HMS Anacreon (1799)

HMS ''Anacreon'' was a French privateer launched in 1798 that the Royal Navy captured in 1799 and took into service. She had a brief career in which she took some minor prizes and engaged two enemy vessels in an inconclusive action. She was sold in December 1802.

French career and capture

''Anacréon'' was built in 1798 at Dunkirk by the brother of her first commander, Jean Blankeman, reportedly to a design by Louis-Jean-Baptiste Bretocq.

In August ''Anacréon'' was commissioned under ''ensigne de vaisseau'' Blanckman for the Irish campaign, the French support of Irish revolts against the British. She left Dunkirk on 4 September 1798 and on 16 September she delivered the Irish rebel Napper Tandy, General Rae, and some seventy compatriots to the island of Arranmore, northwest of Donegal. The rebels occupied the island of Rutland but discovered that the rebellion they were to join had failed. ''Anacréon'' then took her passengers to Bergen. They had wanted to return to Dunkirk, but Blanckman preferred to engage in privateering in the North Sea.

On the way ''Anacreon'' captured two British vessels, ''Langton'', which the British recaptured the next day, and ''Tom'', which ''Anacreon'' brought with her to Bergen.Castlereagh (1848), pp.399-405. The two British merchant vessels had been in company when on 19 September they encountered ''Anacréon'', which gave chase. ''Langton'' was armed only with a swivel gun, which she fired before surrendering. ''Tom'' was armed with eight 9-pounder guns and two 12-pounders and resisted until ''Anacréon'' grappled her and boarded. The next day they encountered a British sloop of war. Blanchman ordered the prize crew he had put on board ''Langton'' to set fire to her; the one British crew member still on board ''Langton'', a ship's boy, had hid the tinder and so the prize crew did not set the fire. They returned to ''Anacréon'', leaving to recapture ''Langton''.

On 23 December, ''Anacréon'', Captain Blankman, captured the brigantine ''Aurora'', in the North Sea while she was sailing from Riga to Lisbon. The French took ''Aurora'' into North Bergen. James Sime, the late master of ''Aurora'', reported in February 1799 that while he was in Bergen, the crew of ''Anacréon'' blackened her sails with coal dust to disguise her as a collier. He described her as a brig of 15 guns and with a crew of 100 men. He also reported that another privateer, the cutter-rigged ''Perseverance'', of ten guns and 45 men, had left to cruise the North Sea the day after ''Anacréon'' left.

In the first half of 1799 Blanckmann, in ''Anacréon'', was highly successful as a privateer. He would hang on the flanks of convoys, pick of stragglers, and escape before the convoy's escorts could reach him. In one three-day period he captured six large merchantmen. One month later he was again on the prowl.

On the morning of 26 June 1799, sighted a brig taking possession of two merchant vessels. ''Champion'' immediately set out in pursuit; three days and two nights later she captured the privateer brig. She turned out to be the ''Anacréon'', out of Dunkirk. She had a complement of 125 men under the command of Citizen Blankeman, though 74 of her complement were away in prizes that she had already taken on her then current cruise. Captain Graham Eden Hammond of ''Champion'' described her as "almost a new Vessel, sails remarkably fast, is Copper-bottomed, and seems fit for His Majesty's Service." The Royal Navy took her into service as HMS ''Anacreon''.

British career

''Anacreon'' was commissioned under Lieutenant John Simpson in November 1799.

It's reported on 9 November 1799 in the Hampshire Telegraph and Naval Chronicle that HMS frigate ''Nemesis'', with the ''Anacreon'' sloop, and the ''Nile'', ''Resolution'', and ''Fanny'' hired armed luggers, have sailed on a cruise off the Coast of France.

On 27 November 1799, the hired armed cutter ''Kent'' captured the French lugger privateer ''Quatre Freres'' (''Four Brothers'') five leagues off the North Foreland. ''Four Brothers'' was under the command of Citizen Charles Desobier and carried four 4-pounders, swivel guns, small arms, and a crew of 24. She was one day out of Calais and had yet to take any prizes. ''Kent'' sent her into Ramsgate. ''Kent'' shared the capture with ''Anacreon''.

In January 1800 Lieutenant Grant Allen replaced Simpson as ''Anacreon'' patrolled the North Sea. On 1 February Lieutenant Guyon was appointed to command ''Anacreon''.

Whilst under Guyon’s command, ''Anacreon'' engaged a French brig and a cutter-of-war off St Valery. On 6 May she captured the schuyt ''Jonge Catharina'', Jacob Kook, master. Also that month she captured five fishing vessels, ''Françoise'', ''Bonne Nouvelle'', ''Mentor'', ''St Pierre'', and ''Jacques''. She was paid off in July, but then returned to service.

On 2 February 1801, still under Guyon’s command, she recaptured ''Catherine''. In June a skirmish took pace on the beach at Dungeness between a party of smugglers and the men in ''Anacreon''s boats. The smugglers lost two men killed and two wounded, and 700 tubs of spirits that ''Anacreon'' seized and carried into Dover.

On 26 November 1801, the Swedish East Indiaman ''Sophia Magdalena'' ran onshore near Kingsdown on the South Foreland. and ''Anacreon'' came as close as they could and rendered assistance.

Fate

''Anacreon'' was lying at Sheerness when she was put up for sale on 1 December 1802.

By 1804 she may have returned to Dunkirk for fitting out again.''Naval Chronicle'', Vol. 12, pp.457-8. There do not appear to be any reports of subsequent privateering voyages though, at least not under her original name.

Notes

Citations

References

* Castlereagh, Viscount Robert Stewart (1848) ''Memoirs and correspondence of Viscount Castlereagh, second Marquess of Londonderry''. (H. Colburn), Vol. 1
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* Marcus, C. J. (1971) ''The Age of Nelson: The Royal Navy 1793-1815''. (New York: Viking Press).
* O'Byrne, William R. (1849) ''A Naval Biographical Dictionary: comprising the life and services of every living officer in Her Majesty's navy, from the rank of admiral of the fleet to that of lieutenant, inclusive''. (London: J. Murray), vol. 1.
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Anacreon (1799)
1798 ships
Ships of the Royal Navy
Privateer ships of France