Naval career
The Royal Navy commissioned Swallow in October 1795 under the command of Commander George Fowke. He sailed her for the Jamaica station on 10 December. On 20 March 1796 Swallow was part of the squadron under the command of Rear-Admiral Hugh Cloberry Christian in Thunderer that escorted a convoy to the West Indies.
On 27 January 1797 Swallow captured the French privateer schooner Molinette. Swallow had been sailing from Cape Nichola Mole, when she encountered Molinette. Molinette was armed only with two swivel guns and had a crew of 18 men, four of whom where aboard an American schooner she had captured on 26 January. Molinette had left Gonaives on 21 January with the object of capturing American vessels travelling between British ports. [4] [lower-alpha 1]
On 11 March Swallow captured the French privateer schooner Port au Paix about four leagues outside Cape Nichola Mole. Port au Paix was armed with two swivel guns and carried a crew of 17 men. She had left Port au Paix four days earlier and not captured anything. [6] [lower-alpha 2]
Between April and June Swallow captured the French privateer schooner Général Toussaint. Général Toussaint mounted eight guns and had a crew of five men. [8] [lower-alpha 3]
Between October 1797 and March 1798 Swallow captured the French privateer Petit Resource. She was armed with two 3-pounder guns and two swivel guns. [10] [lower-alpha 4]
In August 1798 Commander William Chilcott replaced Fowkes, who had received promotion to post-captain on 9 July.
Swallow captured the French privateer Buonaparte on 20 September 1798. [lower-alpha 5] Bonaparte was armed with six guns and had a crew of 50 men. [lower-alpha 6] [lower-alpha 7]
On 13 January 1799, Regulus, under the command of Captain George Fowke, and Swallow captured the Spanish brig Carmini. [16]
Between 12 February 1799 and April, Swallow captured one merchant vessel. [17]
In June 1799, Commander John Hayes replaced Sanderson.
Between 22 July and 27 October 1799 Swallow captured three merchant vessels: [18]
- Spanish schooner Saint Cecilia, sailing from Porto Rico to Jamaica (with a false pass), carrying fustic;
- Small French schooner-rigged boat, sailing from Jeremie to Cuba, carrying 26 bags of coffee and 65 watches; Swallow removed the cargo and sent the boat on her way; and,
- Spanish brig Florentina, of 150 tons, sailing from Campeachy to Cuba with a cargo of logwood and rice.
During that same period when she was in company with Lowestoffe and Volage, she shared in the capture of five merchant vessels, one a letter of marque: [18]
- Spanish Letter of marque ship Navarra (alias Diligene), of eight guns and 150 tons, sailing from Bilboa to Vera Cruz with a cargo of wine, iron, and writing paper;
- Spanish zartan Ambrosia, sailing from Cadiz to Vera Cruz with 26½ tons of quicksilver and 10 tons of writing paper;
- Spanish brig San Francisco, of 90 tons, sailing from Campeachy to Havana, carrying a cargo of sugar and logwood;
- Spanish schooner Maria Josepha, sailing from New Orleans to Havana, with cotton, cochineal, and logwood; and,
- Spanish schooner Tres Amigos, of 109 tons, sailing from Vera Cruz to Havana, carrying logwood, hides, and soap.
Between 28 February 1800 and 20 May, Swallow detained two Spanish schooners: [19]
- St. Josef, sailing from Truxillo to Kingston, carrying gums and indigo; and *
- Nostra Senora de Arangaze, carrying indigo and specie.
In the period from 20 May to 8 August, Swallow detained the Spanish felucca Baldenaro, which was carrying oil and wine. [20]
Between 3 August 1800 and 3 January 1801, Swallow detained three vessels: [21]
- Spanish schooner privateer Atlas, of 95 tons; [lower-alpha 8]
- Spanish polacre N. S. del Remedios, of 100 tons, carrying dry goods; and,
- Danish schooner Hercules, of 60 tons, carrying dry goods.
In May 1801, Commander John Davie replaced Hayes.
Disposal: The Principal Officers and Commissioners of His Majesty's Navy first offered "Swallow, 381 Tons, Copper-Bottomed and Copper-fastened, lying at Portsmouth" for sale on 7 August 1802. [23] She sold there that month.
Privateer and whaler
"Metcalf" purchased Swallow. [24] Her master was David Smyth Simmons (or David Symonds Smith, or C.F. Smith). David Smyth Simmons received a letter of marque on 1 June 1803. [2] She then sailed on 26 June. [25]
Around 15 May 1804 Swallow sent the French whaler Hero (Héros) into Falmouth. [26] During the Peace of Amiens, the French resumed whaling and on 10 February 1803 Captain Stephen Rawson sailed Hero from Le Havre for Walvis Bay, where she stayed for a month from 24 May to 23 June. [lower-alpha 9]
Hero sailed in company with Baleine, of Le Havre, Captain Reuben Baxter. [lower-alpha 10] Between 10 July and 15 August they cruised the coast, but after having gathered only 200 barrels of oil, they sailed first to St Helena and then to St Catherine, Brazil. Swallow captured both Hero and Baleine.Swallow was reported to have arrived at Rio de Janeiro on 17 August 1804. [25] As noted earlier, Swallow took Hero back to Britain. Swallow apparently abandoned Baleine, though in what state, and what happened to her subsequently, is not clear.
There are accounts that Swallow engaged in whaling in 1807 and 1809-10. Although there is no record of her in Lloyd's Register after 1805, she does appear in the Register of Shipping in 1809 with F. Smyth, master, Metcalf, owner, and trade London-South Seas fisheries. [34] She is last listed in 1810 with the same information.
HMS Babet was a 20-gun sixth-rate post ship of the British Royal Navy. She had previously been a corvette of the French Navy under the name Babet, until her capture in 1794, during the French Revolutionary Wars. She served with the British, capturing several privateers and other vessels, and was at the Battle of Groix. She disappeared in the Caribbean in 1800, presumably having foundered.
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.
HMS Meleager was a 32-gun Amazon-class frigate' that Greaves and Nickolson built in 1785 at the Quarry House yard in Frindsbury, Kent, England. She served during the French Revolutionary Wars until 1801, when she was wrecked in the Gulf of Mexico.
HMS Acasta was a 40-gun Royal Navy fifth-rate frigate. She saw service in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, as well as the War of 1812. Although she never took part in any notable single-ship actions nor saw action in a major battle though she was at the Battle of San Domingo, she captured numerous prizes and rid the seas of many Spanish, French and American privateers. She was finally broken up in 1821.
HMS Hornet was a 16-gun ship-rigged sloop of the Cormorant class in the Royal Navy, ordered 18 February 1793, built by Marmaduke Stalkart and launched 3 February 1794 at Rotherhithe. Hornet saw most of her active duty during the French Revolutionary Wars. During the Napoleonic Wars she served for about six years as a hospital ship before being laid up in 1811 and sold in 1817.
During the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars Égyptienne, or Egypt, which commemorated Napoleon's Egyptian Campaign, was a popular name for French vessels, including naval vessels and privateers. Between 1799 and 1804, warships of the Royal Navy captured one French frigate and five different French privateers all with the name Égyptienne, and at least one privateer with the name Égypte.
HMS Circe was a 28-gun Enterprise-class sixth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy. She was launched in 1785 but not completed or commissioned until 1790. She then served in the English Channel on the blockade of French ports before she was wrecked in 1803.
HMS Kangaroo was British Royal Navy 18-gun brig-sloop of the Diligence class, launched in 1795 at Rotherhithe, England. She served in Home Waters and the Mediterranean Sea until she was sold in 1802.
HMS Merlin was one of the two original Merlin-class sloops that served the Royal Navy during the French Revolutionary Wars. She was launched in 1796 and was broken up in 1803. Her greatest accomplishment was her role as the leading vessel in a motley flotilla of local vessels that defeated a Spanish attack on the British colonists in Honduras at the Battle of St. George's Caye. She later captured a number of small merchant vessels in the West Indies before returning to Britain, where she was broken up.
HMS Diligence was the name ship of her class of brig-sloops of the Royal Navy. She was launched in 1795 and lost in 1800. She spent her brief career on the Jamaica station where she captured four armed vessels, one of them after a short engagement, and many small Spanish and French merchant vessels in the Caribbean inter-island and coastal trade.
HMS Barbuda was commissioned into the Royal Navy in 1780 after having briefly served as an American privateer. Barbuda was one of the two sloops that captured Demerara and Essequibo in 1781, but the French Navy captured her there in 1782 and took her into service as Barboude. The French Navy sold her to private owners in 1786, and she served briefly as a privateer in early 1793 before the French Navy purchased her again and named her Légère. She served them until mid-1796 when the Royal Navy captured her and took her into service as HMS Legere. She was wrecked off the coast of Colombia, without loss of life, in February 1801.
Numerous French privateers have borne the name Vengeur ("Avenger"):
HMS Matilda was the French corvette Jacobine, which was launched in March 1794 and which the British captured in the West Indies seven months later. Matilda served in the West Indies until 1799, capturing six small privateers. In 1799 she sailed to Woolwich where she became a hospital ship. Between 1805 and 1807 she was the flagship of Rear-Admiral Henry Stanhope. She was broken up in 1810.
HM hired armed cutter Flora served the British Royal Navy under contract from 16 August 1794 until a French privateer captured her on 1 December 1798.
HMS Bonetta was the French privateer Huit Amis, launched at Bordeaux in 1798 that the British Royal Navy captured in May. In her brief naval career she captured a number of small prizes, one of them a 2-gun privateer. Bonetta was wrecked in 1801.
HMS Albacore was launched in 1793 at Rotherhithe. She captured several privateers and a French Navy corvette before she was sold in 1802.
HMS Argus was launched in 1798 at Bordeaux as Argus. She became a privateer that the British Royal Navy (RN) captured in 1799. She served from April 1803 until she was broken up in April 1811.
Lord Hawke was launched at Ostend in 1793, almost certainly under a different name. In 1798 she became a British privateer. The French captured her in 1799 and she became the French privateer Revanche. The British Royal Navy recaptured her in 1800. New owners returned her to her original British name. She disappeared in early 1801, presumed to have foundered with all hands.
El Corso was launched in Spain in 1791 as a naval brig. the British Royal Navy captured her in 1796 and took her into service as HMS Corso. She then served in the Mediterranean where she captured numerous small vessels, the great majority of which were merchant vessels. In 1802 she sailed to England. From July 1802 to her sale in September 1814 she served as a receiving ship.
Great Britain
United Kingdom