| History | |
|---|---|
 France | |
| Name | Necker |
| Namesake | Jacques Necker |
| Owner |
|
| In service | 1779 |
| Captured | Early 1781 |
| General characteristics | |
| Tons burthen | 150 (bm) |
| Complement | 88–130 |
| Armament | 20 guns |
| Notes | Several sources confuse this Necker, captured in early 1781, with the Necker that Hannibal captured near the Cape of Good Hope in October 1781. |
Necker was a French privateer operating out of Dunkirk from 1779. She made several cruises before she was herself captured early in 1781.
For her first cruise, in 1779, Necker was under the command of Guillaume Fauhé.
From July 1779 Necker cruised under the command of Cornil-Jacques Bart, with 125 men and 18 guns. [1] She took three prizes.
On her third cruise in 1779 she was under the command of Jean-Félix Houssois. [1]
Her fourth cruise took place in 1781. [1] She was under the command of François Mougin with 88 men, 16 guns, and 4 swivel guns at the time she was captured.
HMS Leith captured Necker and sent her in to Lerwick some time before 28 April. Necker initially spotted and chased Leith, which found she could not outrun the privateer and turned to engage her. Necker then mistook Leith for a frigate and began to sail away from her, only to lose her topmast in her haste to escape. Leith was then able to catch up with the privateer which quickly surrendered, having already thrown her guns overboard in an attempt to increase speed. [2]
However, Lloyd's List reported in May 1781 that it was the Greenlandman Marianne, Brown, master, that had captured Necker and taken her into Lerwick. [3] [lower-alpha 1]
USS Delaware was a 24-gun sailing frigate of the United States Navy that had a short career in the American Revolutionary War as the British Royal Navy captured her in 1777. The Royal Navy took her in as an "armed ship", and later classed her a sixth rate. The Royal Navy sold her in 1783. British owners named her United States and then French interests purchased her and named her Dauphin. She spent some years as a whaler and then in March 1795 she was converted at Charleston, South Carolina, to French privateer. Her subsequent fate is unclear.
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.
Surveillante was an Iphigénie-class 32-gun frigate of the French Navy. She took part in the Naval operations in the American Revolutionary War, where she became famous for her battle with HMS Quebec; in 1783, she brought the news that the war was over to America. She later took part in the French Revolutionary Wars, and was eventually scuttled during the Expédition d'Irlande after sustaining severe damage in a storm. The wreck was found in 1979 and is now a memorial.
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 Albemarle was a 28-gun sixth rate frigate of the Royal Navy. She had been built as the French merchantman Ménagère, which the French Navy purchased in 1779. A British squadron captured her in September and she was commissioned into service with the Royal Navy. Amongst her commanders in her short career was Captain Horatio Nelson, who would later win several famous victories over the French. The Navy sold her in 1784. She subsequently became a merchant vessel again. In 1791 she transported convicts to Port Jackson as part of the third fleet. She then sailed to India where she picked up a cargo on behalf of the British East India Company. As she was returning to England a French privateer captured her.
HMS Leith, also known as HM hired armed ship Leith, was launched in 1744 or 1746 in the British "Plantations", more specifically, the colony of Maryland. From 1764 to 1777 she was a Greenlandman, that is a whaler, in the waters east of Greenland. Between 1777 and 1782 she served the Royal Navy as a transport and hired armed naval ship. She was last listed in 1783.
HMS Crescent was a 28-gun Enterprise-class sixth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy. Crescent was launched in 1779. The French captured her in 1781. She was wrecked in 1786.
Thirteen ships of the Royal Navy have borne the name HMS Bonetta:
Countess of Scarborough was launched at Whitby in 1777. The Royal Navy hired her as a hired armed ship in 1777. She participated in the capture of two privateers before she and HMS Serapis succumbed to a small American flotilla off Flamborough Head in 1779. She briefly became a French privateer. Her subsequent fate is unknown.
Comte de Maurepas was a common name for French vessels in the 18th century. The name comes from that of the French statesman Jean-Frédéric Phélypeaux, Count of Maurepas.
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.
HMS Swallow was an 18-gun Albatross-class brig-sloop of the British Royal Navy, launched in 1795 and sold in 1802. During her naval career she captured a number of French privateers while on the Jamaica station. After her sale she became an armed whaler sailing under a letter of marque. As a privateer she captured two French whaling vessels but then is no longer listed after 1810.
The French brig Duc de Chartres was built between 1779 and 1780 at Le Havre as a 24-gun privateer. As a privateer she captured one British warship before in 1781 the Royal Navy captured her. The Royal Navy took her into service as HMS Duc de Chartres. She then captured several American privateers and armed merchant vessels, and one French naval corvette in a noteworthy single-ship action. The Navy sold Duc de Chartres in 1784.
Butterworth was launched in 1778 in France as the highly successful 32-gun privateer Américaine, of Granville. The British Royal Navy captured her early in 1781. She first appeared in a commercial role in 1784 as America, and was renamed in 1785 as Butterworth. She served primarily as a whaler in the Greenland whale fisheries. New owners purchased her in 1789. She underwent a great repair in 1791 that increased her size by almost 20%. She is most famous for her role in the "Butterworth Squadron", which took her and two ship's tenders on an exploration, sealing, otter fur, and whaling voyage to Alaska and the Pacific Coast of North America. She and her consorts are widely credited with being the first European vessels to enter, in 1794, what is now Honolulu harbour. After her return to England in 1795, Butterworth went on three more whaling voyages to the South Pacific, then Africa, and then the South Pacific again. In 1802 she was outward bound on her fourth of these voyage, this to the South Pacific, when she was lost.
Adolphe was a lugger launched at Dieppe in 1803. She made several cruises as a French privateer and captured numerous prizes until January 1807 when the British captured her.
Courageaux was commissioned in Bordeaux in 1798. She made two cruises as a privateer before HMS Alcmene captured her in 1799. The British Royal Navy took her into service as HMS Lutine. She had a brief operational life in the Royal Navy, serving primarily as a prison ship. At the end of the French Revolutionary Wars in 1802 the Royal Navy sold her in the Mediterranean.
HMS Marquis de Seignelay, was the French privateer Marquis de Seignelay from Le Havre, active in 1779–1800. The British Royal Navy captured her in 1780 and recommissioned her as the 14-gun sloop HMS Marquis de Seignelay. She was sold in March 1786.
Antoine-Joseph Preira, also known under the nom de guerre of Balidar, was of Portuguese origin but operated in the English Channel as a privateer under the French flag during the Napoleonic Wars.
General Augereau was a ketch launched in 1801 and recommissioned in Bayonne in 1803 as a privateer. She made a small number of captures during her first cruise, but then the British Royal Navy captured her in February 1805 during her second cruise. She became a British merchantman, sailing between Cork and Liverpool, and was last listed in 1813.
Several vessels have been named Necker, probably for the French statesman Jacques Necker.