Career
Lieutenant Robert Yates commissioned Redbridge in 1808 in Jamaica.
On 26 July 1812 Variable captured Resolution, which was on her way to Havana with a cargo of flour, rice, etc. Then on 20 August Variable captured Trinidad, which too was on her way to Havana, but with a cargo of lumber. [2] On 29 August Variable captured Louisa Antoina, bound to Havan with lumber. [3]
In late 1812 Rhodian, Captain John George Boss, and the schooner Variable captured the American privateer Dash. Dash was armed with one gun and had a crew of 30 men. [Note 1] Next, Variable and the boats of Rhodian, on 16 September 1812 captured Sarah Ann, of one 12-pounder gun and 44 men. [5] [6]
In late March 1813 Variable recaptured two vessels and captured two more, all of which she sent into Nassau, Bahamas: [7]
- English schooner Mayflower (23 March), laden with flour, from Providence and bound to Providence;
- English brig Dominica Packet (23 March), laden with sugar, coffee, etc., bound to Liverpool. [Note 2]
- Spanish schooner Maria (23 March), laden with flour, bound to Havana from Philadelphia.
- American brig Penobscot (27 March), laden with molasses and sugar, bound to Boston from St. Jago de Cuba.
HMS Poictiers was a 74-gun Royal Navy third rate. This ship of the line was launched on 9 December 1809 at Upnor. During the War of 1812 she was part of blockade of the United States. She was broken up in 1857.
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 Pictou was a 14-gun schooner that the Royal Navy captured in 1813. She served briefly on the Royal Navy's North American station, capturing one or two merchantmen before the American frigate USS Constitution captured and destroyed her during the War of 1812.
HMS Ringdove was a Royal Navy 18-gun Cruizer-class brig-sloop that Matthew Warren built at Brightlingsea and launched in 1806. She took some prizes and participated in three actions or campaigns that qualified her crew for clasps to the Naval General Service Medal. The Admiralty sold her in 1829 to Samuel Cunard, who would go on to found the Cunard Line.
HMS Anaconda was an 18-gun brig-sloop of the Royal Navy during the War of 1812. She was cruising as an American privateer until sailors from HMS Sceptre captured her in 1813. She served briefly in the Royal Navy during the later stages of the War of 1812, especially at the Battle of New Orleans, before being sold in Jamaica in 1815.
HMS Epervier was an 18-gun Cruizer-class brig-sloop of the Royal Navy, built by Ross at Rochester, England, and launched on 2 December 1812. USS Peacock captured her in 1814 and took her into service. USS Epervier disappeared in 1815 while carrying dispatches reporting the signing of a treaty with the Dey of Algiers.
Surveillante entered service as a 40-gun Virginie-class frigate of the French Navy. She was surrendered to the British in 1803, after which she served in the Royal Navy, classed under the British system as a 38-gun vessel, until 1814 when she was decommissioned. HMS Surveillante had a long and active career under two successful and distinguished commanders, from the Baltic to the northwestern coasts of France, Spain and Portugal, and was present at the Battle of Copenhagen (1807) and throughout the Peninsula War. Her record as a taker of prizes is notable for its success, particularly towards the end of her career.
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 Charybdis was a Royal Navy Cruizer-class brig-sloop built by Mark Richards and John Davidson at Hythe, and launched in 1809. She captured two American prizes during the War of 1812 before she was laid up in 1815 and sold in 1819. She apparently then became the whaler Greenwich which made three voyages for Samuel Enderby & Sons and one for Daniel Bennett & Son. She was wrecked in the Seychelles in 1833.
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 but was captured by a French privateer at the beginning of the War of 1812 after having been taken and released by the Americans in the first naval action of the war.
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 Magnet was the American brig Magnet, HMS Ringdove captured in 1812. HMS Magnet served during the War of 1812 as a prison ship at Halifax, Nova Scotia. The Royal Navy eventually renamed her Attentive, possibly in 1814 when the Navy acquired Sir Sydney Smith, which it renamed Magnet. Then as Attentive she served as a store ship, still apparently on the Halifax station, before she sailed to Britain in 1816. She was broken up in January 1817.
HMS Decouverte was the French schooner Eclipse, launched in 1804, that was captured in 1806. The Royal Navy took her into service as HMS Decouverte. She served in the Caribbean, where she captured two privateers, one French and one American. She was sold in 1816.
HMS Doterel, was an 18-gun Cruizer-class brig-sloop of the British Royal Navy. Launched on 6 October 1808, she saw action in the Napoleonic Wars and in the War of 1812. In February 1809 she took part in the Battle of Les Sables-d'Olonne, then in April the Battle of Basque Roads. She was laid up in 1827 at Bermuda, but not broken up until 1855.
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 Plumper was launched in 1807. She captured three small American privateers early in the War of 1812 but was wrecked in December 1812.
Invincible Napoleon was a three-masted French privateer commissioned in Bayonne in Spring 1804. She made numerous cruises until 1813–1814 when the British and the Americans repeatedly captured her. In her brief career as an American privateer she captured some 14 vessels. She finally ending up in British hands and was taken to Halifax, Nova Scotia as a prize.
HMS Barrosa was launched in 1812 for the Royal Navy and served during the War of 1812 during which she captured several prices. After the war she spent a decade or so (1823–1833) on harbour duties. The navy sold Barrosa in 1841.
HMS Racer was the American schooner Independence, launched in 1811 in New York, that the British Royal Navy captured in 1812 and took into service. She was wrecked in the Florida Straits on 10 October 1814.
Sarah Ann was a United State privateer commissioned at Baltimore in 1812. She captured a British merchantman in a single-ship action before HMS Rhodian captured Sarah Ann on 16 September 1812.
