HMS Quebec was a 32-gun fifth-ratefrigate launched in 1781 and broken up in 1816. She sailed under various captains, participating in the American Revolutionary War, the French Revolutionary Wars, and the Napoleonic Wars. During these wars she captured many enemy merchantmen and smaller privateers. One action led to her men qualifying for clasp to the Naval General Service Medal.
Capture of the American frigate South Carolina by the British frigates Diomede, Quebec and Astrea
Throughout 1782, Christopher Mason commanding, HMS Quebec operated in North American waters in the final year of the American Revolutionary War.[1] On 22 February that year she captured the schoonerBetsy,[2] and in April two ships laden with flour, oil, bale goods, salt and wine.[3]
On 3 June HMSBellisarius and Quebec captured the privateer Pilgrim.[4]
In 1793 Admiral John MacBride became commander-in-chief on the Downs station, commanding a frigate squadron with his flag in Cumberland, later transferring his flag to Quebec. He took possession of Ostend after the French retreat in early 1793, and in October transported reinforcements under General Sir Charles Grey to assist in the defence of Dunkirk. In late October 1793 much needed reinforcements and artillery supplies were landed by Quebec at Nieuport, which was then being besieged by French forces, a relief force from Ostend arrived, and the French withdrew.[6]
From March 1794 a taskforce under Vice-Admiral Sir John Jervis, with land forces under General Sir Charles Grey, operated against French possessions in the Leeward Islands of the Caribbean Sea. Quebec was an active participant, supplying some of the assault forces at Martinique (late March) where she lost one man killed.[7]St Lucia fell on 4 April, whereupon Quebec (under Captain Josias Rogers), Blanche, Ceres and Rose were ordered to seize the smaller islands, the Saints, which they did without loss on 5 April.[8]
Parts of Guadeloupe fell to the British on 23 April 1794 with Quebec playing her part, and many enemy ships were captured as they attempted to leave the anchorage.[9] Details of prize monies awarded for the capture of engineering and ordnance stores on Martinique, St Lucia and Guadeloupe named Quebec and thirty other warships, plus six gunboats.[10][11][lower-alpha 1]
On 12 August 1794 a French ship, Adelle, was captured, for which prize money was awarded a year later.[12][13]
Actions against Grenada the following year in response to Fédon's rebellion did not go so well. Rogers reported on 9 April 1795 persistent heavy rain had caused delays in the military operations on Grenada. Seemingly in desperation, an assault was made on the last stronghold of the French in the mountains, but the French repulsed the attack, causing heavy British casualties.[14]
In 1796, Quebec – now under the command of Captain John Cooke, Rogers having died of yellow fever in April 1795[15] - was in home waters, reporting from Spithead the capture of a French national cutter Aspic, off the Scilly Isles. Aspic had a crew of 57 men and carried 10 guns. She was ten days out of Saint-Malo and had captured the sloop John, of and from Galway, sailing to Oporto.[16][lower-alpha 2]
Quebec was soon back in the Caribbean on the Jamaica station. On 3 December 1796 she captured the French corvette 'Affricaine, of 18 guns, near St Domingo.[18]
Reported in November 1799 to be under command of Captain Bingham.[21] While he commanded at Jamaica, Vice-Admiral Parker sent regular reports of warships and merchant vessels captured or destroyed by the ships under his command. At various times from October 1799 to February 1800, Quebec seized American, French or Danish merchant ships bound for ports in the Americas or Caribbean with cargoes as diverse as cocoa, lumber, wine, soap & sundries, flour, sugar, cotton, honey and hides.[22] A Spanish vessel, Nostra Senora del Carmen "laden with fustie and brazil" was captured in March or April.[23] Between May and August 1800, Quebec took captive an armed rowing boat with a crew of 19 men, a small schooner (name unknown) and six small merchant vessels cut out at different times.[24]
When the Treaty of Amiens brought what would turn out to be a temporary peace in 1802, the Admiralty took Quebec out of commission. She did not return to active service until 1805.
Napoleonic Wars
On 28 May 1806 Quebec and Paulina were in company and shared in the capture of Frau Geziner.[lower-alpha 3]
In April 1807 the vessel Providentia fell to Quebec,[26] and between 16 August and 2 September 1807, Quebec and her consorts took nineteen Danish merchant ships.[27][28][29][30][lower-alpha 4]Quebec's station during this time was the Downs and the North Sea.
On 22 March 1808, while Danish harbours were still largely frozen in, Quebec was operating in the Great Belt and Kattegat as the Royal Navy gathered. The last operating Danish ship-of-the-line was under orders to clear the Great Belt of enemy (British) warships but was closely watched that morning by Quebec,[31] with the sloopLynx in company. In the early afternoon Falcon joined them in Sejerø Bay, as the Danish ship sailed north and east around Zealand Point. Two hours later the British ships-of-the-line Nassau and Stately were sighted and Quebec and the two sloops observed the ensuing battle without putting themselves in harm's way.
A few days later off Nyborg, a late winter storm dismasted Quebec. Falcon then helped her to erect a new mast and rigging.[32]
In 1810, Quebec was stationed in the North Sea primarily off the Frisian Islands of Texel and Vlie to help enforce the naval blockade of that coast. In March she retook Susannah Margaretta,[33] and boats from the hired armed cutters Idas and King George, under Quebec's command, captured a French privateer schutt of four guns, while subject to heavy small arms fire.[34] On 21 March Quebec captured another French privateer, the luggerImperatrice of 14 guns and 42 men off the Dogger Bank.[35] On 23 May, when Desiree captured Financier, Quebec (under Charles Hawtayne) and Active were in company and shared the prize money.[36]
Also on 23 May, Quebec captured James Cook.[37] Six days later a cutting out expedition at Vlie with boats from Desireee, Quebec, Britomart and Bold) yielded a French lugger (12), a French privateer (4), a Dutch gunboat and a small rowboat.[38] The British had no casualties; the French lost one man killed and three wounded. On the last day of May, Quebec took three more ships: St Jean Baptiste, Comtessa, and Forben.[39] One more ship was taken on 17 September (Bienenstock) and two ships were recaptured during October 1810 (Jonge Edward and Perle).[40]
On 8 November Quebec cut out a "fine French privateer schooner, La Jeune Louise (14)" from the Vlie Stroom, an area of difficult and shallow navigation.[41] The year finished with the capture on 2 December of the French privateer cutter Renard, of six guns. Quebec shared the prize money with Kite.[42]
In 1811 Quebec was still under the command of Captain Hawtayne and on the same station when she recaptured Aquator on 26 May.[43]
Boats from the Quebec boarding the French gun vessels at Norderney, 3 August 1811
In August 1811, in company with five lesser warships,[lower-alpha 5]Quebec captured a Vaisseau de Guerre of the Imperial Customs Service, later named as a privateer Christine Charlotte, with her crew of one officer and twelve men, as she was leaving Nordeney (East Frisian Islands) with a merchant vessel in tow. One of the men on Christine Charlotte was killed before she surrendered.) Boats from Quebec and her consorts then attacked and after a hard fight captured four enemy gunboats (Nos. 22, 28, 31, 71) in the harbour at Nordeney. British casualties were four men killed and 14 wounded; enemy casualties were two men killed and 12 wounded.[44][lower-alpha 6] In 1847 the Admiralty awarded the NGSM to all surviving claimants from the action.[45]
Two months later, on 30 October, Quebec was off the Flemish Banks when after a long chase she captured the privateer Olympia, of ten 18-pounder guns and 78 men.[46] This was the former schooner HMSOlympia.
Fate
At the end of the Napoleonic Wars, the Royal Navy laid up many of its ships, Quebec among them. She was advertised for sale in April 1816 for breaking up within twelve months: "Lying at Sheerness, Quebec of 32 guns and 700 tons".[47] She was broken up in July.[48]
Notes
↑ The ships listed are HMS Asia, Assurance, Avenger, Boyne, Beauleau, Blonde, Bull Dog, Ceres, Dromedary, Experiment, Irresistible, Inspector, Nautilus, Quebec, Roebuck, Rattlesnake, Rose, Retort, Santa Margarita, Solebay, Seaflower, Terpsichore, Ulysses, Undaunted, Vengeance, Veteran, Vesuvius, Winchelsea, Wooolwich (sic), and Zebra – and the gunboats Spiteful, Teazer, Tickler, Tormentor, Venom and Vexor.
↑ Aspic had been launched in 1793 at Cherbourg as the Montagne-class cutter Marat, renamed Anguille in May 1795, and Aspic in December.[17]
↑ A first-class share of the prize money was worth £4 11s 2¼d; a fifth-class share, that of a seaman, was worth 9d.[25]
↑ The captured ships listed in the references were Ariansen, Canizler von Eybon, Conference Rath von Aspern, Emanuel, Enigkeit, Groenland, Hammonia, Haabet, Juliana, Kline Colmau, Margaretta, Maria, Master, Neptunus and Dolphin, Prinz Carl, Speculante, Stadt Altona, Susannah, and Victoria.
↑ The notice of the award of the clasp to the NGSM states that the boats captured three Danish gunboats. There were four. Furthermore, the names of the four commanders of the gunboats appear Dutch, and Hawatyne describes the armament as being of "Dutch metal", which "is much greater than the English", perhaps meaning that pounds were Dutch pounds, not English. The four gunboats were under the command of lieutenant de vaisseau Guillaume Wouters, of No.22. No. 22 had a crew of 25 men and was armed with one 12-pounder and two 6-pounder guns. No.28 was under the command of lieutenant de vaisseau Christian Smith. she had a crew of 24 men and was armed with one 12-pounder and two 8-pounder guns. No.31 was under the command of lieutenant de vaisseau Jan Dirk Schewe. She had a crew of 25 men and was armed with one 12-pounder and two 6-pounder guns. The fourth gunboat, No.71, was under the command of enseigne de vaisseau San Oieter Seiverda Munter. She had a crew of 25 men and was armed with one 12-pounder and two 6-pounder guns.[44]
HMS Indefatigable was one of the Ardent-class 64-gun third-rate ships-of-the-line designed by Sir Thomas Slade in 1761 for the Royal Navy. She was built as a ship-of-the-line, but most of her active service took place after her conversion to a 44-gun razee frigate. She had a long career under several distinguished commanders, serving throughout the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars. She took some 27 prizes, alone or in company, and the Admiralty authorised the issue of four clasps to the Naval General Service Medal in 1847 to any surviving members of her crews from the respective actions. She was broken up in 1816.
HMS Naiad was a Royal Navy fifth-rate frigate that served in the Napoleonic Wars. She was built by Hall and Co. at Limehouse on the Thames, launched in 1797, and commissioned in 1798. She served in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, and her last actions occurred in 1824–5. She was paid off in 1826. She then served for many years in Latin America as a coal depot, first for the Royal Navy and then for the Pacific Steam Navigation Company. She was broken up in 1898, 101 years after her launching.
Jean Bart may refer to one of the following ships of the French Navy or privateers named in honour of Jean Bart, a French naval commander and privateer.
The Sémillante was a 32-gun frigate of the French Navy and the lead ship of her class. She was involved in a number of multi-vessel actions against the Royal Navy, particularly in the Indian Ocean. She captured a number of East Indiamen before she became so damaged that the French disarmed her and turned her into a merchant vessel. The British captured her and broke her up in 1809.
HMS Cerberus was a 32-gun fifth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy. She served in the French Revolutionary and the Napoleonic Wars in the Channel, the Mediterranean, the Adriatic, and even briefly in the Baltic against the Russians. She participated in one boat action that won for her crew a clasp to the Naval General Service Medal (NGSM). She also captured many privateers and merchant vessels. Her biggest battle was the Battle of Lissa, which won for her crew another clasp to the NGSM. She was sold in 1814.
Sibylle was a 38-gun Hébé-class frigate of the French Navy. She was launched in 1791 at the dockyards in Toulon and placed in service in 1792. After the 50-gun fourth rate HMS Romney captured her in 1794, the British took her into service as HMS Sybille. She served in the Royal Navy until disposed of in 1833. While in British service, Sybille participated in three notable single-ship actions, in each case capturing a French vessel. On anti-slavery duties off West Africa from July 1827 to June 1830, Sybille captured many slavers and freed some 3,500 slaves. She was finally sold in 1833 in Portsmouth.
Néréide was a Sibylle-class, 32-gun, copper-hulled frigate of the French Navy. On 22 December 1797 HMS Phoebe captured her and she was taken into British service as HMS Nereide. The French recaptured her at the Battle of Grand Port, only to lose her again when the British took Isle de France, in 1810. After the Battle of Grand Port she was in such a poor condition that she was laid up and sold for breaking up in 1816.
HMS Weazel was a Royal Navy 18-gun Cruizer-class brig-sloop, launched in 1805 at Topsham, Devon. She saw active service in and around the Mediterranean during the Napoleonic Wars resulting in her crews earning three clasps to the Naval General Service Medal, was decommissioned in 1815, and was sold for breaking in 1825.
HMS Tartar was a 32-gun fifth-rate Narcissus-class frigate of the Royal Navy, built at Frindsbury and launched in 1801. She captured privateers on the Jamaica station and fought in the Gunboat War and elsewhere in the Baltic Sea before being lost to grounding off Estonia in 1811.
HMS Unicorn was a 32-gun fifth-rate Pallas-class frigate of the Royal Navy, launched in 1794 at Chatham. This frigate served in both the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars, including a medal action early in her career. She was broken up in 1815.
HMS Druid was a 32-gun Hermione-class fifth-rate frigate of the British Royal Navy, launched in 1783 at Bristol. She served in the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars, capturing numerous small prizes. One of her commanders, Captain Philip Broke, described Druid as a "point of honour ship", i.e., a ship too large to run but too small to fight. He and his biographer's view was that it was a disgrace to use a ship like her as a warship. She was broken up in 1813, after a thirty-year career.
During the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars the Admiralty also made use of hired armed vessels, one of which was His Majesty's Hired armed cutter Swan. Actually there were two such cutters, but the descriptions of these vessels and the dates of their service are such that they may well represent one vessel under successive contracts. The vessel or vessels cruised, blockaded, carried despatches and performed reconnaissance.
Two vessels served the British Royal Navy as His Majesty's Hired armed cutter Hero. Under the command of Lieutenant John Reynolds, the second hired armed cutter Hero captured some 30 merchantmen during the Gunboat War before the Royal Navy returned her to her owners. She was so successful that the Norwegian merchants offered a considerable reward for Hero's capture.
HMS Basilisk was a Bloodhound-class gun-brig built by Randall in Rotherhithe and launched in 1801. She served briefly at the end of the French Revolutionary Wars, with most of her service occurring during the Napoleonic Wars protecting convoys from privateers, conducting close-inshore surveillance and taking enemy coastal shipping. She was sold for breaking in 1815.
HMS Nemesis was a 28-gun Enterprise-class sixth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy. The French captured her in 1795 at Smyrna, but in 1796 a squadron led by Barfleur brought her out of the neutral port of Tunis. Throughout her career she served under a number of commanders who would go on to have distinguished careers. She was converted to a troopship in 1812 and was sold in 1814.
HMS Cruizer was a Royal Navy Cruizer-class brig-sloop built by Stephen Teague of Ipswich and launched in 1797. She was the first ship of the class, but there was a gap of 5 years between her launch and the ordering of the next batch in October 1803; by 1815 a total of 105 other vessels had been ordered to her design. She had an eventful wartime career, mostly in the North Sea, English Channel and the Baltic, and captured some 15 privateers and warships, and many merchant vessels. She also participated in several actions. She was laid up in 1813 and the Commissioners of the Navy sold her for breaking in 1819.
HMS Seahorse was a 38-gun Artois-class fifth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy. She was launched in 1794 and broken up in 1819.
HMS Childers was a brig-sloop of the British Royal Navy, initially armed with 10 carriage guns which were later increased to 14 guns. The first brig-sloop to be built for the Navy, she was ordered from a commercial builder during the early years of the American War of Independence, and went on to support operations in the English Channel and the Caribbean. Laid up for a time after the end of the American War of Independence, she returned to service shortly before the outbreak of the French Revolutionary Wars. She had an active career in both the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, capturing numerous French privateers and during the Gunboat War participated in a noteworthy single-ship action. The navy withdrew her from service at the beginning of 1811, at which time she was broken up.
HMS Redbreast was an Archer-class brig of the British Royal Navy. She captured some small merchant vessels and privateers. She also participated in two actions that would in 1847 earn her surviving crew members clasps to the Naval General service Medal (NGSM). The Navy transferred in 1816 to His Majesty's Customs. She was finally sold in 1850.
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.
References
Winfield, Rif (2008). British Warships in the Age of Sail 1793–1817: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates. Seaforth. ISBN1-86176-246-1.
Winfield, Rif; Roberts, Stephen S. (2015). French Warships in the Age of Sail 1786–1861: Design Construction, Careers and Fates. Seaforth Publishing. ISBN978-1-84832-204-2.
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