HMS ''Ballahoo'' (also ''Balahou'', ''Ballahou'' or ''Ballahon'') was the first of the
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...
's
''Ballahoo''-class schooners, vessels of four 12-pounder
carronade
A carronade is a short, smoothbore, cast-iron cannon which was used by the Royal Navy. It was first produced by the Carron Company, an ironworks in Falkirk, Scotland, and was used from the mid-18th century to the mid-19th century. Its main func ...
s and a crew of 20. The prime contractor for the vessel was Goodrich & Co., in
Bermuda
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, song_type = National song
, song = " Hail to Bermuda"
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, and she was launched in 1804. She patrolled primarily in the Leeward Islands, taking several small prizes, before an American privateer captured her in 1814 during the
War of 1812
The War of 1812 (18 June 1812 – 17 February 1815) was fought by the United States of America and its indigenous allies against the United Kingdom and its allies in British North America, with limited participation by Spain in Florida. It bega ...
.
Service
She was commissioned in January 1804 under Lieutenant William Shephard. In September Lieutenant Eaton Stannard Travers took over. He was appointed to ''Ballahoo'' immediately after receiving his commission on 23 September 1804. When she was ordered to Halifax in February 1805 Admiral Sir
John T. Duckworth transferred him to the frigate .
Command then transferred to Lieutenant H.N. Bowen, who was killed in 1806. Lieutenant James Murray replaced Bowen.
On 27 February 1807 the sloop and the schooner captured the brig ''Altrevido'', Nichola Valpardo, master. ''Ballahoo'' shared by agreement in the
prize money
Prize money refers in particular to naval prize money, usually arising in naval warfare, but also in other circumstances. It was a monetary reward paid in accordance with the prize law of a belligerent state to the crew of a ship belonging to t ...
due ''Express''.
On 4 August 1807, ''Ballahoo'' was in company with the schooner , of 10 guns, when they encountered the French
letter of marque ''Rhone'' some five or six
leagues N by E of
Tobago
Tobago () is an List of islands of Trinidad and Tobago, island and Regions and municipalities of Trinidad and Tobago, ward within the Trinidad and Tobago, Republic of Trinidad and Tobago. It is located northeast of the larger island of Trini ...
.
[ After a running fight of several hours, they captured her. In the fight ''Rhone'' suffered two dead and five wounded out of her crew of 26; the British had no casualties.][ ''Rhone'', under the command of Francis Goureu, was of 90 tons ( bm), mounted six long 6-pounder guns, and was 10 days out from Martinique, having captured nothing.
On 20 August ''Ballahoo''s boats, with the assistance of the 1-gun privateer ''Maria'' that ''Port d'Espagne'' had taken, destroyed a small privateer in the Bay of ]San Juan San Juan, Spanish for Saint John, may refer to:
Places Argentina
* San Juan Province, Argentina
* San Juan, Argentina, the capital of that province
* San Juan, Salta, a village in Iruya, Salta Province
* San Juan (Buenos Aires Underground), ...
. Head money was paid some 21 years later.
On 12 September ''Ballahoo'' assisted ''Port d'Espagne'' in capturing another small privateer, ''Rosario'', in the same bay. ''Rosario'' also was armed with one gun, and had a crew of 34, all of whom escaped on shore.[ In October ''Ballahou'' was in North American waters and in the Leeward Islands.
In 1808 her commander was Lieutenant George Mills. On 3 July, whilst ''Ballahoo'' was cruising with the ship-sloop , under Commander Edward Crofton, and the schooner , Lieutenant George A. Spearing, between the islands of ]Anguilla
Anguilla ( ) is a British Overseas Territory in the Caribbean. It is one of the most northerly of the Leeward Islands in the Lesser Antilles, lying east of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands and directly north of Saint Martin. The territo ...
and Saint Martin, the small squadron attempted an attack on St. Martin with a view to reducing the number of havens available to French privateers, but unfortunately the opposition proved stronger than intelligence had suggested.
A landing party of 38 seamen and marines from all three vessels, under Lieutenant Spearing, succeeded in capturing a lower battery with few losses and spiking six guns. The attack turned into a disaster. An attack on the upper fort failed, with Spearing being killed a few feet from the French ramparts. When the British tried to withdraw to their boats the French captured them. In all, the British lost seven killed and 30 wounded, all the dead and most of the wounded being from ''Subtle''. The French lost one man wounded.
Not surprisingly, French and British accounts differ substantially in several places. Crofton's account reports that the British landing party consisted of 153 men, and a French account talks of 200 men, all of whom were killed or captured, including Mills of ''Ballahoo''. (The total establishment of the three British vessels amounted to about 190 men.) Crofton negotiated a truce under which he was able to reclaim all the prisoners who could be moved. Crofton claimed that the French had been forewarned and had 900 men in the fort. The French claimed the fort had a garrison of 28 regulars and 15 militia men. That the French permitted their British prisoners to leave is more consistent with the French figures on their numbers than the British. Crofton reported that the French buried the English dead with full military honors with both the fort and the British firing salutes.
In January and February 1810 ''Ballahoo'', under Mills, participated in the capture of Guadeloupe
Guadeloupe (; ; gcf, label=Antillean Creole, Gwadloup, ) is an archipelago and overseas department and region of France in the Caribbean. It consists of six inhabited islands—Basse-Terre, Grande-Terre, Marie-Galante, La Désirade, and the ...
. In 1847 the Admiralty authorized the issuance of the Naval General Service Medal with clasp "Guadaloupe" to all still surviving participants of that campaign. At some point ''Express'' and ''Ballahoo'' captured the sloop ''Endeavour''.
Capture
In 1810 Lieutenant Norfolk King took command. On 29 April 1814, the American 5-gun privateer ''Perry'' captured ''Ballahoo'' off South Carolina. Apparently the chase took about an hour, including a fight of about 10 minutes. There was no report of casualties on either side. The Americans took her into the port of Wilmington, North Carolina
Wilmington is a port city in and the county seat of New Hanover County in coastal southeastern North Carolina, United States.
With a population of 115,451 at the 2020 census, it is the eighth most populous city in the state. Wilmington is the ...
. At the time of the capture, ''Ballahoo'' had two of her cannon stored below deck to lower her center of gravity in bad weather, and a crew of thirteen men. ''Perry''s five guns included one long 18 or 24-pounder on a pivot, and she had a crew of 80.[James & Chamier (1837), Vol. 6, pp.167-8.]
Fate
Apparently, as ''Ballahoo'' entered the port of Wilmington, a British brig chased her ashore, where she was destroyed.
Notes
Citations
References
*
* James, William, and Frederick Chamier (1837) ''The naval history of Great Britain: from the declaration of war by France in 1793 to the accession of George IV''. (London: R. Bentley).
*
* 1832)
*
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Ballahoo (1804)
1804 ships
Ballahoo-class schooners
Captured ships
Ships built in Bermuda