HMS ''Hyaena'' (HMS ''Hyæna'') was a 24-gun ''Porcupine''-class
post-ship of the
Royal Navy launched in 1778. The French captured her in 1793, took her into service as ''Hyène'', and then sold her. She became a privateer that the British captured in 1797. The Royal Navy took her back into service as ''Hyaena'' and she continued to serve until the Navy sold her in 1802. The ship's new owner, Daniel Bennett, renamed her ''Recovery''. Between 802 and 1813, she made seven voyages as a
whaler in the British
southern whale fishery. She was broken up later in 1813.
Early service
Launched in March 1778, she was commissioned in January 1779 for service in British home waters and the Caribbean, under the command of Captain
Edward Thompson. She saw active service in the blockade and capture of French-controlled
Gorée in April 1779, and eight months later was part of
Admiral George Rodney's fleet which sailed to the
naval relief of Gibraltar in January 1780.
''Hyaena'' then returned to England, bearing reports of the battle and the disposition of Admiral Rodney's fleet. In August 1780, still under Thompson's command, ''Hyaena'' escorted a merchant convoy to New York and then turned south to the Caribbean. Thompson's orders were to use his ship and any other forces at his disposal to secure British control of Dutch settlements of
Demerara and
Essequibo Essequibo is the largest traditional region of Guyana but not an administrative region of Guyana today. It may also refer to:
* Essequibo River, the largest river in Guyana
* Essequibo (colony), a former Dutch colony in what is now Guyana;
* Esseq ...
. This was achieved despite a lack of resources, with ''Hyaena'' subsequently escorting merchant convoys between these new
British possessions and the larger port of Barbados, and thence to England. Convoy in tow, ''Hyaena'' reached England in January 1782. Eighteen months in tropical waters had left her in poor condition, and she was promptly decommissioned and sailed to Woolwich dockyards for repair. The works were extensive and were completed at a final expense of £5,561, more than half the cost of ''Hyaena''s original construction four years earlier.
While ''Hyaena'' was out of service her captain, Edward Thompson, had been assigned to the newly built , a 50-gun ship of the line. Command of ''Hyaena'' passed to Captain Patrick Sinclair, whose orders were to protect shipping in the seas immediately surrounding the British Isles. Recommissioned in January 1783, ''Hyaena'' took up this new role in April and remained at this station for the next five years. In 1784, she was briefly under the command of the Honourable M.De Courcy (Acting),
[
] until Sinclair resumed command. In 1787 De Courcy took command of ''Hyaena'' on the Irish station.
May saw ''Hyaena'' serving as the initial escort for the convoy of ships that would become the
First Fleet
The First Fleet was a fleet of 11 ships that brought the first European and African settlers to Australia. It was made up of two Royal Navy vessels, three store ships and six convict transports. On 13 May 1787 the fleet under the command ...
to Australia, sailing alongside the fleet to a point two hundred miles west of the
Scilly Isles. While undertaking this escort it was discovered that the convict storeship was five crew members short. This was addressed by requiring five of ''Hyaena''s crew to transfer to ''Fishburn'' for the eight-month voyage to Australia.
In 1788 ''Hyaena'' was again decommissioned to allow a four-month refit at Plymouth Dockyard for a cost of £4,439. After a brief period of service in the
Irish Sea under the command of Captain John Aylmer, she returned to the English Channel where she remained throughout 1790 and early 1791. In mid-1791 she was under the command of Captain James Kineer,
as the Navy relegated her to the status of an impressment vessel at Bristol, holding
press-ganged sailors aboard until they could be transferred to Navy vessels departing for foreign service.
Capture and recapture
Finally, after a further refit, ''Hyaena'' returned to overseas service under Captain
William Hargood, sailing for Jamaica in October 1791. Disaster struck on 25 May 1793 when ''Hyaena'' encountered the brand-new 40-gun French frigate
''Concorde'' in open waters off Hispaniola. Outgunned by ''Concorde'' and unable to escape, ''Hyaena'' had to strike her colours after having fired only a few guns during the three hours that ''Concorde'' chased her. She then become a French prize.
The French removed ''Hyaena''s quarterdeck and forecastle to create a
flush-deck
Flush deck is a term in naval architecture. It can refer to any deck of a ship which is continuous from stem to stern.
History
The flush deck design originated with rice ships built in Bengal Subah, Mughal India (modern Bangladesh), resulting ...
, and renamed the modified vessel ''Hyène''. She was sold at Bayonne in December 1796, and her new owners used her as a
privateer in pursuit of British and neutral shipping in the Caribbean.
A year later, on 25 October 1797, ''Hyène'' encountered , a 44-gun frigate commanded by Sir Edward Pellew, which captured ''Hyène'' after a chase of eight hours.
[ At the time ''Hyène'' carried twenty-four 9-pounder guns and had a crew of 230 men. She was two weeks out of Bayonne but had not captured anything.][ ''Hyène'' had apparently mistaken ''Indefatigable'' for a vessel from Portuguese India. Pellew judged that had ''Hyène'' not lost her foretopmast in the chase, she might well have escaped.]
HMS ''Hyaena'' again
''Hyene'' returned to Plymouth dockyards where her nine-pounder guns were removed and replaced with twenty 32-pounder carronades. The Royal Navy recommissioned her on 26 March 1798 as ''Hyaena'', under the command of Captain Courtnay Boyle.[ ''Hyaena'' then served off Cherbourg, Saint-Malo, and the ÃŽle de Batz.][ On 19 September ''Hyaena'' was anchored in Graveling Bay. On setting out to sea she struck a rock and was gotten off only with some difficulty.][''Naval Chronicle'', Vol. 30, p.14.] On 2 February 1799 Boyle was appointed to escort a convoy from Plymouth to Lisbon and Gibraltar. However, Boyle was compelled to resign his appointment as a result of injuries that he sustained in March when he was thrown from a carriage before he could sail for Lisbon.[Marshall (1824), Vol.2, Part 1, p.106.]
In March 1799 Captain David Lloyd replaced Boyle, and sailed ''Hyaena'' for the Mediterranean on 4 March. In January 1801, Captain William Granger replaced Lloyd, with ''Hyaena'' serving in the Baltic. She did participate in the expedition to the Baltic, but is not listed among the vessels whose crews qualified for the Naval General Service Medal that the Admiralty awarded in 1847 for participation in the battle of Copenhagen.
Disposal: The "Principal Officers and Commissioners of His Majesty's Navy" advised that on 24 February 1802, "Hyæna, 522 Tons, Copper-bottomed and Copper fastened, lying at Deptford", would be put up for sale.
Whaler ''Recovery''
Daniel Bennett purchased ''Hyaena'' and renamed her ''Recovery''. She first entered '' Lloyd's Register'' in 1804 with Wm. Bacon, master, D. Bennett, owner, and trade London–Southern Fishery.[''Lloyd;'s Register'' (1804), Supple. pages "R", Seq.№R39.]
/ref> ''Recovery'' was valued at £9,000 in 1802. She appeared on the Protection Lists in 1803, 1804, 1805, 1809, and 1810.
Captain William Beacon received a letter of marque on 25 May 1803.
1st whaling voyage (1803)
Captain William Beacon sailed on 21 June 1803.[British Southern Whale fishery voyages: ''Recovery''.]
/ref> On 28 June 1803 '' Lloyd's List'' reported that the whaler ''Recovery'' had sent into Portsmouth the Swedish brig ''Ceres'', which had been sailing from Lubeck to Marseilles. However, the authorities restored (released) ''Ceres'', Manlaws, master.
2nd whaling voyage (1804–1805)
Captain William Beacon sailed from England on 17 June 1804, bound for the Isle of Desolation. ''Recovery'' was reported to have been there in February–March 1805. She returned to England on 10 September 1805.[
]
3rd whaling voyage (1805–1807)
Captain Beacon sailed from England on 2 December 1805. He returned on 2 July 1807.[
]
4th whaling voyage (1807–1810)
Captain Bacon (Beacon) sailed from England on 11 September 1807. ''Recovery'', "Robertson", master, arrived at Port Jackson on 23 July 1808 with troops from England. She left on 25 October, bound for New Georgia. She returned to England on 9 February 1810.[
]
5th whaling voyage (1810–1811)
Captain Mark Munro sailed from England on 5 April 1810. He returned on 17 May 1811.[
]
6th whaling voyage (1811–1812)
Captain John Clark Spencer sailed from England on 2 July 1811. He returned on 29 May 1812.[
]
7th whaling voyage (1812–1813)
Captain Cannel sailed from England in 1812. ''Recovery'' returned on 18 April 1813.[
]
Fate
''Recovery'' was broken up in 1813.''Lloyd's Register'' (1814), Seq.no.R93.
/ref>
Daniel Bennett purchased , named her ''Recovery'', and sent her whaling. Her captain on her next five voyages was Captain William Beacon.[ The duplication of vessel names and masters between the two ''Recovery'' whalers has led to some conflation of the vessels.
]
Notes
Citations
References
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Hyaena (1778)
1778 ships
Privateer ships of France
Captured ships
Sixth rates of the Royal Navy
Whaling ships