History | |
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Name | Renard |
Namesake | The fox, an animal of the genus Vulpes |
Builder | Bordeaux or Lorient |
Launched | 1797 |
Captured | 1797 |
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Name | HMS Renard |
Acquired | By capture 1797 |
Fate | Sold 1809 |
General characteristics [1] | |
Type | Sloop |
Tons burthen | 345 57⁄94 bm |
Length |
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Beam | 28 ft 3 in (8.6 m) |
Depth of hold | 11 ft 6+1⁄2 in (3.5 m) |
Complement |
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Armament |
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HMS Renard was the French privateer Renard, launched in 1797, that Cerberus captured in the Channel that same year. The Royal Navy took her into service under her existing name and she participated in some notable engagements on the Jamaica station before the Navy sold her in 1809.
Cerberus was on the Irish station when on 12 and 14 November 1797 she captured two French privateers, the Epervier and the Renard. Both vessels were pierced for 20 guns, were copper-bottomed, quite new, and fast sailers. Renard carried eighteen 6-pounders and had a crew of 189 men. [2] Lloyd's List reported Cerberus's capture of two privateers, one of 30 guns and one of 18, and the arrival of both at Cork. [3] The Royal Navy took both into service, though it never actually commissioned Epervier, which was frequently listed as Epervoir. [1]
Renard arrived in Plymouth on 12 January 1799. She sat there for six months, finally undergoing fitting between July 1799 and January 1800. While undergoing fitting she may have received additional cannons and extensive upperworks to hold them. There is some question though whether she in fact received the additional armament and upperworks (see below). Commander Peter Spicer commissioned Renard in August 1799 for the Channel. [1]
Renard shared in the recapture of the brig Defiance on 13 December 1800 with Suffisante, Spitfire, and the hired armed cutter Swift (2). [4] Twelve days later, Renard and Spitfire captured the Danish galliot Palmboom (or Palm Baum). [5] Then on 29 December Renard captured Neptunus. [6]
In April 1801 Commander James A. Worth replaced Spicer. [1] Renard, Dasher, and Suffisante were in company for the recapture of the brig William on 3 April 1801. On 1 April a French privateer Renard had captured William, Wedland, master, which had been sailing from Bristol to Newfoundland. Dasher sent William into Plymouth. [7] Also on 3 April, Renard, Suffisante, and Garland shared in the recapture of the brig Swan. [8] [9]
Renard and Spitfire shared in the capture on 24 April of Prince Hendrich. [10] The next day they captured Prince Frederick Van Prussia. [11]
In May 1802 Commander Charles M. Gregory assumed command, and that same month sailed Renard for the Leeward Islands. Commander Robert Pearson replaced Gregory, only to be himself replaced in October by Commander William Cathcart. [1] Reports in Lloyd's List of ship arrivals and departures make it clear that between 1803 and 1804 Renard convoyed vessels between Britain and the Leeward Islands.
Cathcart received promotion to post captain in June 1804 and with it command of Clorinde, however he died of yellow fever before fully taking command. His replacement on Renard was Commander Jeremiah Coghlan. [1]
On 20 March 1805 Renard was at 21°14′N71°30′W / 21.233°N 71.500°W when she sighted a ship to the north-west. Renard gave chase and as she approached, her quarry shortened sail and made ready to engage. At 2:20 p.m., Renard opened fire. After 35 minutes, the French vessel appeared to be on fire, and ten minutes later she exploded. Renard lowered a boat and was able to rescue 55 men, all the rest of the 160 men aboard having perished. She had been under the command of Paul Gerard Pointe, and was seven days out of Basseterre. She had intended to intercept the homeward-bound Jamaica fleet. The survivors reported that their vessel was the Général Ernouf. Général Ernouf was the former HMS Lily. Prior to the explosion, Général Ernouf had 20-30 men killed and wounded; Renard had only nine wounded. [12]
Earlier, Renard captured Eugene, which had been sailing from Bordeaux to New Orleans, and sent her into Jamaica. [13]
On 11 October, Renard, after a long chase and some firing, captured the French privateer schooner Bellona (or Bellone) on the north side of San Domingo. Bellona was armed with four guns and had a crew of 50 men. She was seven days out of Barracona and had taken an American brig. Coghlan reported that Bellona was only four months old and was considered the fastest sailer out of Cuba. [14] It is possible that this Bellona was the vessel that captured the American schooner Hiram, of New York, Fusson, master, that Success recaptured. [15]
A French privateer captured, on 21 February 1806, the sloop James and the schooner Betsey, both of which were sailing from Calabash Bay to Kingston. The privateer also captured Hard Times, Banee, master, which was sailing from Black River to Kingston. Renard recaptured all three. [16]
On 28 May 1806 Renard captured the French navy brig Diligent (or Diligente), after a 64-hour-long chase. French records report that the capture took place in the Puerto Rico channel. She had sailed from Concarneau to Cayenne, and was cruising in the Antilles prior to her capture by the English sloop "Fox". [17] Diligent, under the command of lieutenant de vaisseau Vincent Thévenard, was armed with fourteen 6-pounders and two 32-pounder brass carronades, and carried a crew of 125 men. She was seven days out of Pointe a Petre, Guadeloupe, with dispatches for France that she succeeded in throwing overboard while Renard was chasing her. She was coppered and copper fastened, and Coghlan believed only three years old. Diligente arrived at Jamaica on 3 June. [18] Vice-Admiral Dacres had her purchased and commissioned as Diligent.
Thévenard had surrendered his ship without a shot being fired by either side. When taken on board Renard, her smallness surprised him and he requested to return to his ship to continue the fight. Coghlan naturally laughed at this request. Thévenard then asked that Coghlan award him a certificate stating that he had not acted in a cowardly manner. Coghlan replied "No, I cannot do that; but I will give you one that shall specify you have acted 'prudently'!" [19]
In July or August 1807 Coghlan transferred to Elk. It is not clear who replaced him as commander of Renard.
On 1 October 1807 Renard captured the Danish vessel Peder and Anna. [20] Within five days the sloop-of-war Renard had arrived at Deal, together with three other vessels, all four coming from Honduras. [21]
In December 1808 the Commissioners of the Navy offered "His Majesty's sloops ...Renard..." for sale at Sheerness. [22] The Commissioners continued advertising her availability into May 1809, [23] suggesting that she sold soon after that.
HMS Galatea was a fifth-rate 32-gun sailing frigate of the British Royal Navy that George Parsons built at Bursledon and launched in 1794. Before she was broken up in 1809 she captured numerous prizes and participated in a number of actions, first in the Channel and off Ireland (1794–1803), and then in the Caribbean (1802–1809), including one that earned her crew the Naval General Service Medal.
Heureux was a 22-gun French privateer brig that the British captured in 1800. She served with the Royal Navy as the 22-gun post ship HMS Heureux. She captured numerous French and Spanish privateers and merchant vessels in the Caribbean Sea before she was lost at sea in 1806. Her fate remains a mystery to this day.
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.
HMS Spitfire was a Tisiphone-class fireship of the Royal Navy. She served during the years of peace following the end of the American War of Independence, and by the outbreak of the French Revolutionary Wars, had been reclassified as a 14-gun sloop-of-war. Spitfire went on to serve under a number of notable commanders during a successful career that saw her capture a considerable number of French privateers and small naval vessels. She spent most of her career in Home waters, though during the later part of her life she sailed further afield, to the British stations in North America and West Africa. She survived the Napoleonic Wars and was eventually sold in 1825 after a period spent laid up.
The first HMS Epervier, sometimes spelled HMS Epervoir, was the French ex-naval brick-aviso and then privateer Épervier, launched in 1788. The British captured her in 1797 and registered her in 1798 as an 18-gun brig-sloop of the Royal Navy. The Navy never commissioned her and she was sold in 1801.
HMS Curieux was a French corvette launched in September 1800 at Saint-Malo to a design by François Pestel, and carrying sixteen 6-pounder guns. She was commissioned under Capitaine de frégate Joseph-Marie-Emmanuel Cordier. The British captured her in 1804 in a cutting-out action at Martinique. In her five-year British career Curieux captured several French privateers and engaged in two notable single-ship actions, also against privateers. In the first she captured Dame Ernouf; in the second, she took heavy casualties in an indecisive action with Revanche. In 1809 Curieux hit a rock; all her crew were saved but they had to set fire to her to prevent her recapture.
HMS Elk was a Cruizer-class brig-sloop, built of pine, and launched in 1804. She served on the Jamaica station where she captured a number of privateers. She was broken up 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 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 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 Spencer was a 16-gun brig-sloop of the Royal Navy, formerly the civilian Sir Charles Grey. The Admiralty purchased her in 1795, after having hired her in 1793-94, and renamed her HMS Lilly in 1800. The French privateer Dame Ambert captured her in 1804 and Lilly became the French privateer Général Ernouf. She blew up in 1805 while in an engagement with HMS Renard.
HMS Harpy was a Royal Navy Diligence-class brig-sloop, launched in 1796 and sold in 1817. She was the longest lived vessel of her class, and the most widely travelled. She served in both the battle of Copenhagen and the British invasion of Java, took part in several actions, one of which won for her crew a clasp to the Naval General Service Medal, and captured numerous privateers. The Navy sold her in 1817.
HMS Diligent was the French naval brig Diligent, launched in 1800, that HMS Renard captured in 1806. The Royal Navy took her into service under her existing name, which it later changed, first to Prudente, and then to Wolf. During her two years of active duty with the Royal Navy she captured two small privateers. Wolf was laid up in 1808 and sold in 1811.
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.
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The French corvette Naïade was launched at Brest in 1793 as a brig-corvette for the French Navy. The Royal Navy captured her in 1805 and took her into service as HMS Melville. She was sold for breaking up in 1808.
HMS Curlew was the mercantile sloop Leander, launched at South Shields in 1800. The Royal Navy purchased her in 1803 and named her Curlew as there was already a HMS Leander in service, and the Curlew name was available. Curlew was a sloop of 16 guns. The Navy sold her in 1810 and she returned to mercantile service as Leander. On her first voyage to the West Indies a French privateer captured her in a single-ship action; she was lost shortly thereafter.
HMS Echo, launched in 1797 at Dover, was a sloop-of-war in the Royal Navy. She served on the Jamaica station between 1799 and 1806, and there captured a small number of privateers. The Navy sold her in 1809 and she became a whaler. She made four complete whale-hunting voyages but was wrecked in the Coral Sea in April 1820 during her fifth whaling voyage.
HMS Snake was a British Royal Navy ship launched in 1797 as the only member of her class of brig-sloops. She captured or destroyed two French privateers and one Danish privateer. She also captured numerous small merchantmen, but spent time escorting convoys to and from the West Indies. She was sold in 1816.
HMS Busy was launched in 1797 as the only member of her class of brig-sloops. She captured one French privateer and numerous small merchantmen, but spent most of her career escorting convoys to and from the West Indies. She foundered in 1807 while serving on the Halifax, Nova Scotia, station.