| History | |
|---|---|
 France | |
| Name | Harmonie |
| Captured | January 1804 |
 United Kingdom | |
| Name | HMS Unique |
| Acquired | January 1804 |
| Captured | January 1806 |
| General characteristics [1] | |
| Type | schooner |
| Tons burthen | 120 (bm) |
| Length |
|
| Beam | 20 ft 8 in (6.3 m) |
| Depth of hold | 7 ft 4 in (2.2 m) |
| Propulsion | Sails |
| Sail plan | Schooner |
| Armament | 10 or 12 guns |
HMS Unique was the French 12-gun schooner Harmonie that Cyane captured from the French in 1804. A French privateer recaptured and sank Unique in 1806.
On 27 January Cyane captured Harmonie at 15°23′N60°30′W / 15.383°N 60.500°W . Captain Joseph Nourse of Cyane reported that Harmonie was armed with 12 guns and had a crew of 82 men. She was 34 days out of Guadeloupe and had taken one prize, the Scottish ship Mercury, which was carrying a cargo of lumber and provisions to Demerara via New York. [2] However, Hippomenes had recaptured Mercury on 26 January. [2]
The Royal Navy took Harmonie into service as HMS Unique. Lieutenant James Baird commissioned her at Barbados for the Leeward Islands. [1] Lieutenant George Rowley Brand replaced Baird within the year.
Unique formed part of Commodore Samuel Hood's squadron at the capture of Surinam River in 1804. The squadron consisted of Hood's flagship Centaur, Pandour, Serapis, Alligator, Hippomenes, Drake, and transports carrying 2000 troops under Brigadier-General Sir Charles Green. [3] Lieutenant Brand went on shore, as did a number of other naval personnel, to participate in the attack. British and Dutch casualties were light, but Brand was severely wounded in the attack on the Dutch shore battery at Fredericki. [3] [4] [lower-alpha 1]
On 17 November 1805 Unique captured the United States vessel Delaware some 10 miles from Guadeloupe. George Pickle, Delaware's master, appealed the capture. Testimony before the Vice admiralty court in Antigua revealed that Delaware had been the British slave ship Ranger, which a French privateer had captured circa May 1805 and taken into Guadeloupe. Francis Bruel, of Philadelphia, had purchased Ranger and renamed her Delaware. On 16 December 1805 the Court rejected the appeal with the respect to the vessel, letting the capture stand. Ranger was returned to her British owners. [7]
On 23 January 1806 Unique encountered a large French privateer. An engagement followed during which Brand was killed. Unique foundered shortly after she surrendered. [8] One mention of the action reports that the French vessel had twice the armament of Unique, and that the British schooner sank with her colours still flying. [9] Brand was reportedly killed while leading an attempt to board the French vessel. All the other British officers also died in the action. [10]
The French buried Brand at Guadeloupe with military honours in "admiration of such bravery". [10] Lloyd's Patriotic Fund awarded Mr. Alexander Brand, George Brand's father, with a grant of 300 guineas in recognition of the lieutenant's service. [9] In his career in the Royal Navy Brand had sustained more than 30 wounds. [10]
HMS Centaur was a 74-gun third rate of the Royal Navy, launched on 14 March 1797 at Woolwich. She served as Sir Samuel Hood's flagship in the Leeward Islands and the Channel. During her 22-year career Centaur saw action in the Mediterranean, the Channel, the West Indies, and the Baltic, fighting the French, the Dutch, the Danes, and the Russians. She was broken up in 1819.
HMS Antigua was a French frigate launched in 1779. She became a privateer that the British captured in 1804. She served the Royal Navy as a prison ship from 1804 to 1816, when she was broken up.
HMS Wolverine was a Royal Navy 18-gun Cruizer-class brig-sloop, launched in 1805 at Topsham, near Exeter. Early in her career she was involved in two fratricidal incidents, one involving a British frigate and then a newsworthy case in which she helped capture a British slave ship. She later captured a small naval vessel and several privateers, and took part in the invasion of Martinique, and during the War of 1812, in the attack on Baltimore. Wolverine was decommissioned in August or September 1815 and was sold on 15 February 1816.
Earl of Mornington was a packet ship launched in 1799 for the British East India Company (EIC). She performed one voyage for the Company, sailing from England to India and returning. The Admiralty purchased her in 1804 and she then served the Royal Navy until she was broken up in 1808.
HMS Hippomenes was a former Dutch corvette built in Vlissingen in 1797 for the Batavian Republic. The British captured her in 1803 and she served with the Royal Navy until sold in 1813. With the Royal Navy she participated in two notable single-ship actions in the West Indies.
HMS Alligator was a 28-gun Enterprise-class sixth rate frigate of the Royal Navy. She was originally ordered during the American War of Independence but was completed too late to see service during the conflict. Instead she had an active career during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars.
HMS Ballahoo was the first of the Royal Navy's Ballahoo-class schooners, vessels of four 12-pounder carronades and a crew of 20. The prime contractor for the vessel was Goodrich & Co., in Bermuda, and she was launched in 1804. She patrolled primarily in the Leeward Islands, taking several small prizes, before an American privateer captured her in 1814 during the War of 1812.
HMS Scorpion was a Royal Navy Cruizer-class brig-sloop built by John King at Dover and launched in 1803. She was the first of the class to be built since the launching of Cruizer in 1797. Scorpion had a long and active career during the Napoleonic Wars, earning her crews three clasps to the Naval General Service Medal when the Admiralty authorized it in 1847, two for single-ship actions. She also took a number of prizes. Scorpion was sold in 1819.
HMS Eclair was a French Navy schooner launched in 1799 and captured in 1801. The British took her into service under her French name and armed her with twelve 12-pounder carronades. In 1804 she engaged in a noteworthy, albeit indecisive single ship action with the 22-gun French privateer Grande Decide. In 1809 she was renamed Pickle. In December 1812 she and three other small British vessels engaged the French 40-gun frigate Gloire in another noteworthy and indecisive action. She was sold in 1818.
HMS Guachapin was a brig, the former Spanish letter of marque Guachapin, launched at Bayonne in 1800, which the British captured early in 1800 and took into service with the Royal Navy. Under the British flag she captured a Spanish privateer larger and better-armed than herself. She also served at the captures of the islands of St. Bartholomew, St. Martin, St. Thomas, St. Croix, Tobago, and St. Lucia, and of Surinam. She served at Antigua as a guard ship but was wrecked in 1811. She was then salvaged and sold.
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.
Hector was a Dutch 44-gun frigate launched in 1784 that the British captured in 1799. They fitted her out and transferred her to the Transport Board in 1800 under the name Pandour. She then transported troops to and from Egypt. The Royal Navy commissioned her in 1803 as HMS Pandour; she then sailed to the Leeward Islands, where she participated in the capture of Surinam. The Navy converted her to a floating battery in 1804, and transferred her to Customs as a store hulk in 1805. She was sold in 1814.
HMS Merlin was launched in 1801 in South Shields as the collier Hercules. In July 1803, with the resumption of war with France, the Admiralty purchased her. She was one of about 20 such vessels that the navy would then employ primarily for convoy escort duties. She served on active duty until 1810, capturing one small privateer. She then served as a receiving ship until 1836 when the navy sold her for breaking up.
HMS Grenada was the French schooner Harmonie, launched in 1800 and armed at Cayenne in 1803 as a privateer. Boats of a squadron of the British Royal Navy cut her out from the harbour of Le Marin, Martinique, on 16 November 1803. The citizens of Grenada purchased her and donated her to the Royal Navy, which commissioned her in 1804 as HMS Grenada. She was later converted to a brig. She captured nine small French privateers before being sold for breaking up in 1810.
HMS Pultusk was the American-built French privateer sloop Austerlitz, which had been launched in 1805 and which the Royal Navy captured in 1807 and took into service as HMS Pultusk. Pultusk served in three campaigns, two of which resulted, some four decades later, in the award of medals, and one boat action that too received a medal. She was broken up in 1810.
HMS Pert was the French privateer Bonaparte, a ship built in the United States that HMS Cyane captured in November 1804. The Royal Navy took Bonaparte into service as HMS Pert. Pert was wrecked off the coast of what is now Venezuela in October 1807.
HMS Saint Christopher was the French privateer Mohawk, launched in 1805, that the Royal Navy captured in 1806. The citizens of Saint Kitts, purchased her and donated her to the Royal Navy. She was broken up at Antigua in 1811.
HMS Elizabeth was a French privateer schooner that the Royal Navy captured in 1805 and took into service under her existing name. She participated in an engagement and a campaign that earned her crews clasps to the Naval General Service Medal. She was lost with all hands in 1814 when she capsized in the West Indies.
HMS Tobago was a schooner of unknown origin that the British Royal Navy purchased in 1805. In 1806 a French privateer captured her. The Royal Navy recaptured her in 1809 and took her into service as HMS Vengeur before selling her later that year.
Ranger was launched in 1791 in New Providence and immediately came to Britain. She generally traded between Liverpool and New Providence. She underwent grounding in 1795 and in 1796 her owners had her repaired, lengthened, and converted from a brig to a ship. A French privateer captured her in August 1797 after a single-ship action. In a process that is currently obscure, Ranger returned to British ownership circa 1799. She then became a West Indiaman. From 1803 on she became a Liverpool-based slave ship in the triangular trade in enslaved people. She made one complete voyage transporting enslaved people. Then French privateers captured her after she had embarked captives in West Africa but before she could deliver them to the West Indies. A United States citizen purchased her at Guadeloupe and renamed her Delaware. In 1805 the Royal Navy recaptured her. She was returned to her British owners who sailed her between Ireland and Newfoundland. She was last listed in 1814.