| History | |
|---|---|
 United States | |
| Acquired | by purchase, 1806 |
| Fate | Run aground, 9 January 1811 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type | Schooner |
| Length | 70 ft (21 m) |
| Armament | 12 × 6 pdr (2.7 kg) guns |
The third Revenge was a schooner in the United States Navy during the years preceding the War of 1812.
The Navy purchased the Baltimore-built schooner Ranger at New Orleans in December 1806. [1] She was renamed and commissioned as Revenge. In 1807 she was ordered to the Atlantic coast under the command of Lt. Jacob Jones, joining Commodore John Rodgers' New York Flotilla, which assembled shortly after the Chesapeake-Leopard Affair to protect shipping in the vicinity of the Hampton Roads. With the passage of Thomas Jefferson's Embargo Act on 22 December 1807, the flotilla established a blockade of the US coast to prevent foreign commerce. [2]
In 1809, Lt. Oliver Hazard Perry relieved Jones in command of Revenge. [2] The passage of the Non-Intercourse Act on 1 March 1809 had removed most restrictions on foreign commerce (excepting France and Britain, which were at war with each other), and the ship widened her area of operation, cruising south to the tip of Florida and north to the coast of New England. [2]
In April 1810, the schooner entered the Washington Navy Yard for repairs. The following July, while cruising off Charleston, South Carolina, Revenge was ordered to Amelia Island, Florida, then Spanish territory, to free an American ship, Diana, which had been seized in Spanish waters and placed under British colors. Undaunted by the presence of two British warships, Perry boarded the ship, manned her with a prize crew, and sailed away. [2]
That winter, Revenge was charting coastal waters and harbours near Newport, Rhode Island, New London, Connecticut, and Gardiners Bay, Long Island, New York. On 9 January 1811, she ran aground on a reef off of Watch Hill, Rhode Island, while attempting to navigate a hazardous stretch of water known as 'The Race' in heavy fog. Cargo was unloaded onto other ships, and Revenge was pulled off the rocks. However, the tow rope parted and she began to drift, foundering, and eventually sank. [3] The records maintained by the Department of the Navy consider her to have been abandoned. [2]
Perry was cleared of responsibility for loss of the ship during the consequent court-martial proceedings. The court held the ship's pilot responsible for the wreck, as he had assured Perry of his ability to navigate Block Island Sound. [3]
On 7 January 2011, local divers Charles Buffum and Craig Harger announced the discovery of a shipwreck that matched the location and size of the sunken Revenge, including the sighting of cannons and an anchor. [4] They had not, as of that date, been able to recover any artifact establishing the identity of the discovered vessel. [3]
In February 2012, the US Navy sent researchers to map the wreck, along with experts from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. The Navy declined to speculate on whether the ship really was Revenge, but a representative said that if it were, the ship would be "an incredibly important part of American history." [5]
Oliver Hazard Perry was an American naval commander, born in South Kingstown, Rhode Island. A prominent member of the Perry family naval dynasty, he was the son of Sarah Wallace Alexander and United States Navy Captain Christopher Raymond Perry, and older brother of Commodore Matthew C. Perry.
The Gunboat War was a naval conflict between Denmark–Norway and the British during the Napoleonic Wars. The war's name is derived from the Danish tactic of employing small gunboats against the materially superior Royal Navy. In Scandinavia it is seen as the later stage of the English Wars, whose commencement is accounted as the First Battle of Copenhagen in 1801.
Christopher Raymond Perry was an officer in the United States Navy who was appointed Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas for Washington County, Rhode Island, in 1780 and served until 1791. He was the father of Oliver Hazard Perry and Matthew Calbraith Perry.
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HMS General Hunter was a 10-gun brig of the Upper Canada Provincial Marine then, in 1813, the Royal Navy for their squadron on Lake Erie. She was ordered and built as a schooner in 1806 to replace Hope, a Provincial Marine vessel that had run aground in 1805. General Hunter was launched in 1807, entering service that year. With the outbreak of the War of 1812, General Hunter was converted to a brig and rearmed. As part of the Lake Erie squadron, General Hunter was present at the Battle of Lake Erie where the United States Navy defeated the British and gained control of the lake. General Hunter was captured at the battle and taken into American service. With the ship's name shortened to Hunter, she was used as a transport for the rest of the war. Following the war, the ship was sold into mercantile service. In 1816, the ship ran aground in a storm on Lake Huron and wrecked. The ship's contents were salvaged, but the wreck was left to be buried under the sand. In 2004, the wreck became the site of archaeological excavations and artifacts were retrieved from the site and placed in museums.
Franchise was launched in 1798 as a 40-gun Coquille-class frigate of the French Navy. The British captured her in 1803 and took her into the Royal Navy under her existing name. In the war on commerce during the Napoleonic Wars she was more protector than prize-taker, capturing many small privateers but few commercial prizes. She was also at the battle of Copenhagen. She was broken up in 1815.
USS Viper – commissioned as USS Ferret – was a brig serving the United States Navy during the early days of the republic. Viper was assigned to enforce the Embargo Act of 1807 along the U.S. East Coast. During the War of 1812, while cruising in the Caribbean, she was captured by the more heavily armed British warships. She then served the Royal Navy as HMS Mohawk until the Navy sold her in 1814. While in British service she served in several actions that earned her crew the Naval General Service Medal,
HMS Hazard was a 16-gun Royal Navy Cormorant-class ship-sloop built by Josiah & Thomas Brindley at Frindsbury, Kent, and launched in 1794. She served in the French Revolutionary Wars and throughout the Napoleonic Wars. She captured numerous prizes, and participated in a notable ship action against the French frigate Topaze, as well as in several other actions and campaigns, three of which earned her crew clasps to the Naval General Service Medal. Hazard was sold in 1817.
HMS Favourite was a 16-gun Cormorant-class sloop of the Royal Navy, launched in 1794 at Rotherhithe. The French captured her in 1806 and renamed her Favorite. However, the British recaptured her in 1807 and renamed her HMS Goree. She became a prison ship in 1810 and was broken up in Bermuda in 1817.
HMS Ferret was a Royal Navy Cruizer-class brig-sloop built by Benjamin Tanner at Dartmouth and launched in 1806, 19 months late. She served on the Jamaica, Halifax, and Leith stations during which time she took three privateers as prizes before she was wrecked in 1813.
HMS Grouper was a Royal Navy Ballahoo-class schooner 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. Grouper was wrecked off Guadeloupe in 1811. This schooner was the only Royal Navy ship ever to use the name.
HMS Pike was a Royal Navy Ballahoo-class schooner 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 captured one 10-gun enemy vessel before being herself captured, and recaptured.
HMS Bream was a British Royal Navy Ballahoo-class schooner 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 1807. Bream operated primarily in North American waters and had an uneventful career until the War of 1812. She then captured two small American privateers and assisted in the recovery of a third, much larger one. She also captured a number of small prizes before she was sold or broken up in 1816.
HMS Beagle was an 18-gun Cruizer-class brig-sloop of the Royal Navy. She was launched in 1804, during the Napoleonic Wars. She played a major role in the Battle of the Basque Roads. Beagle was laid up in ordinary in 1813 and sold in 1814.
HMS Maria was the French privateer schooner Constance that the Royal Navy captured in 1805 and that foundered in 1807. During her brief career in the Leeward Islands she participated in the capture of five small prizes.
HMS Comus was a 22-gun Laurel-class sixth-rate post ship of the Royal Navy. She was launched in 1806. In 1807 she took part in one notable single-ship action and was at the capture of Copenhagen. In 1815 she spent six months with the West Africa Squadron suppressing the slave trade during which time she captured ten slavers and freed 500-1,000 slaves. She was wrecked in 1816 with no loss of life.
HMS Alban was one of twelve Adonis-class schooners of the Royal Navy and was launched in 1806. She served during the Napoleonic Wars. During the Gunboat War she took part in two engagements with Danish gunboats, during the second of which the Danes captured her. The British recaptured her seven months later, but she was wrecked in 1812.
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This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships .The entry can be found here.