First letter of marque
Rossie was commissioned on 11 July 1812, right at the outbreak of the war. Her owners hired Joshua Barney as her captain and Silvanus Long as her first lieutenant. [1] She had letter of marque #1. On her first cruise under Barney she captured some 18 vessels in six weeks off Nova Scotia and Newfoundland. Barney then put in at Newport, Rhode Island on 30 August. He replenished his supplies and then cruised southward. On his cruise, Barney thrice out-sailed British frigates. He engaged in two actions, the first with the Jenny (or Jeanie), of 12 guns. He captured her and did not report any casualties. Lloyd's List reported that Rossie's prize, Jane, of 12 guns, carrying 20,000 bushels of salt, had arrived in Newport on 5 September. [3] Rossie also captured the brig Nymphe, Patch, master, which had been sailing from the West Indies, and carried her into Boston. [4]
| Name | Type | Fate |
|---|
| Brothers | Brig | Cartel |
| Kitty | Ship | Recaptured [5] |
| Devonshire | Brig | Burnt |
| Merrimack | Ship | Sent in (US) [6] |
| Euphrates | Ship | New Bedford (US) [lower-alpha 1] |
| Nymph | Brig | Boston [4] |
| Fame | Brig | Burnt |
| Princess Amelia | Brig | Savannah |
| Halifax | Schooner | Burnt |
| Princess Royal | Ship | Burnt |
| Henry | Brig | Sunk |
| Race Horse | Schooner | Sunk |
| Hetty | Ship | Sent in |
| Rebecca | Brig | New London (US) |
| Jane | Ship | Newport [3] |
| Squid | Schooner | Burnt |
| Jenny | Ship | Salem |
| Two Brothers | Schooner | Cartel |
| Schooner | Sent in |
| William | Brig | New York |
|
Rossie captured Kitty, Thompson, master, on 31 July as she was sailing from Greenock to New Brunswick. On 1 August Rossie captured the brig Two Brothers, and burnt four "Bankers", loaded with fish. Three days later, HMS Pomone recaptured Kitty and sent her into Newfoundland. [5]
It was on the second leg of the cruise that Rossie's most famous action took place. On 16 September 1812 she captured the Post Office Packet Service packet ship Princess Amelia. At the time Rossie was armed with ten 12-pounder guns and one long 9-pounder on a pivot, and had a crew of 95; Princess Amelia was armed with four 6-pounders and two 9-pounders, and had a crew of 27 or 28. Princess Amelia had to strike after she had lost three men killed, including her captain, Isaac Moorsom, and her sailing master, John Nankevell, and 11 men wounded. [lower-alpha 3] (Some of the wounded may have died later as a report on her arrival in Savannah gives her casualties as six dead and six or seven wounded.) American casualties were seven men wounded, one of them, Sylvanus Long, severely. Barney sent Princess Amelia into Savannah, Georgia, where the US Navy bought her and named her USS Troup.
Barney returned to Baltimore on 11 October. Merrimack, Cook, master, which had been sailing from Liverpool when Rossie captured her, arrived 12 days later. [6]
Barney estimated that on this voyage he had captured 3698 tons of British shipping, worth US$1.5 million. He also had captured 217 prisoners. Of course, it helped that many of the vessels that he captured did not know that the war had begun.
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USS Gallatin (1807) was a post-Revolutionary War sailing vessel that the U.S. Department of the Treasury purchased at Norfolk, Virginia, for the United States Revenue-Marine in December 1807. An explosion on board destroyed her in 1813.
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Aréthuse was a 46-gun frigate of the French Navy. She served during the Napoleonic Wars, taking part in a major single-ship action. Much later the vessel took part in the conquest of Algeria, and ended her days as a coal depot in Brest, France.
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Junon was a 40-gun Minerve-class frigate of the French Navy.
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Lady Mary Pelham was launched in 1811 as a packet based in Falmouth, Cornwall for the Post Office Packet Service. She repelled attack by privateers in 1812 and 1813, the latter being a notable and controversial engagement with an American privateer. Another American privateer captured her in February 1815 in the West Indies. New owners retained her name and between 1815 and at least 1824 she continued to sail to the Continent and South America.
Harriot was launched in 1784 on the Thames as a West Indiaman. Her owners may have intended to send her to the South Seas as a whaler in 1786, but there is no evidence that she actually made such a voyage. A new owner renamed her Dominica Packet around 1787. She then spent her career primarily sailing between Britain and the West Indies. During her career she captured a Dutch and a Spanish merchantman. A Baltimore privateer captured Dominica Packet in 1813, but the British Royal Navy quickly recaptured her. She foundered circa January 1821.
United States