HMS Hannibal was a 74-gun third-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 15 April 1786, named after the Carthaginian general Hannibal. She is best known for having taken part in the Algeciras Campaign, and for having run aground during the First Battle of Algeciras on 5 July 1801, which resulted in her capture. She then served in the French Navy until she was broken up in 1824.
HMS Fly was a Swan-class ship sloop of the Royal Navy, launched on 14 September 1776. She performed mainly convoy escort duties during the French Revolutionary Wars, though she did capture three privateers. She foundered and was lost with all hands early in 1802.
Vénus was a corvette of the French Navy that the British captured in 1800. Renamed HMS Scout, she served briefly in the Channel before being wrecked in 1801, a few days after taking a major prize.
HMS Hobart was an 18-gun sloop of the Royal Navy. She was formerly the French privateer Revanche, which Captain Edward Pakenham and Resistance captured in the Sunda Strait, East Indies, on 21 October 1794. The Navy sold her in 1803.
Gracieuse was a 32-gun Charmante-class frigate of the French Navy. Renamed to Unité in 1793, she took part in the French Revolutionary Wars. The Royal Navy captured her in 1796 off Île d'Yeu and brought her into British service as HMS Unite. She was sold in 1802
HMS Serpent was a former Dutch hoy that the British Admiralty purchased in 1794 for service with the Royal Navy. She was paid off in 1796 and was sold around 1802.
Jean Bart was a merchant vessel built at Bayonne in 1786. Her owners commissioned her at Nantes in 1793 as a privateer. The French Navy requisitioned her in January 1794 and classed her as a corvette and listed her as Jean Bart No. 2 to distinguish her from the French corvette Jean Bart (1793). The Navy intended to rename her Imposant in May 1795, but the Royal Navy captured her first.
HMS Greyhound was a cutter that the British Admiralty purchased in 1780 and renamed Viper in 1781. Viper captured several French privateers in the waters around Great Britain, and took part in a notable engagement. She was sold in October 1809.
William Taylor was an officer in the Royal Navy who served during the American War of Independence and the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars.
HMS Viper was a 6-gun galley, the former South Carolina Navy's Rutledge, which the British captured on 4 November 1779 at Tybee. She was broken up in 1785.
Robert was a 16-gun French privateer corvette launched in 1793 at Nantes. The British captured her in 1793 and named her HMS Espion. The French recaptured her in 1794 and took her into service as Espion. The British recaptured her in 1795, but there being another Espion in service by then, the British renamed their capture HMS Spy. She served under that name until the Navy sold her in 1801. Spy then became a slave ship in the triangular trade in enslaved people, a merchantman to South America, and privateer again. The French captured her in mid-1805 and sent her into Guadeloupe.
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.
His Majesty's hired armed vessel Marechal de Cobourg served the British Royal Navy under contract during the French Revolutionary Wars. Contemporary records also referred to her as Marshall de Cobourg, Marshall Cobourg, Marshall Cobourg, Marquis Cobourg, Marquis de Cobourg, Cobourg, Coborg, and Saxe Cobourg. Further adding to the difficulty in tracking her through the records, is that although she was originally a cutter, later the Navy converted her to a brig.
The Leeward Islands Station originally known as the Commander-in-Chief at Barbadoes and the Leeward Islands was a formation or command of the Kingdom of Great Britain and then the United Kingdom's Royal Navy stationed at English Harbour, Antigua, Leeward Islands. It existed from 1743 to 1821.
HMS Vesuve was the French brick-cannonièreVésuve, name vessel of her class of seven bricks-cannonière. She was launched at Saint-Malo in 1793. The British Royal Navy captured her in 1795 and took her into service as HMS Vesuve. The Navy sold her in 1802.
Quatre frères was either an American or Bermudian-built vessel. She was commissioned in 1796 at Bordeaux as a French privateer. The Royal Navy captured her in April 1797 and took her into service as HMS Transfer. The Royal Navy sold her at Malta in 1802 to Ottoman Tripolitania. The U.S. Navy captured her in 1804 and took her into service as USS Scourge. The U.S. Navy sold her in 1812.
HMS Princess was the Dutch East Indiaman Williamstadt en Boetzlaar that the British Royal Navy captured on 18 August 1795 at the Capitulation of Saldanha Bay. The Royal Navy initially rated her a 28-gun sixth rate. She quickly became a receiving ship, a guard ship, and a floating battery. The Navy sold her in 1816.
Vice-Admiral Sir Robert Lewis Fitzgerald was a British naval officer of the 18th and 19th centuries. He served throughout the French Revolutionary Wars, most notably commanding the bomb vessel HMS Vesuvius, but illness made him unable to go to sea during the Napoleonic Wars, with Fitzgerald instead commanding the Isle of Wight sea fencibles. Made a superannuated rear-admiral in 1825, he was restored as a vice-admiral in 1840.
Lutin was a Hasard-class brig-aviso launched at Bayonne in 1788 for the French Navy. Shortly after the outbreak of war with England, the British Royal Navy captured her off Newfoundland. The British took her into service as HMS Lutin. After some two years on the Newfoundland station Lutin sailed to Plymouth where the Navy sold her.
HMS Friendship was a mercantile vessel, one of 12 that the Royal Navy purchased in 1794 for use as fireships. They were under the command of a Sailing Master, rather than an officer. None was expended; instead they served as small gunboats, though their armament was not formally established.
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