| History | |
|---|---|
 Great Britain | |
| Name | HMS Trincomalee |
| Namesake | Trincomalee |
| Acquired | 1799 by capture |
| Fate | Destroyed in action 12 October 1799 |
| General characteristics [1] | |
| Tons burthen | 315 (bm) |
| Sail plan | Sloop |
| Complement | 100 |
| Armament | 16 × 24-pounder carronades + 2 × long guns |
HMS Trincomalee was a sloop of Dutch or French origin that the British Royal Navy took into service in 1799. She was destroyed in action in 1799 with the loss of all but two of her crew.
The Navy commissioned Trincomalee under the command of Commander John Rowe. An Arab Dow arrived at Bombay on 6 December 1799, from Muscat. She brought information from Mr. Manesty, the British East India Company's (EIC) Resident at Bassorah. He reported that Trincomalee had been dispatched from Muscat to intercept two French ships in the Gulf of Persia that had captured Mr. Manesty's ship Pearl, [2] on 7 October. [3] Pearl had been carrying three lakh rupees (750,000 francs), 40 horses, 5000 "saumons de cuivre", and other cargo. [4] In the engagement on 7 October in which Iphigénie captured Pearl, Captain Fowler of Pearl and five of her crew were killed, and a number of men wounded before she struck. Her captor then removed the bullion and cargo from Pearl, and then decided to sail for Mauritius. [5]
Trincomalee set out in company with the Bombay Marine's cruizer Comet. [lower-alpha 1] They were cruising in the Bab-el-Mandeb when just before midnight on 12 October they encountered two vessels, the French privateer Iphigénie, Captain Jean-François Malroux du Bac, [7] and her prize, Pearl. [lower-alpha 2] Trincomalee challenged them, but they did not respond and instead sailed away. The next morning the two British ships spotted them and gave chase, catching up with their quarry. [9]
An action ensued at about 11a.m. with Trincomalee engaging Iphigénie and Comet engaging Pearl. The exchange of fire lasted about two hours when suddenly Trincomalee exploded. She was so close to Iphigénie that the explosion knocked down Iphigénie's main and mizzen masts and ruptured her sides, with the result that she soon started to founder. [9]
Comet and Pearl broke off their engagement and picked up the few survivors. There were about 30-40 survivors from Iphigénie; Malroux du Bac drowned, apparently while trying to retrieve documents aboard his ship. [8] Pearl's original crew had also been on board Iphigénie. Only two men from Trincomalee, a seaman and a lascar, survived. [9]
Pearl and Comet did not renew their engagement, instead sailing off in different directions, Pearl with the survivors from Iphigénie. Comet landed the two men from Trincomalee at Muscat. [9] Pearl arrived at Muscat on 15 October to replenish her water. There the captain of Pearl's prize crew freed John Carmlington, an officer from Pearl who had survived despite being on Iphigénie, on 24 October, the day Pearl sailed. [4]
HMS Sceptre was a 64-gun third-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 8 June 1781 at Rotherhithe. The ship was wrecked in a hurricane on 5 November 1799 in Table Bay near the Cape of Good Hope.
HMS Glatton was a 56-gun fourth rate of the Royal Navy. Wells & Co. of Blackwell launched her on 29 November 1792 for the British East India Company (EIC) as the East Indiaman Glatton. The Royal Navy bought her in 1795 and converted her into a warship. Glatton was unusual in that for a time she was the only ship-of-the-line that the Royal Navy had armed exclusively with carronades. She served in the North Sea and the Baltic, and as a transport for convicts to Australia. She then returned to naval service in the Mediterranean. After the end of the Napoleonic Wars the Admiralty converted her to a water depot at Sheerness. In 1830 the Admiralty converted Glatton to a breakwater and sank her at Harwich.
Seine was a 38-gun French Seine-class frigate that the Royal Navy captured in 1798 and commissioned as the fifth-rate HMS Seine. On 20 August 1800, Seine captured the French ship Vengeance in a single ship action that would win for her crew the Naval General Service Medal. Seine's career ended in 1803 when she hit a sandbank near the Texel.
HMS Persian was a Cruizer-class brig-sloop built by Daniel List and launched at Cowes in 1809. She captured two privateers before she wrecked in 1813.
HMS Moucheron was a French privateer, built in 1799, that the British captured in 1801. The British government purchased her in 1802 for the Royal Navy. She foundered in 1807 in the Mediterranean without leaving a trace.
Orénoque by one account was a French privateer sloop commissioned in French Guiana in 1781. Another account has her as a Dutch merchant vessel purchased into service. If so, she may have been one of the vessels that some British privateers captured during the raid on Essquinbo and Demerara in late February 1781. The French captured her in 1782 when they captured Demerara; they disposed of her in 1784 or so.
Princess Charlotte was an "extra ship’’ of the British East India Company (EIC), launched in 1796. She made four voyages for the EIC. On her second voyage she suffered a short-lived mutiny and then spent almost a year as an armed ship in the service of the EIC, including a voyage to the Red Sea. A squadron of the French Navy captured her in the Vizagapatam roads in 1804, on her fourth voyage.
HMS Resolution was a cutter that the Royal Navy purchased in 1779. She captured two French privateers in 1781 and a Dutch privateer in 1783 after a single ship action. Resolution captured one more small French privateer in June 1797; later that month Resolution went missing in the North Sea, presumed to have foundered.
Princess Royal, launched in 1786, was an East Indiaman. She made two complete trips to India for the British East India Company (EIC) and was on her third trip, this one to China, when French privateers or warships captured her on 27 September 1793. The French Navy took her into service in the Indian Ocean as a 34-gun frigate under the name Duguay Trouin. The Royal Navy recaptured her and she returned to British merchant service. In 1797 she performed one more voyage for the EIC. She received a letter of marque in July 1798 but was captured in October 1799 off the coast of Sumatra.
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.
Carron was launched at Bombay Dockyard in July 1792. She was a country ship that made several voyages for the British East India Company (EIC) before the Royal Navy purchased her in 1804 to use as a fifth-rate frigate, and renamed Duncan. In 1807 the Navy renamed her Dover. She was wrecked off Madras on 2 May 1811.
Highland Chief was launched at Calcutta in 1798. She made two voyages for the British East India Company (EIC) before a French privateer captured her in 1802 south of the Bay of Bengal.
Eliza Ann was launched at Calcutta in 1795. She sailed to England where she was admitted to the Registry. In all, she made five voyages for the British East India Company (EIC), during one of which she participated in a notable action and during the last of which she captured a French privateer. She herself was lost in 1807.
Princess of Wales was launched at Stockton in 1795. She made three voyages as an "Extra ship", i.e., under charter, for the British East India Company (EIC). On her return she became a West Indiaman. A privateer captured her in 1803 as she was coming back to England from Jamaica, but British privateers immediately recaptured her. She continued sailing to Jamaica though later, under a new owner, she traded more widely. She probably foundered in 1828, and is last listed in 1830.
Varuna was launched at Calcutta in 1796. She made four voyages as an "extra ship" for the British East India Company (EIC), and then spent two years as a troopship. She returned to India in 1806. She was lost in 1811, probably in a typhoon.
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