HMS Albacore (1793)

HMS ''Albacore'' (or ''Albicore'') was launched in 1793 at Rotherhithe. She captured several privateers and a French Navy corvette before she was sold in 1802.

Career

Commander George Parker commissioned ''Albacore'' in November 1793, for cruising. In June 1795 she was under the command of Richard Fellowes in the Downs squadron. Later, Commander Philip Wodehouse replaced Fellowes, being promoted Commander into ''Albacore''. He was promoted to post captain on 23 December. In January 1796 Commander George Eyre took command.

On 7 January 1796 ''Albacore'' sailed for Jamaica. Eyre was promoted to post captain on 6 February into . Commander Robert Winthrop replaced Eyre in command of ''Albacore''.

She and , Captain William Cayley, were escorting a convoy to the West Indies when on 1 April at they encountered the French privateer ''Alexander'' and her prize ''Signior Montcalm''. ''Alexander'', of Nantes, was armed with 10 guns and had a crew of 66 men under the command of Captain Petre Edite. She had been out 10 days and had captured ''Signior Montcalm'' as ''Signior Montcalm'' was sailing from Lisbon to Brazil. Captain Cayley sent ''Albicore'' and ''Signior Montcalm'' to Madeira, with orders to rejoin the convoy as soon as possible.

On 3 May ''Albacore'' captured the French corvette ''Athénienne'' off Barbados at after a 14-hour long chase. ''Athénienne'' was armed with 14 guns and had a crew of 83 men under the command of ''lieutenant de vaisseau'' Gervais. She had thrown 10 of her guns overboard during the chase. The Royal Navy took her into service as . Next, ''Albacore'' was at the capture of St. Lucia on 24 May. She shared in the prize money paid in June 1800.

Winthrop sailed to join ''Albacore'' as a passenger on under captain Thomas Drury. Drury thanked Winthorpe for his able assistance on 13 July at the capture of the French frigate ''Renommée''.

On 17 January 1797 ''Albacore'' sailed for Jamaica again. In February she was under the command of Commander Samuel Forster.

On 7 October she arrived at Jamaica with the 3-gun privateer ''Nantaise''. ''Albicore'' had brought in one or two other small privateers. One was a copper-bottomed schooner of three guns and 56 men (possibly ''Nantaise''), and the other was a row-boat armed with swivel guns and small arms.

In November 1798 she was under the command of Commander Thomas White, on the Jamaica Station. He remained in command until June 1799. In May 1799 ''Albacore''s boats chased a Spanish settee into a bay east of Santiago de Cuba, and onshore. However, their quarry repelled them and they returned to their ship. There, Lieutenant Robert Ramsey, the senior lieutenant, received Captain White's permission to take charge of the force and to renew the attack. He succeeded in landing, driving away the enemy with the loss of only two men, and in bringing out the settee. The settee had a crew of 30 men armed with small arms.''Naval Chronicle'', Vol. 2, p.347.

Lieutenant John Chilcott replaced White in Jamaica in October. ''Albacore'' returned to Portsmouth on 10 September 1801.

Fate

The "Principal Officers and Commissioners of His Majesty's Navy" offered the "Albacore Sloop, 336 Tons, Copper-fastened, lying
at Sheerness" for sale on 20 January 1802.

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Albacore (1793)
1793 ships
Ships built in Rotherhithe
Sloops of the Royal Navy