Career
Lieutenant James Pattison Stewart was appointed acting commander of Port d'Espagne on the Trinidad station on 15 April 1806. [lower-alpha 1]
On 27 February 1807 Port d'Espagne and the brig Express captured the brig Altrevido, Nichola Val Pardo, master. The schooner Ballahoo shared by agreement in the prize money due Express. [lower-alpha 2]
Three months later, on 6 June, 25 men from Port d'Espagne, under the command of Lieutenant Hall, succeeded in capturing the Spanish privateer schooner Mercedes in the Gulf of Paria. Mercedes was armed with two guns and two swivel guns, and had a crew of 30 men. Hall used a captured Spanish schooner disguised as a neutral vessel to get close to the Mercedes. The British came alongside, under fire, and captured the Mercedes after a brief fight. British casualties were two men wounded; Spanish casualties were two killed, one drowned, and three wounded. [5]
On 18 August Stewart and Port d'Espagne succeeded in capturing the Spanish privateer schooner Maria after a six-hour chase. She was armed with one long 18-pounder gun, had a crew of 74 men, was provisioned for a three-month cruise, and had left Margarita intending to cruise windward of Barbados. Stewart was particularly pleased to capture Maria as she was fast sailer in the Windward Islands and although on this cruise she had not made any captures, her captain had 14 years of successes in other privateers. [6] Two days later, Ballahoo's boats, with the assistance of Maria, destroyed a small privateer in the Bay of San Juan. [7]
Port d'Espagne and Ballahoo captured another small privateer, Rosario, on 12 September in the same bay. Rosario also was armed with one gun, and had a crew of 34, all of whom escaped on shore. [7] Prize and head money for Mercede, Rosario, and the unnamed privateer were paid some 21 years later. [lower-alpha 3]
Lastly, Port d'Espagna chased a privateer out of the Gulf of Paria and into the arms of the brig Attentive, [4] which captured the Spaniard on 17 October. The Spanish privateer, of two guns, was the Nuestra Senora del Carmen.
In late 1808 Stewart transferred to Snap, which he commissioned on 13 November. His replacement on Port d'Espagne was Lieutenant David Kennedy, of Pompee. [11]
Port d'Espagne participated in the British capture of the French and Dutch West Indies, including the capture of Martinique in February 1809. [12] In 1847 the Admiralty authorized the issue of the Naval General Service Medal with the clasp "Martinique" to all remaining surviving claimants of that campaign. [13]
Lieutenant Colin Campbell was appointed to the command of Port d'Espagne on 22 September 1809. His replacement, by exchange, was Lieutenant Donald Campbell, who assumed command on 29 March 1810, and left on 22 September.
On 21 October 1810, Lieutenant George Guy Burton became acting captain (pro tem) of Port d'Espagne. Commander James Black was promoted to Port d'Espagne with a commission dated 8 September 1810. It is not clear when he actually took command.
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 Reindeer was a Royal Navy 18-gun Cruizer-class brig-sloop of the Royal Navy, built by Samuel & Daniel Brent at Rotherhithe and was launched in 1804. She was built of fir, which made for more rapid construction at the expense of durability. Reindeer fought in the Napoleonic Wars before succumbing in 1814 to the guns of USS Wasp during the War of 1812.
HMS Lark was a 16-gun ship sloop of the Cormorant class, launched in 1794 at Northfleet. She served primarily in the Caribbean, where she took a number of prizes, some after quite intensive action. Lark foundered off San Domingo in August 1809, with the loss of her captain and almost all her crew.
Palinure was the nameship for the Palinure-class of 16-gun brigs of the French Navy, and was launched in 1804. In French service she captured Carnation before Circe captured her in turn. After being taken into the Royal Navy as HMS Snap, she participated in two campaigns that qualified her crew for the Naval General Service Medal (NGSM). She was broken up in 1811.
HMS Ballahoo was the first of the Royal Navy's Ballahoo-class schooners, vessels 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 1804. She patrolled primarily in the Leeward Islands, taking several small prizes, before an American privateer captured her in 1814 during the War of 1812.
HMS Capelin was a Royal Navy Ballahoo-class schooner carrying 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 1804. Like many of her class and the related Cuckoo-class schooners, she succumbed to the perils of the sea relatively early in her career.
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 Whiting was a 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 1805. She was a participant at the Battle of Basque Roads. A French privateer captured her at the beginning of the War of 1812, shortly after the Americans had captured and released her in the first naval incident of the war.
HMS Laura was an Adonis-class schooner of the Royal Navy, launched in 1806 at Bermuda. Laura served during the Napoleonic Wars before a French privateer captured her at the beginning of the War of 1812. She was briefly an American letter of marque before the British recaptured her in 1813. Despite having recaptured her, the British did not return Laura to service.
HMS Eclair was a French Navy schooner launched in 1799 and captured in 1801. The British took her into service under her French name and armed her with twelve 12-pounder carronades. In 1804 she engaged in a noteworthy, albeit indecisive single ship action with the 22-gun French privateer Grande Decide. In 1809 she was renamed Pickle. In December 1812 she and three other small British vessels engaged the French 40-gun frigate Gloire in another noteworthy and indecisive action. She was sold in 1818.
HMS Emulous was a Royal Navy 18-gun Cruizer-class brig-sloop, built by William Row at Newcastle and launched in 1806. She survived an inconclusive but bloody battle with a French frigate during the Napoleonic Wars and captured a number of prizes, including two privateers, on the Halifax station during the War of 1812 before she was wrecked in 1812.
HMS Mosambique was the French privateer schooner Mosambique, built in 1798, and commissioned as a privateer in 1804. The British Royal Navy captured her in 1804 and took her into service. She served in the West Indies, engaging in several indecisive single-ship actions before she captured one French privateer. She was sold there in 1810.
HMS Pitt was the mercantile schooner William and Mary, which the Admiralty bought in 1805. She served briefly on the Jamaica station during the Napoleonic Wars. She participated in one notable single-ship action in which she prevailed, and captured several other vessels. The Admiralty renamed her Sandwich before having her broken up in 1809.
HMS Superieure was the French privateer Supérieure, which was built in 1801 in Baltimore, Maryland, and which the British captured in 1803 in the West Indies, and took into the Royal Navy. She spent most of her career on the Jamaica and Leeward Islands stations, where she captured numerous privateers. She participated in several notable single-ship actions, including one in which she harassed a frigate, and two campaigns that would, in 1847, earn her surviving crew members the Naval General Service Medal (NGSM). She was laid-up in Britain in 1810 and sold in 1814.
HMS Swallow was a Cruizer-class brig-sloop launched in December 1805, nine months late. She served the Royal Navy through the Napoleonic Wars, capturing numerous privateers. After the end of the wars she was broken up in 1815.
HMS Undaunted was a Lively-class fifth-rate 38-gun sailing frigate of the British Royal Navy, built during the Napoleonic Wars, which conveyed Napoleon to his first exile on the island of Elba in early 1814.
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 Express was the name-ship of a class of two schooner-rigged advice-boats of the Royal Navy. Express was launched in 1800 and served until she was sold in 1813. During her career she served in one action and one campaign that in 1847 qualified her surviving crew members for clasps to the Naval General Service Medal.
HMS Tobago was a schooner of unknown origin that the British Royal Navy purchased in 1805. In 1806 a French privateer captured her. The Royal Navy recaptured her in 1809 and took her into service as HMS Vengeur before selling her later that year.
HMS Morne Fortunee was the French privateer Regulus that British Royal Navy captured in 1804. In 1806 the Royal Navy commissioned her. She captured some small privateers and took part in a number of other engagements. She foundered in 1809.
UK