HMS Barbadoes (1804)

HMS ''Barbadoes'' was originally a French privateer and then slave ship named ''Brave'' or ''Braave''. A British slave ship captured her in September 1803. In 1803–1804 she became the British privateer ''Barbadoes'' for a few months. In 1804 the inhabitants of Barbados purchased her and donated her to the Royal Navy, which took her into service as HMS ''Barbadoes''. She wrecked on 27 September 1812.

French privateer

''Barbadoes'' was a privateer named ''Braave'', or ''Brave''. The key source for British warships declares that she was built in Bordeaux in 1799 and captured on 16 March 1804, or in May 1803, in either case in the West Indies. In both cases it attributes the capture to HMS . HMS ''Loire'' did capture a privateer named ''Braave'' on 16 March 1804, but on the Irish station, not in the West Indies. Furthermore, ''Braave'', was armed with sixteen 12 and 6-pounder guns and had a crew of 110 men. She therefore appears to have been about half the size of the vessel that became ''Barbadoes''.

There was a French vessel named ''Brave'' that ''Lloyd's List'' reported the British had brought into St Lucia in 1803. ''Lloyd's List'' referred to her as being the former privateer ''Brave'', and to have been coming from Africa. The vessel in question was the ''negrier'' ( slave ship) ''Brave'' that the British captured in 1803, in one account as she was coming from West Africa. ''Brave'', under the command of Jean-David Sers and with owner Jacques Conte, had embarked 760 (or 733) captives in West Africa and arrived at an unspecified port in the British Caribbean with 700.

By a French account, two privateers from Liverpool had captured ''Brave'' of the coast of Angola on 14 September 1803 after an action of two hours that left eight Frenchmen dead and 14 wounded. By British accounts, there was only one captor, the Liverpool slave ship , which suffered five men killed and seven wounded in the engagement. Furthermore, although ''Tamer'' and ''Brave'' had possibly stopped at St Lucia, they sailed on to Barbados. On the way, ''Tamer'' developed a leak and foundered. ''Brave'' carried the crew and slaves of both vessels into Barbados.

French sources describe ''Brave'' as a privateer frigate based in Bordeaux and probably built there circa 1799. She was pierced for 40 guns. From 1799 to 1800 she was under a Captain Dreans. From 1800 to September 1800 she was under François Beck.

On 2 April 1801, as the letter-of-marque , Davidson master, was returning from Sierra Leone, the French privateer ''Braave'' captured ''Nancy'' at .''Lloyd's List'
№4142.
/ref> Four days later, recaptured ''Nancy''. ''Nancy'' arrived at Plymouth before 14 April.

On 12 May 1801, ''Lloyd's List'' (''LL'') reported that the French privateer ''Braave'' had captured , Nuttell, master, as she was sailing from Demerara to Liverpool. recaptured ''Nimble'' and ''Marina'', another vessel that ''Braave'' had also taken.

In its next issue, ''Lloyd's List'' reported that had recaptured two merchant vessels that had fallen prey to the French privateer ''Braave''. One vessel was ''Camilla'', Preston, master, which had been sailing from Grenada to Liverpool. The other was ''Guiana Planter'', Wedge, master, which had been sailing from St Kitts to Portsmouth. ''Glenmore'' sent ''Guiana Planter'' into Cork.

''Braave'' later captured six more merchant vessels, ''Shedden'', ''Victory'', ''Vine'', ''Ann'', ''Urania'', and ''Cecilia''. ''Braave'' put all her prisoners on ''Ann'', Silk, master, and let her go. ''Glenmore'' recaptured ''Urania'' and set off after ''Braave''. ''Glenmore'' then recaptured ''West Indian'', ''Victory'', ''Vine'', and ''Cecilia''. They and ''Urania'' all arrived at Cork.

From 1802 to June 1803 ''Braave'' served as a merchantman under Jean-David Conte. He had purchased her from Jacques Ségur. She sailed on 18 June 1802 for the Indian Ocean under the command of Captain David Sers. She carried a dozen passenger and two cargoes, one cargo of goods intended for the slave trade with Mozambique, and one, consisting in particular of white and red wine, for the French settlers at Isle de France (Mauritius). ''Brave'' arrived at Port Louis on 9 September after a record-setting voyage. The plan had been that the local merchants Tabois and Dubois would hire her for 50,000 piastres to sail to India's Coromandel Coast to acquire textiles. Instead, the merchants provided locally available textiles. It is possible that ''Brave'' traded with Africa's east coast, while waiting to sail to the west. She sailed for Angola in late April 1803.

As discussed above, the British captured ''Brave'' on 14 September, together with her 750 or so captives and 300,000 francs of Indian merchandise.

British privateer

In September 1804 , ''Penelope'', and ''Thetis'', were one day out of Barbados when they encountered a French privateer. They were able to repulse the privateer and came into Barbados. There the governor informed them that the privateer they had encountered was ''Buonaparte'', and he dispatched the "private ship of war" ''Barbadoes'' in pursuit.

''Barbadoes'' was the former French privateer ''Braave'', and this was her second cruize since the British had captured her. On her first cruize she reportedly had captured the French privateer that had captured the British sloop of war ''Lilly'' and had taken the French privateer into Barbados."Gallant Action". (17 December 1804), ''The Times'' (London, England) issue: 6206. The ''Lilly'' in question was probably the vessel that the French privateer ''Dame-Ambert'' had captured on 15 July 1804, making ''Dame-Ambert'' the privateer that ''Barbadoes'' had captured.

Royal Navy frigate

The inhabitants of Barbados purchased ''Barbadoes'' and presented her to the Admiralty. She was initially rated as a 32-gun fifth rate; she was later rated as a 28-gun sixth rate.

Captain Joseph Nourse commissioned ''Barbadoes'' in October 1804 in the West Indies. Four days into her first cruize, on 17 October, she captured the French privateer ''Napoleon'', of 18 guns and 150 men under the command of ''enseigne de vaisseau'' Suyrvens Pitot. She was nine days out of Guadeloupe also on her first cruize, and had captured nothing. ''Barbadoes'' had encountered ''Napoleon'' at and had captured her after a chase of 13 hours during which ''Napoleon'' had thrown two of her guns overboard. ''Napoleon'' was the former ''Duke of Kent Packet''.

Then in November ''Barbadoes'' captured the French privateer ''Heureux'' of ten 6-pounder guns and 80 men. She was nine days out of Guadaloupe and had made no captures. During the chase ''Heureux'' had thrown all her guns overboard.

On 8 April 1805 ''Barbadoes'' captured the French privateer ''Desirée'', of 14 guns and 71 men. ''Desirée'' replied to several broadsides with small arms fire, and as a result suffered seven men killed or wounded.

In June 1805 ''Barbadoes'' was in company with as they escorted a convoy of 15 merchant vessels back to Britain. They had the misfortune on 8 June to encountered a Franco-Spanish fleet under Admiral Villeneuve. The two British warships managed to escape, but Villeneuve's fleet captured the entire convoy, valued at some five million pounds. Villeneuve sent the convoy to Guadeloupe under the escort of the frigate . On her way ''Sirène'' encountered several British frigates. She escaped after burning the merchantmen.

''Barbadoes'' arrived at Portsmouth on 17 June and was laid up. Between May 1809 and June 1810 she underwent a large repair. Captain Brian Hodgson commissioned her in May 1810 and sailed for the East Indies on 5 September. Early into the voyage, on 22 september, ''Barbadoes'' captured ''Gallicia'' and ''General Palafox''. In July 1811 Hodgson transferred to , and Captain Edward Rushworth replaced him on ''Barbadoes''.

On 25 August 1811, ''Barbados'', Captain Rushworth, and captured ''Eseperance'', of Havre de Grace, and ''Guillaume Chorede'' (or ''Guillaume Chere''), from Cherbourg, both laden with timber. The captured vessels arrived in Portsmouth.

On 7 September 1811 ''Barbadoes'' was in company with the brig-sloop cruising eastward of Cape Barfleur. There they encounter seven French gun-brigs coming from Boulogne. Each gun-brig carried three long 24-pounder guns and a mortar, and a crew of 75 men. ''Barbadoes'' and ''Goshawke'' chased the gunbrigs into Calvados, driving one of them on shore.

''Barbadoes'' subsequently sailed on 23 November to Jamaica as escort to a large fleet of merchantmen. Captain Rushworth died on 14 June 1812, aged 25. Rushworth's replacement was Captain Thomas Huskisson.

On 22 August 1812, the was engaged in privateering, dogging a convoy under escort by ''Barbadoes''. ''Barbadoes'' captured ''James Madison'' after a seven-hour chase. ''James Madison'' was pierced for 14 guns, carried ten, but had thrown two overboard during the chase. She had a crew of 65 or 70 men. Captain Huskisson, of ''Barbadoes'', reported that she was seven days out of Savannah but had made no captures. He described her as coppered and copper-fastened, two years old, and a remarkably fast sailer.

Fate

On the evening of 27 September 1812 ''Barbadoes'' was at Sable Island while escorting three vessels to Newfoundland from Bermuda. She grounded and it proved impossible to free her. When the pumps could not keep up with the water entering from leaks, Captain Huskisson decided to abandon ship; one man drowned as the crew tried to reach shore. Before they left, 6300 dollars that she carried were lowered into the water attached to buoys marking the spot.

Two other vessels in the convoy also wrecked on Sable Island. The surviving vessel went into Halifax, Nova Scotia. There Admiral Sir John Warren, commander in chief of the North America and West Indies Station, despatched and the schooner to rescue the crew and retrieve the money ''Barbadoes'' was carrying. The rescuers arrived on 10 October, almost two weeks after ''Barbadoes'' had wrecked.

The subsequent court-martial of Huskisson, his officers, and crew blamed the loss of ''Barbadoes'' on a very strong current having carried ''Barbadoes'' onto the island.

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Barbadoes (1804)
1790s ships
Ships built in France
Privateer ships of France
Captured ships
Privateer ships of the United Kingdom
Fifth-rate frigates of the Royal Navy
Sixth-rate frigates of the Royal Navy
Maritime incidents in 1812