Rifleman was a Cruizer-classbrig-sloop launched in 1809 for the Royal Navy. She served in the North Sea, on the Halifax and Jamaica stations, and in the Mediterranean Sea. During her service she recaptured a Royal Navy vessel in Danish service, and two privateers. The Navy sold her in 1836 and she proceed to sail as a merchantman and whaler between 1837 and 1856.
Commander Alexander Innes commissioned Rifleman in September 1809. Commander Joseph Pearce replaced Innes in November 1810.[1]
Rifleman left Portsmouth on 28 January 1811, bound for Oporto. On 9 March she left Falmouth as escort to a convoy 130 vessels bound for Lisbon and beyond.
On 11 May 1811 Rifleman encountered the Danish vessel The Alban, which was the former Royal Navy schooner HMSAlban that the Danes had captured on 12 September 1809. The Alban was under the command of Lieutenant Thøger Emil Rosenørn when Rifleman encountered her near the Shetland Islands.[3][lower-alpha 1]Rifleman chased The Alban for twelve hours before she succeeded in capturing the Dane.[3]The Alban was armed with 12 guns and had a crew of 58 men.[lower-alpha 2] She was three days out of Farsund, Norway, but had not captured anything.[5]
According to Danish sources, Rosenørn fought bravely and when he saw that defeat was inevitable, he hacked away rigging and created holes in the hull before he surrendered.[6] Even so, The Alban did not sink, and Rifleman sent her into Leith.[7] The Royal Navy took her back into service as Alban.
Next Rifleman captured Liebe (28 February 1812), Maria Dorothea (7 March), and Bodel Maria (24 March). Rifleman shared the prize money with Nightingale by agreement.[8]
On 9 March Rifleman was in company with Venus and shared in the proceeds of the capture the Danish sloop Anna Serina, J. Brodersoit, master.[9]
Then on 19 May Rifleman and Nightingale were again in company when they captured Palmtract (or Palmtree).[10]
On 14 September Joseph, Richardson, master, arrived at Leith. War with America having broken out the month before, Rifleman had intercepted and detained her as she was sailing from Archangel to America.[11]Rifleman captured the American droitJoseph Ricketson on 23 August.[lower-alpha 3]
Next, Rifleman captured Two Sisters, Garrett, master, as she was sailing from Bergen. Two Sisters arrived at Leith on 7 December.[13]Two Sisters is almost surely Twende Sostre, which Riflemen captured on 1 December while in company with Snake.[10]
On 23 March 1813 Pearce sailed Rifleman for the Leeward Islands station. Together with Sceptre she escorted seven troopships to Halifax, where they arrived on 1 June. The troops came from the 13th and the 64th Regiments of Foot.
On 14 September 1814 Rifleman picked up six escaped slaves in an open boat on the Chesapeake. Two days later she received one more from Acteon. On 27 September Rifleman delivered them to Halifax.[14]
On 28 May 1814 Rifleman captured the American privateer Diomede off Sable Island. She mounted three 12-pounder and two 6-pounder guns and had a complement of 66 men. She was a schooner of 150 tons (bm), of Salem, and under the command of Captain J. Crowningshield. Rifleman sent Diomede into Halifax,[15] where she arrived on 30 May.[lower-alpha 4]
Rifleman recaptured Goodintent, Fox, master, which an American privateer had captured as Goodintent was sailing from Newfoundland to Miramichi, New Brunswick. Goodintent arrived at Bermuda around 14 August.[22]
During her time on the New England blockade, "Rifleman had more punishments, with a higher number of lashes, than any other British ship in New England waters."[23] In June 1814 Rifleman was under the command of Commander Henry Edward Napier, who sailed her for North America and the West Indies.[1]
On 26 August 1814, a British squadron from Halifax moved to capture the Down East coastal town of Machias. The intention of the expedition was clearly to re-establish British title to Maine east of the Penobscot River, an area the British had renamed "New Ireland", and open the line of communications between Halifax and Quebec. The expedition was under the overall command of Sir John Sherbrooke and Rear Admiral Edward Griffith Colpoys controlled the naval elements.[24]En route, the squadron fell in with Rifleman and learned that the USSAdams, commanded by Captain Charles Morris, was undergoing repairs at Hampden, on the Penobscot River. The British commanders then decided to capture Adams.
The first ships to go were Sylph, Dragon, Endymion, Bacchante, Peruvian, as well as some transports. Bulwark, Tenedos, Rifleman, and Pictou joined on the 31st. On the evening of 31 August, Sylph, Peruvian, and the transport Harmony, accompanied by a boat from Dragon, embarked marines, foot soldiers and a detachment from the Royal Artillery, to move up the Penobscot under the command of Captain Robert Barrie of Dragon.[25] Their objective was Adams, of twenty-six 18-pounder guns, which had taken refuge some 27 miles up stream at Hampden, Maine. Here Adams had landed her guns and fortified a position on the bank with fifteen 18-pounders commanding the river. Moving up the river took two days, but eventually, after the Battle of Hampden, the British were able to capture the American defenders at Bangor, though not until after the Americans had burnt Adams. The British also captured 11 other ships and destroyed six. The British lost only one man killed, a sailor from Dragon, and had several soldiers wounded.[26]
On 8 September, Bacchante, Rifleman, Tenedos, and Pictou captured the American schooner Fox at Machias, Maine. The British took the opportunity to confiscate a quantity of meat that they loaded on to Fox before they sent her to Saint John, New Brunswick.[27]
Commander George Bennet Allen replaced Napier on 22 August 1815. (Napier declined accepting a piece of plate with which Nova Scotian merchants had wished to acknowledge his care in the conduct of convoys between the port of Saint John, New Brunswick, and Castine, Maine.)
Commander Houston Stewart replaced Allen a year later, in August 1816, at Jamaica.[1]
On 11 May 1817, Rifleman captured a brigantine off Aux Cayes, whose crew reported that she had been the famous Charleston privateer schooner Saucy Jack. The brigantine was armed with one 12-pounder gun and one 12-pounder carronade. She had a crew of 18 men "of all colours and nations", and was loaded with plunder. She had been a prize to the Carthaginian privateer Creole, which had fitted her out to cruise. However, part of the crew had mutinied and been landed. Rifleman took the 18 prisoners on board, brought them to Kingston, Jamaica, and handed them over to the police as pirates. A British prize crew, under a lieutenant, sailed the brigantine for Port Royal.[28]
In June Commander Robert Felix replaced Stewart. Three months later, in September, Commander Norwich Duff replaced Felix. He sailed Rifleman to Portsmouth where she was paid off on 11 August 1818.[1]
Between January and July 1820 she underwent repairs. She was not fitted for sea, however, until April to July 1823. In April, Commander James Montague recommissioned her for the Halifax station. Commander William Webb replaced him there in July 1824.[1]
In December 1826 Commander Frederick Thomas Michell was in command and sailed Rifleman to the Mediterranean. There he was attached to the commissariat of the French army in the Morea.[29]Rifleman did not participate in the battle of Navarino, though Admiral Sir Edward Codrington had her surveil the port for a period prior to the battle.
In June 1829 Rifleman accompanied Blonde to Constantinople. Blonde was carrying the British ambassador Sir Robert Gordon to the Ottoman Court.[30] Michell was promoted to post-captain 22 February 1830.
Codrington and Sir Pulteney Malcolm, the successive Commanders-in-Chief in the Mediterranean, and H.M. Ambassador at the Porte, recommended Michell to the Admiralty for promotion to post-captain for his services to them in the Mediterranean. Michell was promoted to post-captain 22 February 1830.[29]
Rifleman was paid off in 1830.[1] Thereafter she simply sat at Portsmouth.
Disposal: The "Principal Officers and Commissioners of His Majesty's Navy" offered "Rifleman, brig, 387 tons burthen", lying at Portsmouth, for sale on 21 January 1836.[31]Rifleman sold on 21 January 1836 for £1,010.[1]
Whaler and merchantman
The shipbuilders and owners Messrs. Green, Wigram and Green purchased Rifleman. They almost rebuilt her and fitted her out as a whaler. Rifleman made three whaling voyages between 1837 and 1856.[32]
1st whaling voyage (1837–1841): Captain Henry William Davis sailed Rifleman from Britain on 24 October 1837, bound for New Zealand. Her owners for this voyage were Green & Co.[32]
Rifleman was at New Zealand on 26 February 1838, but clean, i.e., without yet having taken any whales. She was at the Bay of Islands on 27 February with 40 barrels. She was still at New Zealand on 24 August, and with 1000 barrels by 19 January 1839. She was at Whytootaichi (Aitutaki, Cook Islands), on 7 June. She was again at New Zealand in January 1841, but had reached the Cape of Good Hope on 23 January. She returned to Britain on 6 April 1841 with 500 casks.[32]
2nd whaling voyage (1841–1845):Rifleman left Britain on 13 October 1841, still under Davis's command, and bound for the Pacific Ocean. On 19 March 1842 she was again at the Bay of Islands, having come there via Hobart. She was at Pleasant Island (Nauru) on 31 August, Otaheite (Tahiti) between 15 March to 9 April 1843, Payta on 22 August, Gorgona (possibly Gorgona Island, Colombia), in August, Payta again on 5 September, Huahine on 18 September, Talcahuana on 10 May 1844, and at the Marquesas Islands on 28 January 1845. Rifleman returned to Britain on 4 July 1845.[32]
On 3 September 1845 Rifleman was offered for sale. The advertisement announcing the sale reported that she had been sheathed in yellow metal prior to her second whaling voyage.[33]
Rifleman first appeared in Lloyd's Register (LR), in the supplementary (late) pages volume for 1845.[34]
Voyage to Australia (1846–1848): In January 1846 Rifleman, of 402 tons (bm), Hammack, master, sailed for Sydney, Australia for the "Australia Line of Packet Ships". She arrived in Sydney on 3 June. She then sailed to Singapore and Manila, before returning to Sydney. She sailed for England on 26 October 1847 and arrived back in England on 2 March 1848. As she was returning, on 29 February 1848 she ran aground at Shoebury Nock, beneath the Nore. The fishing smackCatherine Mary offered her assistance, which Rifleman's master accepted. Catherine Mary remained until two steamers came up that were able to tow Rifleman off. Rifleman's cargo of tea, hemp, and tallow was valued at £16,000; she was also carrying a number of passengers.[lower-alpha 6]Catherine Mary submitted a claim for £125, which Rifleman's owners rejected. The matter went to court where the judge awarded the plaintiffs £200 on the grounds that small claims against valuable cargoes should be supported to encourage salvage efforts.[35]
Rifleman was an unusual name for a merchant ship, but unfortunately, not a unique one. After returning from Australia, Rifleman may have made a voyage to Rouen before once again sailing to Australia.
Year
Master
Owner
Trade
Source & notes
1850
Hammack
Crichton
London–Sydney
LR; small repairs 1848
Voyage to Australia (1850–1851):Rifleman, Hammack, master, sailed for Sydney in February 1850. She arrived in July. On 26 August she sailed for Batavia, in ballast. She sailed from Singapore for London on 21 March 1851.
In 1852-1853 Rifleman apparently was not listed in LR. She did not reappear until 1854, by which time she had returned to whaling.
3rd whaling voyage (1852–1856):Rifleman, under the command of J. Grossman, left Britain for Timor on 28 December 1852. She was reported off Gaby Island on 10 September 1853 with 250 barrels. She returned to Britain on 1 September 1856.[32]
Fate
Rifleman was no longer listed in Lloyd's Register for 1857.
Notes
↑ Rosenørn had been the captain of Salorman when the British captured her at Nyborg in 1808.
↑ Danish records report her official complement as 38 men. They also show her armament as consisting of ten 18-pounder carronades and two 12-pounder carronades.[4]
↑ A first-class share of His Majesty's grant of two-thirds of the proceeds was worth £332 14s 10d; a sixth-class share, that of an ordinary seaman, was worth £7 12s.[12]
↑ Both the prize court and Lloyd's List agree in stating that Diomede had three guns, and around 33-35 men suggesting that she may have thrown some guns overboard and may have had a large part of her crew away on prizes. Diomede had left Salem a month earlier, on 27 April.[16] In the interim she had captured numerous vessels. She sent the ship Cod Hook, and her cargo of 700 hogsheads of salt, dry goods, crates, flour, bread, and iron, into Castine. Next she captured Upton, of Poole, a 270 ton (bm) ship sailing from Cork to Newfoundland with 104 persons aboard, many of whom were passengers.[17]Diomede captured Upton, which was armed with 16 guns,[18] after an action of 35 minutes during which Upton had one man killed and one wounded, and sent her into Wiscasset.[17] As a prize ship, Upton captured Hero, of four guns and 20 men and made a cartel of her,[18] presumably to dispose of Diomede's prisoners. On 23 May Diomede exchanged fire with HMSPrometheus, but made her escape.[19]Diomede also captured, Mary, Moore, master, which had been sailing from Cork to Quebec. (HMSMartin later recaptured Mary on 27 May.[20]) Diomede scuttled Harmony and Providence, which had been sailing from Maryport to Pugwash, Nova Scotia, and Miramichi. Diomede captured Traveller, Cronk, master, which had been sailing from Saint John, New Brunswick, to Quebec. Traveller was carrying 174 puncheons of rum, something that merited sending her into Thomastown.[17] Lastly, Diomede had chased on shore Recovery, Perry, master, from St Andrews.[16] On an earlier cruise Diomed captured the brig Friends, which was wrecked, the schooner William, which she sent into Savannah, and the schooner Hope, which she sent into Bristol.[21]
↑ Benjamin Thomas Chrichton and later James Chrichton owned several whalers at the time.
↑ By some reports she was also carrying 40 tuns of sperm oil.
↑ George Waters Sweeting was a shipowner, including Adventure, a whaler that he owned with James Chrichton.
HMS Endymion was a 40-gun fifth rate that served in the French Revolutionary Wars, the Napoleonic Wars, the War of 1812 and during the First Opium War. She was built to the lines of the French prize Pomone captured in 1794. Due to her exceptional handling and sailing properties, the Severn-class frigates were built to her lines, although the gunports were rearranged to mount an extra pair of guns per side, the ships were made of softwood and were not built until nearly the end of the Napoleonic Wars.
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 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 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 Lynx was a 16-gun ship-rigged sloop of the Cormorant class in the Royal Navy, launched in 1794 at Gravesend. In 1795 she was the cause of an international incident when she fired on USRC Eagle. She was at the Battle of Copenhagen in 1801, and during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars took numerous prizes, mostly merchant vessels but also including some privateers. She was also at the second Battle of Copenhagen in 1807. She was sold in April 1813. She then became the whaler Recovery. She made 12 whaling voyages in the southern whale fishery, the last one ending in 1843, at which time her owner had her broken up.
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 on her fourth whaling voyage.
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 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 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.
Éole was an 18-gun corvette of the French Navy, launched, captured, and later commissioned in the Royal Navy in 1799 as HMS Nimrod after her capture by HMS Solebay. She was then "the finest and most handsome ship-sloop in the British navy". She was sold in 1811. Nimrod made three whaling voyages between 1811 and 1819. On her first she captured several American whalers. Nimrod was last listed in 1820.
HMS Indian was a Bermuda-built sloop launched in 1805. She captured several small privateers while on the West Indies and Halifax stations before the Royal Navy sold her in 1817. Her main claim to fame, however, is that she was the first command of future Rear-Admiral Charles Austen, who was also the brother of the famed novelist Jane Austen. After the Navy sold her she became a whaler for Samuel Enderby & Sons. She apparently sailed for them until the mid-1830s; she then sailed for other owners until mid-1847, for a total of nine whaling voyages since leaving naval service.
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 Foxhound was the French Navy's brig Basque, launched in 1809, that the British Royal Navy captured in 1809 and took into service as a 16-gun sloop. She had a relatively brief naval career in which she captured a number of merchant vessels. After the Navy sold her in 1816, she made some 10 or 11 whaling voyages between 1817 and 1848.
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 Coquette was launched in 1807 and spent her naval career patrolling in the Channel and escorting convoys. In 1813 she engaged an American privateer in a notable but inconclusive single-ship action. The Navy put Coquette in ordinary in 1814 and sold her in 1817. She became a whaler and made five whaling voyages to the British southern whale fishery before she was lost in 1835 on her sixth.
Royal George was launched in 1803 as a brig for the Revenue Service. The Royal Navy purchased her in 1806 and renamed her HMS Bustard. She served on active duty between 1808 and 1815, distinguishing herself in operations in the Mediterranean. She then sailed to the West Indies. The Royal Navy sold her in 1815 and she became the whaler Royal George. She made three whaling voyages and was lost in 1825 on her fourth.
HMS Royalist was launched in 1807. She captured many privateers and letters of marque, most French, but also some from Denmark and the United States. Her crew twice were awarded the Naval General Service Medal. She was instrumental in the capture of a French frigate. The Royal Navy sold her in 1819. She then became a whaler, making three complete voyages. She was condemned after a mishap while on her fourth.
HMS Esk was a Cyrus-class ship-sloop launched at Ipswich in 1813. During the War of 1812 she captured one United States privateer, and fought an inconclusive action with another. Between 1825 and 1827 Esk was part of the West Africa Squadron, engaged in suppressing the trans-Atlantic slave trade, during which period she captured a number of slave ships. A prize she had taken also engaged in a notable single ship action. The Royal Navy sold Esk in 1829. Green, Wigram, and Green purchased her and between 1829 and 1845 she made four voyages in the British southern whale fishery as the whaler Matilda.
HMS Martin was launched in Bermuda in 1809. Commander John Evans then commissioned her at Halifax Nova Scotia. During the War of 1812, Martin spent much of her time on the Halifax station. She captured or shared in the capture of numerous small merchant vessels. She also captured a small United States privateer, and was involved in an action with United States gunboats. After the war she conducted patrols against smugglers. She was on one of those patrols when she was wrecked in 1817.
References
Anderson, Roger Charles (1910). Naval wars in the Baltic: during the sailing-ship epoch, 1522-1850. C. Gilbert-Wood.
Coggeshall, George (1856). History of the American Privateers, and Letters-Of-Marque. New York.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
Eardley-Wilmot, Sir Sydney Marow (1898). Life of Vice-Admiral Edmund, lord Lyons: With an account of naval operations in the Black Sea and Sea of Azoff, 1854-56. S. Low, Marston and company.
Goldenberg, Joseph A. (1984). "The Royal Navy's Blockade in New England Waters, 1812-1815". The International History Review. 6 (3): 424–439. doi:10.1080/07075332.1984.9640351. JSTOR40105395.
Russell, John Jr. (1815). The history of the war, between the United States and Great-Britain, which commenced in June, 1812, and closed in February, 1815 ...: Comp. chiefly from public documents. With an appendix, containing the correspondence which passed ... in treating for peace. To which is added, the treaty of peace, and a list of vessels taken from Great-Britain during the war. B. & J. Russell.
Seymour, Tom (2003). Tom Seymour's Maine: A Maine Anthology. Universe. ISBN978-0-595-29209-7.
Vice-Admiralty Court, Halifax (1911). American vessels captured by the British during the revolution and war of 1812. Salem, Mass.: Essex Institute.
Winfield, Rif (2008). British Warships in the Age of Sail 1793–1817: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates. Seaforth Publishing. ISBN978-1-86176-246-7.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
United Kingdom 
United Kingdom
