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Nicolas Surcouf
Nicolas Surcouf ( 1770, Saint-Malo – 1848) was a French privateer. He was the brother and lieutenant of one of France's most famous and successful privateers, Robert Surcouf. Nicholas was the second eldest of four brothers, and Robert the second youngest. Career In 1798 Nicholas sailed as second captain to Robert in the ''Clarisse''. On 3 January 1800, she detected two American 16-carronade ships forming a line of battle, which Surcouf engaged.Rouvier, p.449 ''Clarisse'' raked the rear-most ship, the ''Louisa'', and boarded her, while simultaneously firing a broadside on the other ship, ''Mercury'', which attempted to rescue her mate. Nicolas led a 30-man boarding party to seize ''Louisa'', while ''Mercury'' escaped. ''Clarisse'' could not give chase, her bowsprit having been destroyed in a collision with ''Louisa''. Nicolas Surcouf took a prize crew and sailed ''Louisa'' back to Port Louis.Austen (1935), pp.93-94. In May 1800, Nicolas Surcouf captained the privateer ''Adèl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Robert Surcouf
Robert Surcouf (12 December 1773 – 8 July 1827) was a French privateer and slave trader who operated in the Indian Ocean between 1789 and 1801, and again from 1807 to 1808, capturing over 40 prizes. He later amassed a large fortune as a ship-owner, from privateering, commercial activities,Alain Roman; summary oRobert Surcouf, www.netmarine.net the illegal slave trade, and as a landowner. Surcouf started his career as a sailor and officer on the ''Aurore'', ''Courrier d'Afrique'' and ''Navigateur''. Having risen to captain, and in spite of the prohibition of slave trading by the National Convention in 1793, he engaged in the business himself as a captain on ''Créole''. He then captained the merchantman ''Émilie'', on which he engaged in commerce raiding despite lacking a letter of marque. He preyed on British shipping, capturing the East Indiaman ''Triton'', before returning to Île de France in the Indian Ocean, where his prizes were confiscated. He then returned t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Line Of Battle
The line of battle is a tactic in naval warfare in which a fleet of ships forms a line end to end. The first example of its use as a tactic is disputed—it has been variously claimed for dates ranging from 1502 to 1652. Line-of-battle tactics were in widespread use by 1675. Compared with prior naval tactics, in which two opposing ships closed on one another for individual combat, the line of battle has the advantage that each ship in the line can fire its broadside without fear of hitting a friendly ship. This means that in a given period, the fleet can fire more shots. Another advantage is that a relative movement of the line in relation to some part of the enemy fleet allows for a systematic concentration of fire on that part. The other fleet can avoid this by manoeuvring in a line itself, with a result typical for sea battles since 1675: two fleets sail alongside one another (or on the opposite tack). Early development The first recorded mention of the use of a line of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Raking Fire
In naval warfare during the Age of Sail, raking fire was cannon fire directed parallel to the long axis of an enemy ship from ahead (in front of the ship) or astern (behind the ship). Although each shot was directed against a smaller profile compared to firing at the target ship's broadside and thus more likely to miss the target ship to one side or the other, an individual cannon shot that hit would pass through more of the ship, thereby increasing damage to the hull, sails, cannon and crew. In addition, the targeted ship would have fewer (if any) guns able to return fire. Historically, a stern rake tended to be more damaging than a bow rake because the shots were less likely to be deflected by the curved and strengthened bow, and because disabling the exposed rudder at the stern would render the target unable to steer and thus manoeuvre. However, achieving a position to rake a single enemy ship was usually very difficult unless the opponent was unable to manoeuvre due to d ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bowsprit
The bowsprit of a sailing vessel is a spar extending forward from the vessel's prow. The bowsprit is typically held down by a bobstay that counteracts the forces from the forestays. The word ''bowsprit'' is thought to originate from the Middle Low German word ''bōchsprēt'' – ''bōch'' meaning "bow" and ''sprēt'' meaning "pole". It is sometimes used to hold up the figurehead In politics, a figurehead is a person who ''de jure'' (in name or by law) appears to hold an important and often supremely powerful title or office, yet ''de facto'' (in reality) exercises little to no actual power. This usually means that they .... References References * {{Sailing ship elements Sailboat components ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Adèle (1800 Brig)
''Adèle'' was a French privateer brig commissioned in 1800 that the British Royal Navy captured later that year. The British East India Company's government in India purchased her in 1801 for service as an armed brig in the Bay of Bengal and along the Coromandel Coast. In 1804 she sailed to Britain where the Admiralty purchased her for use as a fire ship, and named her HMS ''Firebrand''. She was wrecked in 1804. History ''Adèle'' In May 1800, Nicholas Surcouf commissioned ''Adèle''. She was described as a "beautiful little vessel (….) recently fitted out at Nantz, well found, and in every respect qualified for the service she was intended to perform". ''Adèle'' sailed from Mauritius on the evening of 25 August, in company with the privateer ''Gloire''. ''Adèle'' and Surcouf captured eight small prizes, four of which he permitted to go on their way after Surcouf had plundered them of what he had thought necessary. However, on 13 November 1800 he encountered a British ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Brig-sloop
In the 18th century and most of the 19th, a sloop-of-war in the Royal Navy was a warship with a single gun deck that carried up to eighteen guns. The rating system covered all vessels with 20 guns and above; thus, the term ''sloop-of-war'' encompassed all the unrated combat vessels, including the very small gun-brigs and cutters. In technical terms, even the more specialised bomb vessels and fireships were classed as sloops-of-war, and in practice these were employed in the sloop role when not carrying out their specialised functions. In World War I and World War II, the Royal Navy reused the term "sloop" for specialised convoy-defence vessels, including the of World War I and the highly successful of World War II, with anti-aircraft and anti-submarine capability. They performed similar duties to the American destroyer escort class ships, and also performed similar duties to the smaller corvettes of the Royal Navy. Rigging A sloop-of-war was quite different from a civilian ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Prison Ship
A prison ship, often more accurately described as a prison hulk, is a current or former seagoing vessel that has been modified to become a place of substantive detention for convicts, prisoners of war or civilian internees. While many nations have deployed prison ships over time, the practice was most widespread in 18th- and 19th-century Britain, as the government sought to address the issues of overcrowded civilian jails on land and an influx of enemy detainees from the War of Jenkins' Ear, the Seven Years' War and the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. History The terminology "hulk" comes from the Royal Navy meaning a ship incapable of full service either through damage or from initial non-completion. In England in 1776, during the reign of King George III, due to a shortage of prison space in London, the concept of "prison hulks" moored in the Thames, was introduced to meet the need for prison space. The first such ship came into use on 15 July 1776 under command o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Caroline (1804 Ship)
''Caroline'' was a French privateer commissioned in Saint-Malo in 1804. She served in the Indian Ocean, based at Île de France (now Mauritius). As she was returning to Saint-Malo, a sloop of the British Royal Navy captured her off Cape Finisterre in 1809; she was accidentally sunk shortly thereafter. French service Built at Solidor, near Saint-Malo, ''Caroline'' was commissioned by a joint venture between Robert Surcouf and his father-in-law Louis Blaize de Maisonneuve, Her captain was Nicolas Surcouf, Robert's brother. ''Caroline'' departed Saint-Malo in February 1804, bound for Île de France (now Mauritius). On 16 April ''Caroline'' was still to the west of Africa when Surcouf captured . Five days later, Surcouf captured ''Unicorn'' (or ''Licorne'' in French), off St Helena as ''Unicorn'' was returning from the South Seas. ''Surcouf'' plundered both vessels of their cargoes, transferred ''Unicorn''s crew to ''Whim'', and then released ''Whim'', against a ransom of 4000 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gulf Of Bengal
The Bay of Bengal is the northeastern part of the Indian Ocean, bounded on the west and northwest by India, on the north by Bangladesh, and on the east by Myanmar and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands of India. Its southern limit is a line between Sangaman Kanda, Sri Lanka, and the north westernmost point of Sumatra, Indonesia. It is the largest water region called a bay in the world. There are countries dependent on the Bay of Bengal in South Asia and Southeast Asia. During the existence of British India, it was named as the Bay of Bengal after the historic Bengal region. At the time, the Port of Kolkata served as the gateway to the Crown rule in India. Cox's Bazar, the longest sea beach in the world and Sundarbans, the largest mangrove forest and the natural habitat of the Bengal tiger, are located along the bay. The Bay of Bengal occupies an area of . A number of large rivers flow into the Bay of Bengal: the Ganges– Hooghly, the Padma, the Brahmaputra–Yamuna, the Bara ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Newfoundland (island)
Newfoundland (, ; french: link=no, Terre-Neuve, ; ) is a large island off the east coast of the North American mainland and the most populous part of the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador. It has 29 percent of the province's land area. The island is separated from the Labrador Peninsula by the Strait of Belle Isle and from Cape Breton Island by the Cabot Strait. It blocks the mouth of the Saint Lawrence River, creating the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, the world's largest estuary. Newfoundland's nearest neighbour is the French overseas collectivity of Saint Pierre and Miquelon. With an area of , Newfoundland is the world's 16th-largest island, Canada's fourth-largest island, and the largest Canadian island outside the North. The provincial capital, St. John's, is located on the southeastern coast of the island; Cape Spear, just south of the capital, is the easternmost point of North America, excluding Greenland. It is common to consider all directly neighbouring i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
People Of The Quasi-War
A person ( : people) is a being that has certain capacities or attributes such as reason, morality, consciousness or self-consciousness, and being a part of a culturally established form of social relations such as kinship, ownership of property, or legal responsibility. The defining features of personhood and, consequently, what makes a person count as a person, differ widely among cultures and contexts. In addition to the question of personhood, of what makes a being count as a person to begin with, there are further questions about personal identity and self: both about what makes any particular person that particular person instead of another, and about what makes a person at one time the same person as they were or will be at another time despite any intervening changes. The plural form "people" is often used to refer to an entire nation or ethnic group (as in "a people"), and this was the original meaning of the word; it subsequently acquired its use as a plural form of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
French Privateers
Piracy is an act of robbery or criminal violence by ship or boat-borne attackers upon another ship or a coastal area, typically with the goal of stealing cargo and other valuable goods. Those who conduct acts of piracy are called pirates, vessels used for piracy are pirate ships. The earliest documented instances of piracy were in the 14th century BC, when the Sea Peoples, a group of ocean raiders, attacked the ships of the Aegean and Mediterranean civilisations. Narrow channels which funnel shipping into predictable routes have long created opportunities for piracy, as well as for privateering and commerce raiding. Historic examples include the waters of Gibraltar, the Strait of Malacca, Madagascar, the Gulf of Aden, and the English Channel, whose geographic structures facilitated pirate attacks. The term ''piracy'' generally refers to maritime piracy, although the term has been generalized to refer to acts committed on land, in the air, on computer networks, and (in scien ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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