Niémen, a 44-gun French Navy Armide-class frigate, designed by Pierre Rolland. She was only in French service for a few months when in 1809 she encountered some British frigates. The British captured her and she continued in British service as Niemen. In British service she cruised in the Atlantic and North American waters, taking numerous small American prizes, some privateers but mostly merchantmen. She was broken up in 1815, at the end of the Napoleonic Wars and the War of 1812.
HMS Spartan was a Royal Navy 38-gun fifth-rate frigate, launched at Rochester in 1806. During the Napoleonic Wars she was active in the Adriatic and in the Ionian Islands. She then moved to the American coast during the War of 1812, where she captured a number of small vessels, including a US Revenue Cutter and a privateer, the Dart. She then returned to the Mediterranean, where she remained for a few years. She went on to serve off the American coast again, and in the Caribbean, before being broken up in 1822.
HMS Frolic was an 18-gun Cruizer-class brig-sloop of the Royal Navy. She was built by Boole, of Bridport and was launched on 9 February 1806. Although she took part in the capture of Martinique, Guadaloupe, and Saint Martin, she appears to have had an uneventful career until 8 October 1812, when the American sloop-of-war USS Wasp captured her after a fierce fight. Later that day the British recaptured Frolic and captured Wasp. Frolic was broken up in 1813.
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 St Lawrence was a 14-gun schooner of the Royal Navy. She had been built in 1808 in St. Michaels, Talbot County, Maryland for Thomas Tennant and sold to Philadelphians in 1810. During the War of 1812 she was the US privateer Atlas. The UK captured her in 1813 and renamed her St Lawrence. The US privateer Chasseur recaptured her in 1815, and then HMS Acasta re-recaptured her.
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 Sappho was a Cruizer class brig-sloop built by Jabez Bailey at Ipswich and launched in 1806. She defeated the Danish brig Admiral Yawl in a single-ship action during the Gunboat War, and then had a notably successful two months of prize-taking in the first year of the War of 1812. She was wrecked in 1825 off the Canadian coast and then broken up in 1830.
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 Colibri was the French naval Curieux-class brig Colibri, launched in 1808, that the British captured in 1809 and took into the Royal Navy under her existing name. She spent her time in British service on the North American station based in Halifax, Nova Scotia. During the War of 1812, Colibri served mostly in blockading the American coast and capturing privateers and merchant ships. She foundered in 1813 in Port Royal Sound, South Carolina, but without loss of life.
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.
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 Childers was a Royal Navy 18-gun Cruizer-class brig-sloop that Nicholas Diddams built at Portsmouth Dockyard and launched in 1812. She was broken up in 1822.
HMS Atalante was an 18-cannon sloop-of-war launched in 1808, and ordered in 1806, from Bermuda. However, the ship was wrecked on 10 November 1813, caused by fog off Halifax, Nova Scotia.
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.
HMS Cockchafer was a United States schooner, formerly named Spencer, that the Royal Navy (RN) captured and employed as a ship's tender. She captured two American armed brigs, one in a single-ship action. The Navy sold her in 1815.
References
Emmons, George Foster (1853), The navy of the United States, from the commencement, 1775 to 1853; with a brief history of each vessel's service and fate ... Comp. by Lieut. George F. Emmons ... under the authority of the Navy Dept. To which is added a list of private armed vessels, fitted out under the American flag ... also a list of the revenue and coast survey vessels, and principal ocean steamers, belonging to citizens of the United States in 1850., Washington: Gideon & Co
Lavery, Brian (2003), The Ship of the Line, vol.1: The development of the battlefleet 1650-1850, Conway Maritime Press, ISBN0-85177-252-8
Maclay, Edgar Stanton (2004) [1899]. A History of American Privateers. New York: D. Appleton.
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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