HMS ''Express'' was the American merchant vessel ''Achilles'', launched in 1809 in America. Her owners in 1813 renamed her ''Anna Maria''. In 1814 she served the British

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 ...

in North American waters as an advice boat. In 1815 the Royal Navy commissioned her as HMS ''Express'', a

ship's tender A ship's tender, usually referred to as a tender, is a boat, or a larger ship, used to service or support other boats or ships. This is generally done by transporting people or supplies to and from shore or another ship. A second and distinctl ...

serving in the Mediterranean. In 1816 she was at the bombardment of Algiers. The Navy sold her at Malta in 1827.

HMS ''Anna Maria''

It is not clear when the Royal Navy captured ''Anna Maria''. On 27 November 1813 captured the "Sloop Anna Maria, of 7 men and 60 tons, from Philadelphia, bound to New York". This is the most likely candidate from among the several ''Anna Maria''s whose capture was announced in the ''

London Gazette London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

''. ''Anna Maria'' participated in the expedition up the Potomac (August–September 1814). On 17 August , bomb vessels , , and ''Meteor'', the

rocket ship A space vehicle is the combination of a spacecraft and its launch vehicle which carries it into space. The earliest space vehicles were expendable launch systems, using a single or multistage rocket to carry a relatively small spacecraft in p ...

, and the

dispatch boat Dispatch boats were small boats, and sometimes large ships, tasked to carry military dispatches from ship to ship or from ship to shore or, in some cases from shore to shore. Dispatch boats were employed when other means of transmitting a message w ...

''Anna-Maria'' were detached under Captain Gordon of to sail up the

Potomac River The Potomac River () drains the Mid-Atlantic United States, flowing from the Potomac Highlands into Chesapeake Bay. It is long,U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map. Retrieved Augus ...

and bombard Fort Washington, about ten or twelve miles below

the capital ''The Capital'' (also known as ''Capital Gazette'' as its online nameplate and informally), the Sunday edition is called ''The Sunday Capital'', is a daily newspaper published by Capital Gazette Communications in Annapolis, Maryland, to serve ...

. Later ''Euryalus'' contributed a boat armed with a howitzer to assist ''Meteor'', , ''Anna Maria'', and a gunboat taken in prize in their unsuccessful attempt to stop the Americans from adding guns to a battery that would impede the British withdrawal. In 1847 the Admiralty awarded the Naval General Service Medal (NGSM) with clasp "The Potomac 17 Augt. 1814" to all surviving claimants from the campaign; the listing of the vessels qualifying gives the name of ''Anna Maria''s commander as "Jackson". ''Anna Maria'' also shared in the prize money for the schooner ''Mary'' and the goods from the transports ''Lloyd'' and ''Abeona'', captured in the Chesapeake between 29 November and 19 December 1814.

HMS ''Express''

The Admiralty purchased ''Anna Maria'' in May of 1815. She was then commissioned in June as HMS ''Express'' under the command of Lieutenant E. Garrett. Thereafter she served in the Mediterranean as a tender. ''Express'' was at the bombardment of Algiers on 27 August 1816. From September 1821 ''Express'' served as a tender to with Mate James Gordon as her commander. From March to July 1824 she was at the blockade of Algiers. ''

Lloyd's List ''Lloyd's List'' is one of the world's oldest continuously running journals, having provided weekly shipping news in London as early as 1734. It was published daily until 2013 (when the final print issue, number 60,850, was published), and is ...

'' reported that on 29 February, ''The Express Ship of War, one of the English Squadron blockading Algiers, arrived at Marseilles''.''

'
No. 5889.
/ref> Gordon left ''Express'' on 27 June 1826, on his promotion to Lieutenant.

Fate

The Royal Navy sold ''Express'' on 26 July 1827 at Malta.

Notes

Citations

References

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Express (1815) 1809 ships Captured ships Schooners of the Royal Navy