HMS Squirrel was a Royal Navysixth ratepost ship, built in 1755. She served during the French and Indian War, most notably at Louisbourg and Quebec, and the American Revolution, during which she captured two French privateers. The Royal Navy sold her in 1783. J. Montgomery purchased her and she became the Greenland whalerUnion. Then in 1790–91 she became a slaver, making five slave-trading voyages. Between 1796 and 1802 she made two voyages for the British East India Company (EIC). She then traded between London and Liverpool. She was last listed in 1804.
Captain Hyde Parker commissioned Squirrel in October 1755. A year or so later, on 10 October 1756 he captured the privateer Très Vénėrable.[1]
On 31 May 1757 Squirrel captured the American ship America,[8] Lewis Ferret, master. Her owners appealed the seizure but the court of appeal ruled that America had delivered a cargo to San Domingo, and there picked up another cargo, owned by French subjects and all pursuant to French taxes, duties, etc., and having destroyed her documents, America was de facto a French ship and so the condemnation as a prize should stand.
On 17 June Squirrel and Parker were at Embden where she stopped any forage being brought in to the French forces there.[9] Around December Commander Joshua Loring was in command of Squirrel, and was promoted to post captain on 19 December. That same month Captain John Wheelock assumed command of Squirrel.[1]
Wheelock sailed Squirrel for North America on 15 January 1758.[1]Squirrel was part of the British naval force at the siege of Louisbourg in 1757. During the landings at Gabarus Bay on 8 June she provided fire support on the right flank.[10] At this time she was under the command of Commander George Hamilton.[1]
Squirrel in the Saint Lawrence River, 1759
During the summer of 1759 Squirrel was part of the British naval force at the siege of Quebec. On 18 July she, under Hamilton's command, was part of a small squadron that ran up the river past the city. The vessels included Sutherland, of 50 guns, three transports with three companies of grenadiers and a battalion of the Royal Americans, and two armed sloops. Diana, of 32 guns, was part of the squadron, but she grounded and did not make the passage. Squirrel was among the Royal Navy vessels that received prize money for the capture of a number of small vessels in the St Lawrence River in 1759.[11]
At some point Squirrel came under the command of Captain John Cleland, either before or after she returned to England. On 31 January 1760 he sailed her for the Mediterranean.[1]
On 5 February 1760 Squirrel was escorting a fleet from Cork to Gibraltar.[12]Lloyd's List reported on 17 June that Squirrel and Kennington had carried into Leghorn a French ship that had been sailing from Marseilles to Constantinople.[13] This may have been the polaccaSt. Francis de Paul that they captured on 9 May, in company with Cygnet. More probably, it may have been the polacca St Barbe that Squirrel and Kennington captured on 22 May.[14]
Squirrel returned to England and was paid off in June. At some point she was recommissioned. On 15 March 1761 Squirrel captured the pinqueMarie.[15]
In 1762 Squirrel was in North America. In April she was in the Mediterranean and under the command of Captain James Cranston.[1] He was still in command at the end of the Seven Years' War on 23 February 1763.
Between wars
In May Captain Richard Smith recommissioned Squirrel as she underwent fitting at Chatham between May and July. He then sailed her for the West Indies on 28 August.[1]
From 1764 to 1766 she was stationed at New Jersey.[1] There she was used to enforce customs laws in New England prior to the American Revolution. In 1764 while in Newport, Rhode IslandSquirrel came to the assistance of HMSSt John, which American colonists on Goat Island (Rhode Island) had fired on. The colonists dispersed before Squirrel brought her guns to bear.[16]
Squirrel returned to England and was paid off in January 1767. Between January and September she was at Chatham undergoing repairs and fitting out. Captain John Botterell commissioned her in July, and sailed her for the Leeward Islands on 9 October 1787.[1]
In November 1769 she was still in the Leeward Islands, and her commander was Captain Edward Cauldwell. She returned to England and was paid off in January 1772.[1]
In January Squirrel underwent a survey at Sheerness. Then between April 1772 and January 1774 she underwent a great repair there, and fitting out. In November 1773 Captain Stair Douglass recommissioned her. He then sailed for Jamaica on 31 January 1774.[1]
American Revolutionary War
By March 1775 Squirrel was one of only five vessels on the Jamaica Station. In November, Admiral Clark Gayton, commanding the Jamaica Station, issued orders to Douglass to sail to the "little Caicos" and there to intercept and detain vessels coming from the island and carrying military stores to the rebels.[17] By December Squirrel was stationed at "Little Caicos".[18]
In January 1776 Squirrel was still one of only five vessels on the Jamaica Station. Stephen Fuller, agent for the island of Jamaica, on 27 January wrote to Lord Germain listing the vessels available on that the station and pointing out that there were too few to provide an escort for the next fleet leaving the island.[19]
During the month Squirrel sent into Jamaica two sloops, one from Cape Nichola with French produce, and the other from the Turks Islands, with salt. Both were sailing to "the Rebellious Colonies".[20] The first was the sloop Cornelia, of New York, Robert Sands, master, taken on 29 December 1775 with a cargo of molasses and coffee. The second was the sloop Affie & Hannah, of New York, Benjamin Bell, master, taken on 2 January 1776 with a cargo of salt.[21]
Next, Squirrel sent in a schooner to Port Royal with French produce and French papers. When Douglass examined her he had discovered that her mate and three seamen were English. The mate confessed that her home port was Philadelphia and that the master had hidden her English papers. There was sufficient evidence to prove that she was an American vessel and so subject to condemnation.[22] This was the sloop Thames, of Philadelphia, J. Fairibelt, master, taken on 30 January with a cargo of rum and molasses.[21]
On 10 February Jamaica was unsettled by Douglass's report that he had encountered three French ships, part of a flotilla bringing 17,000 men to Hispaniola.[23] On 25 March Squirrel took the brig Industry, of South Carolina, Edward Allen, master, sailing in ballast.[21]
In late 1776 the former slave Olaudah Equiano came under Douglass's protection after Equiano got into a dispute in Jamaica with a local notable.[lower-alpha 1] Equiano sailed with Douglass back to England. On the way Squirrel captured an American privateer. Squirrel arrived back in England on 7 January 1777 at Plymouth.[24]
Between January and March 1777 Squirrel was at Portsmouth, undergoing fitting. Captain Henry Harvey recommissioned her and sailed her for Newfoundland on 14 April. She sailed with the African trade on 15 February 1778.[1]
In 1779 Squirrel was in home waters and under the command of Captain Farmery Epworth. In April 1780 Captain Thomas Piercy replaced Epworth. Between October and December 1781 Squirrel was at Plymouth receiving copper sheathing, and being refitted.[1]
Still, on 23 December 1781 Squirrel was in company with Antigua, Dunkirk, and Cambridge at the capture of the Dutch ship De Vrow Esther.[26]
Captain John Inglis assumed command in 1782. On 15 February Squirrel captured the privateer Furet.[1]Furet may have been the cutter of 10 guns that other records show Inglis capturing.[27]
On 21 June, Squirrel, Captain John Inglis, encountered a French privateer cutter off Lands End and chased for ten hours before she struck her colours. She proved to be Aimable Manon, of eight guns and 42 men. She was 14 days out of Brest and had caught nothing.[28]
Then four days later, Squirrel recaptured Penelope, which had been sailing from Liverpool to Cork with a cargo of salt and sugar when the French privateer Escamoteur had captured her going into Waterford.[28]Lloyd's List reported on 5 July 1782 that Squirrel had sent Penelope into Falmouth.[29]
Disposal
The Navy paid Squirrel off at the end of June. It sold her on 16 January 1783 at Sheerness for £1,100, plus an additional £302 5s for the copper on her bottom.[1]
Commercial service as Union
Whaler
J.Montgomery purchased Squirrel, renamed her Union, and used her as a whaler in the waters off Greenland.[30] particularly Davis Strait.[lower-alpha 2]Lloyd's Register (1786) reports that she underwent repairs in 1786, and the listing also gives her burthen as 400 tons, instead of 300 tons as in the 1784 volume.[2] On 11 July 1786 Lloyd's List reported that Union was still with other whalers at Greenland and had taken three "fish".[33]
On 17 June 1787 she was among the whalers at Greenland and had taken two "fish".[34]Union underwent further repairs in 1787 and 1789.
Slaver
Then in 1790 J. Chapman replaced J. Bailie as master, and her trade became London—Africa.[35] That is, she became a slaver. Lloyd's Register (1791) shows that her owner became Calvert & Co., and that she underwent coppering, and a thorough repair.[lower-alpha 3]
Her master became James Tomson and Union then made five slave-trading voyages, primarily between the Gold Coast and Jamaica. Her owners were Anthony Calvert, Thomas King, and William Camden.
On her first voyage Thomson sailed from England on 18 May 1790, and arrived at the Gold Coast on 9 August. He gathered his slaves at Cape Coast Castle and Anomabu. Union sailed from Africa on 20 October, and arrived at Jamaica 13 December. She arrived with 461 slaves at Black River. She arrived back at London on 22 July 1791.[36]
On her second voyage, Thomson left London on 26 August, and arrived at the Gold Coast on 13 October. He gathered slaves at Cape Lahoue and Cape Coast Castle, but primarily at Anomabu. Union sailed from Africa 15 January 1792, and arrived at Kingston, Jamaica, 2 March. There she discharged 536 slaves, having embarked 543. Her loss rate was only 1.3%. At some point her master changed to Robert Currie. She sailed from Jamaica on 10 April, but bound for Africa again, rather than home.[37]
Thomson had returned to command of Union and she gathered her slaves at Anomabu and Cape Coast Castle. She left Africa on 21 October, and arrived back at Jamaica on 16 December. She had embarked 549 slaves, and arrived with 549. She returned to London 5 May 1793.[38]
Or her fourth slaving voyage, Thomson and Union left London on 10 July and arrived at Africa on 19 September. She again gathered slaves at Cape Coast Castle and Anomabu, and arrived at Jamaica on 15 May 1794 with 535. Union arrived back at London on 19 August.[39]
Thomson sailed Union on her fifth, and last, slave voyage, leaving from London on 31 October, bound for the Gold Coast. She arrived there on 6 April 1795, and gathered her slaves at Cape Coast Castle and Anomabu. She arrived with them at Jamaica on 25 May. She had embarked 549 slaves, and arrived with 549. Union returned to England on 30 June.[40]
Voyages for the EIC
In 1796 R. Owen became Union's master, and her trade changed to London—East Indies.[41] That year Union was also rebuilt, and her burthen changed to 476 tons.[5]
On 21 May 1796 Captain Richard Owen sailed Union from Portsmouth, bound for Bengal on a voyage for the EIC. Union reached Gibraltar on 14 June and the Cape of Good Hope on 19 September, and arrived at Calcutta on 2 March 1797. Homeward bound, she left Calcutta on 2 May, reached St Helena, and arrived at the Downs on 12 December.[42]
Lloyd's Register continues to show Union, Owen, master, trading with India through 1804. However, on 30 July 1801, Captain John Luke sailed Union from Bengal, leaving Calcutta on 30 July. On 12 September she was at Saugor. She reached St Helena on 1 January 1802, and arrived at the Downs on 23 February.[42] Then the Register of Shipping for 1802 shows Union, Hutchinson, master, Calvert, owner, trading between London and Liverpool.[7]
Fate
Neither Lloyd's Register nor the Register of Shipping lists Union in 1805.
Notes, citations and references
Notes
↑ One of the crew on Squirrel was Richard Yorke, a fellow black, with whom Equiano had served on Racehorse in 1773 during Captain Constantine John Phipps's expedition to the Arctic.[24]
↑ Earlier, Montgomery had purchased another Union, the former bomb ketch HMSTerror, of 300 tons (bm), which the Royal Navy had sold in 1775. The ex-TerrorUnion was lost in May 1782.[31] Hackman, in his book on the vessels of the British East India Company, conflates the two Unions.[32]
↑ Lloyd's Register shows an increase in her burthen,[4] but this seems simply a clerical error in that later issues of Lloyd's Register, and the 1793 letter of marque declaration do not confirm the change.[3]
HMS Esperance was launched in America in 1781, and is first listed in Lloyd's Register in 1784 under the name Clementina. She then served as a slave ship, sailing out of Liverpool on two slave trading voyages. In 1786 Brent and Co. purchased her, renamed her Ellis, and sailed her for three more voyages as a slaver. In 1793 she became the privateer Ellis. The French captured her, then the Spanish, and then the French recaptured her. After returning to French ownership, she became the French corvette Esperance. The Royal Navy captured her in 1795 and took her into service as HMS Esperance. Thus, in her career, Esperance had changed hands six times. She was sold in 1798.
Britannia, was a vessel launched in 1788 at New Brunswick. In 1795–1796, she made one complete voyage as a slave ship in the triangular trade, taking enslaved people from West Africa to Jamaica. A French privteer captured her in 1797 in a notable single ship action as Britannia was on the outward leg of her second voyage. Her captor took her to Nantes.
John Bull was a sailing ship built in 1799 at Liverpool for the slave trade. She made one voyage carrying slaves from West Africa to Jamaica. Thereafter she became a West Indiaman, trading with Jamaica. Early in this period she was a letter of marque, and captured a French merchant vessel. A little later John Bull detained an American vessel. Much later she transported female convicts to New South Wales from Cork. After she delivered her convicts she made an unsuccessful voyage as a whaler in the South Pacific. She was last listed in 1833.
Esther was launched in 1783 and entered British hands as a French prize of 1793. She took part in a notable single-ship action in 1794 in which she repelled a French privateer. Between 1801 and 1805 she made four slave trading voyages. A French privateer captured her in a sanguinary single-ship action in 1805.
HMS Duguay-Trouin was an 18-gun French privateer sloop launched in 1779 at Le Havre. Surprise captured her in 1780 and the British Royal Navy took her into service under her existing name. It sold Duguay-Trouin on 30 October 1783. She then became the West Indiaman Christopher. She captured several French merchant vessels. Later she became a slave ship, making five voyages in the triangular trade in enslaved people. She was lost at Charleston in September 1804 in a hurricane.
Experiment was launched on the River Thames in 1789. She made seven voyages for Calvert & Co. as a slave ship in the triangular trade in enslaved people, carrying captives from the Gold Coast to Jamaica. A French squadron captured her in 1795.
Otway was a French or Spanish vessel built in 1799 that became a Liverpool-based slave ship in 1800. She made four voyages in the triangular trade in enslaved people, delivering captives from West Africa to the West Indies before the French Navy captured her in 1806. She became the Guadeloupe-based privateer Alerte and captured a number of British merchantmen before the Royal Navy captured her i October 1807.
Elliott was launched at Liverpool in 1783. She made ten voyages as a slave ship, carrying slaves from West Africa to the West Indies. Next, she made one voyage as a whaler. She then became a merchantman, sailing between England and South America. In November 1807 French privateers captured her.
Crescent was launched at Rotherhithe in 1790. She initially traded with the Levant, particularly Smyrna. After the outbreak of war with France she may have tried her hand as a privateer. In 1796–1798 she made a voyage to the East Indies, almost surely on behalf of the British East India Company (EIC). A French privateer captured her but the British Royal Navy quickly recaptured her. In 1802-1804 she made one voyage as a slave ship carrying slaves from West Africa to Jamaica. In 1805 she became a whaler. She was lost in 1807 off Patagonia while homeward bound from her first whaling voyage.
Elizabeth was launched at Bermuda in 1786 or 1790. She first appeared in Lloyd's Register (LR) in 1802. She then made four voyages as a slave ship, during the second of which a French privateer captured her. Next, after the end of British participation in the trans-Atlantic slave trade, she spent a little over a year as a hired armed tender under contract to the British Royal Navy. She returned to mercantile service trading with Madeira or Africa, until another French privateer captured her in early 1810.
Allison was launched in France in 1776, almost certainly under another name. The British captured her in 1795. Between 1796 and 1799 she made two whaling voyages to the Southern Whale Fishery. Then between 1799 and 1807 she made three voyages as a slave ship. Between the first and the second a French privateer captured her, but British letters of marque recaptured her. The British slave trade was abolished in 1807 and thereafter Allison traded primarily as a coaster. After about 1840 she began to trade to America and Africa. She was lost c.1846.
Enterprize was launched in France in 1797. The British captured her in 1803 and new owners sailed on four voyages as a slave ship. She twice recaptured British vessels, one a slave ship and one a merchant vessel, and once repelled an attack by a French privateer. Circa 1808 she left the slave trade and new owners sailed her to South America, where she was wrecked in 1810.
John was launched in the Netherlands in 1785, probably under another name. The British captured her in 1797. The new owners gave her the name John, and she became a merchantman. Between 1800 and 1804 she made three voyages as a slave ship. She then became a trader and transport again until a French privateer captured and burnt her in 1809.
Horatio was launched in 1800 at Liverpool. She made four voyages as a slave ship in the triangular trade in enslaved people. During two of these voyages she was captured and recaptured. Shortly before the British slave trade ended she left the slave trade and sailed between Britain and South America and as a West Indiaman. She was wrecked in 1817.
Harpooner was launched at Liverpool in 1771. In 1778 she became a privateer. She captured at least two French merchantmen before a French privateer captured her in January 1780. She became the French privateer Comptesse of Buzanisis, which the Royal Navy recaptured. Harpooner returned to online records in 1782, and in 1783 became the slave ship Trelawney, which then made two complete voyages in the triangular trade in enslaved people. She was no longer listed after 1786.
Vanguard was launched in Liverpool in 1799. She made four voyages as a slave ship. After the outlawing of the British slave trade she became a West Indiaman. A French privateer captured her in March 1809.
Backhouse was launched in 1798 at Dartmouth. In all, she made four voyages as a slave ship. Between the second and the third, and after the fourth, she was a West Indiaman. A French privateer captured her early in 1810 as she was returning to Britain from Brazil.
HMS Spy was a Bonetta-class sloop launched at Rotherhithe in 1756 for the Royal Navy. The Navy sold her in 1773. From 1776, or perhaps earlier she was a transport. Then from 1780 to 1783, as Mars, she was first a privateer and then a slave ship, engaged in the triangular trade in enslaved persons. Between 1783 and 1787 her name was Tartar, and she traded with the Mediterranean. From 1787, as Southampton, she was a whaler in the British southern whale fishery. She made at least four complete whaling voyages and was last listed in 1792.
Ranger was launched in Liverpool in 1789. She made four complete voyages as a slave ship in the triangular trade in enslaved people. A French privateer captured her in 1796 during her fifth slave voyage, but she was recaptured some months later. Thereafter she disappears from online records.
Doe was built in 1780, in the Thirteen Colonies, possibly under another name. She was taken in prize. Between 1783 and 1786 Doe made three complete voyages as a slave ship in the triangular trade in enslaved people. New owners in 1787 renamed Doe to Ellen. Ellen was registered in Liverpool in 1787. Between 1789 and 1792, she made two complete enslaving voyages. A French privateer captured her in 1793 as she was on her way to the West Indies having embarked captives in Africa on her sixth slaving voyage.
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