Dutch ship Minerva (1787)

Last updated

History
Prinsenvlag.svg Flag of the Batavian Republic.svg Dutch Republic & Batavian Republic
NameMinerva
Builder Veere, Zeeland Admiralty [1]
Launched1787 [1] [2]
Captured1799
Naval Ensign of Great Britain (1707-1800).svgGreat Britain
NameBraak
Acquired1799 by capture
FateSold 1802
Civil Ensign of the United Kingdom.svgUnited Kingdom
NameAfrican
Acquired1802 by purchase
FateLast listed in 1810; broken up 1817
General characteristics [2]
Class and type
Type Brig
Tons burthen6136⁄94, or 615 [3] (bm)
Length
  • Overall:116 ft 6+1⁄2 in (35.5 m), or 136', [lower-alpha 1] or 120 ft 10 in (36.8 m) [4]
  • Keel: 95 ft 8+1⁄8 in (29.2 m)
Beam34 ft 8+1⁄2 in (10.6 m), or 36'5⁄11", or 35 ft 1 in (10.7 m) [4]
Depth of hold10 ft 6 in (3.2 m), or 13'10⁄11"
Propulsion Sails
Complement
  • Dutch service:150 [1]
  • British service:155
  • Whaler:32, or 40 [3]
Armament
  • Dutch service:20–26 guns [1]
  • Royal Navy service:
    • Upper deck:22 × 32-pounder carronades
    • QD:2 × 6-pounder guns
  • Whaler:20 × 6&9-pounder guns [3] (16 × 9-pounder + 4 × 6-pounder guns)
NotesThree decks and three masts

Minerva was launched in 1787 at Veere for the navy of the Dutch Republic. In 1799 the Royal Navy captured her. She became HMS Braak, but the Navy sold her with the arrival of the Peace of Amiens. Daniel Bennet purchased her and she became the whaler Africaine or African or Africa. She made two whaling voyages. After 1805 she was still listed in Lloyd's Register for some years but there is no record of further whaling or other voyages.

Contents

Dutch navy

Admiral Mitchel's squadron captured Minerva on 28 August 1799 in the New Diep off Texel.

Royal Navy

Minerva arrived at Sheerness on 3 May 1800. The Royal Navy took Minerva into service as HMS Braak, the former Braak having been lost in 1798. Braak underwent fitting between July 1800 and September 1801. [2]

Captain John Mason Lewis commissioned Braak in August 1801. However, the Navy sold her in 1802.

The "Principal Officers and Commissioners of His Majesty's Navy" offered "Braak, 615 Tons, Copper-bottomed, lying at Deptford" for sale on 9 September 1802. [5] She sold on that day or shortly thereafter. [2]

Whaler

The shipowner Daniel Bennett purchased Braak and renamed her Africaine (or Africa, or African). She first appeared in Lloyd's Register in 1803 as African with R. Jones, master, and Bennett, owner, and trade London–South Seas. [6]

Captain Ransom Jones sailed from England on 4 February 1803, bound for the Isle of Desolation. He returned on 22 May 1804 with a reported 7000 barrels of oil. [7]

Captain Ransom (or Ranson) Jones received a letter of marque on 18 July 1804. [3] He sailed on 18 August 1804, again bound for the Isle of Desolation. [7] She was reported to have been "all well" there on 25 February 1805. [8]

On 3 August 1805 African left Saint Helena in a convoy under escort by HMS Calcutta. On 26 September the convoy was in the Channel south of the Isles of Scilly when it encountered Admiral Allemand's squadron. Calcutta ordered the convoy to make for England while she engaged the French. The French ultimately captured Calcutta, but by her sacrifice Calcutta had saved the convoy.

A French frigate chased African for some time but African escaped by "superior sailing". [7] African reached Falmouth, [9] and then returned to her moorings on 4 October 1805 with 70,000 seal skins, and oil. [7]

Fate

African was last listed in 1810 but with data unchanged from 1805. One source reports that she was broken up and her registration cancelled in 1817. [4]

Notes

  1. ↑ All linear measurements are in Amsterdam feet (voet) of 11 Amsterdam inches (duim) (see Dutch units of measurement). The Amsterdam foot is about 8% shorter than an English foot. All Dutch measurements are from van Maanan. [1]

Citations

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 van Maanen (2008).
  2. 1 2 3 4 Winfield (2008), p. 235.
  3. 1 2 3 4 "Letter of Marque, p.48 - accessed 25 July 2017" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 20 October 2016. Retrieved 27 October 2018.
  4. 1 2 3 Stanbury et al. (2015), p. App.7.
  5. ↑ "No. 15509". The London Gazette . 24 August 1802. p. 904.
  6. ↑ Lloyd's Register (1803), Supple. pages "A", Seq.№A11.
  7. 1 2 3 4 British Southern Whale Fishery database: Voyages: African/Africaine.
  8. ↑ Lloyd's List №4226.
  9. ↑ "The Marine List". Lloyd's List. No. 4260. 8 October 1805. hdl:2027/hvd.32044105232953 . Retrieved 23 August 2022.

Related Research Articles

HMS <i>Calcutta</i> (1795) Ship of the line of the Royal Navy

HMS Calcutta was the East Indiaman Warley, converted to a Royal Navy 56-gun fourth rate. This ship of the line served for a time as an armed transport. She also transported convicts to Australia in a voyage that became a circumnavigation of the world. The French 74-gun Magnanime captured Calcutta in 1805. In 1809, after she ran aground during the Battle of the Basque Roads and her crew had abandoned her, a British boarding party burned her.

HMS Moucheron was a French privateer, built in 1799, that the British captured in 1801. The British government purchased her in 1802 for the Royal Navy. She foundered in 1807 in the Mediterranean without leaving a trace.

Bellona was a three-decker merchantman launched in 1782 at Limehouse by Woolcombe for Boyd & Co. She then traded for a decade before, in 1792, commencing a series of four voyages for the British East India Company as an "extra ship", that is, on a charter contract. During the first of these voyages she transported convicts from Britain to New South Wales. French privateers captured her and the British Royal Navy recaptured her, the Royal Navy seized her once, and then finally a French privateer captured her in February 1810 and scuttled her.

The Dutch cutter Kemphaan, meaning "game cock", was launched in 1781 as a 12-gun advice boat, with a mission of carrying dispatches between the Netherlands and its colonies. The Dutch increased her length by almost a quarter in 1787, gave her six more guns, and made a brig-sloop out of her. The British captured her in 1799 when they captured Suriname. She then served briefly in the Royal Navy as HMS Camphaan before she was broken up in early 1802.

Duke of Portland was a sailing ship built in 1790 at Bordeaux, France. The British Royal Navy captured her in 1794 after the outbreak of the French Revolutionary Wars. British owners named her Duke of Portland and employed her as a whaler. As such she made some eleven whaling voyages. On the outbound leg of her eighth voyage she transported convicts to Port Jackson, New South Wales. She was last listed in 1811.

HMS <i>Hyaena</i> (1778)

HMS Hyaena was a 24-gun Porcupine-class post-ship of the Royal Navy launched in 1778. The French captured her in 1793, took her into service as Hyène, and then sold her. She became a privateer that the British captured in 1797. The Royal Navy took her back into service as Hyaena and she continued to serve until the Navy sold her in 1802. The shipowner Daniel Bennett purchased her and renamed her Recovery. She made seven voyages as a whaler in the British southern whale fishery and was broken up 1813.

<i>Robert</i> (1793 ship)

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 Dolphin was the Dutch 7th Charter Dolfijn, launched in 1780 at Amsterdam. In 1781 she was under the command of Captain Mulder when she participated in the battle of Dogger Bank.

Lively was launched at Saint-Malo in 1765 as Duchesse d'Aiguillon. She spent her first years cod-fishing at Newfoundland. She was renamed Abeille after the French Revolution and became a transport in the service of the government. HMS Hebe captured her in 1795. A. Dixon purchased her, and Daniel Bennett purchased her from Dixon in 1798. He then employed her as whaler on some six complete voyages. She was lost c.1808 on her seventh voyage.

The vessel that would become Young William was built in 1791 at Nantes. The British captured her in 1794 and Daniel Bennett purchased her that year. She then went on to make 10 voyages for him. French privateers captured her twice, but on the first occasion the British Royal Navy recaptured her, and on the second her captor did not keep her. Still, the French Navy captured and burnt her in 1810 on her eleventh voyage.

HMS Berbice was the Batavian Republic's schooner Serpent that HMS Heureux took possession of at Berbice in 1803 at the capitulation of the colony and that the Navy purchased in 1804. Berbice foundered in 1806 off Demerara.

Adventure was a French privateer captured in 1803. She became a whaler that made two voyages to the Southern Whale Fishery. She was wrecked in April 1808 as she set out on her third.

Kingston was launched at Bristol in 1780 as a West Indiaman. From 1798 she made ten voyages as a whaler. Somewhat unusually, on her first voyage she participated in the capture of a Spanish merchant ship. She then briefly sailed between England and Quebec, and was last listed in 1819.

Minerva was built in the Americas in 1791 and taken in prize from the Spanish. She made six voyages as a slave ship in the triangular trade in enslaved people. She is last listed in 1813 but with data stale since her last slave voyage in 1807.

HMS Argus was launched in 1798 at Bordeaux as Argus. She became a privateer that the British Royal Navy (RN) captured in 1799. She served from April 1803 until she was broken up in April 1811.

Several vessels have been named Venus for the planet Venus or the Roman goddess Venus:

The Dutch corvette Waakzaamheid was launched at Enkhuizen in 1786. The French Navy captured her in 1794 and renamed her Vigilance. She was part of a squadron that in 1794 captured or destroyed a large number of British merchant vessels on the Guinea coast. The French returned her to the Dutch, in 1795. The Dutch Navy returned her name to Waakzaamheid. The British Royal Navy captured her without a fight in 1798. She then served as HMS Waaksaamheid until she was sold in September 1802.

Grand Sachem was launched at Newburyport, Massachusetts in 1801. She was registered at Bideford in 1803, but until 1815 sailed from Milford Haven. Between approximately 1803 and 1822, she made eight voyages as a whaler in the British southern whale fishery. She was last listed in 1822 and was broken up in 1826.

References

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.