HMS Peruvian (1808)

HMS ''Peruvian'' was an 18-gun launched in 1808 at Parson's Yard, Warsash, England. She was the first naval vessel built at that yard. ''Peruvian'' captured two American privateers and participated in an expedition up the Penobscot River during the War of 1812. Then she claimed Ascension Island for Great Britain in 1815. She was broken up in 1830.

Napoleonic Wars

Commander Francis Douglas commissioned her in May 1808 for the Downs.Winfield (2008), p.299. Douglas had been first lieutenant of HMS Repulse (1780) at the mutiny at The Nore in 1797.

On 19 February 1809 ''Peruvian'' was in company with the sloop ''Osprey'' when ''Osprey'' captured the ''Vrouw Gesina''. In May ''Peruvian'' captured the ''Commerce'', Rook, master, and sent her into The Downs.

Then on 14 January 1810 ''Peruvian'' sailed for the Leeward Islands. Three days later ''Peruvian'' was in sight, and so entitled to share, together with a number of other vessels, in the prize money arising from the recapture of the ''Toms'' by ''Hyperion''. In November 1810 Commander Francis Dickinson took command, but he died on 23 April 1812.

War of 1812

In 1812 ''Peruvian'' was under Lieutenant Amos F. Westropp, in the West Indies. He was promoted to Commander in August. On 12 October 1812, ''Peruvian'' captured the sloop ''Prevyonte''. Twelve days later ''Peruvian'' captured the American privateer schooner ''Yankee'' off Sombrero, Anguilla. ''Yankee'' had 7 guns and a crew of 44 men. She was 38 days out of Salem, but had made no captures. ''Peruvian'' sent ''Yankee'' into Antigua. American records state that the privateer was ''Yankee American'', 77 tons burthen, T. Pillsbury, master.

In 1813, under Commander George Kippen, ''Peruvian'' was on the American Station. On 6 February, she was returning to her station from St. Thomas, when around east by north of Sombrero, she encountered an American privateer. During the last two hours of the 15-hour chase, the privateer used her stern guns to fire continuously at ''Peruvian''. Eventually ''Peruvian'' got within pistol shot and fired her bow guns, with her marines also firing. The privateer surrendered. She turned out to be ''John'', of 16 guns and a crew of 100 men. ''John'', of Salem, was under the command of Captain James M. Fairfield and was on her second cruise. At the time of the capture ''Peruvian'' was apparently in company with . The report in ''Lloyd's List'' describes ''John'' as having 20 guns and 93 men and surrendering after a chase of 13 hours. ''Peruvian'' sent ''John'' into St Thomas, where she arrived on 10 February 1813. The head money bill specified that 90 men had been captured.

On 6 May the ''William'', of Wilmington, Holman, master, arrived at Antigua as a prize to ''Peruvian''. On 8 November, ''Peruvian'' was at St Thomas with , , and to gather a convoy of some 40 merchant to convoy back to Britain.

In August 1814, ''Peruvian'' took part in an expedition up the Penobscot River in Maine. She joined , , , , as well as some transports. , , , and also joined. On the evening of 31 August, ''Sylph'', ''Peruvian'', and the transport ''Harmony'', accompanied by a boat from ''Dragon'', embarked marines, foot soldiers and a detachment from the Royal Artillery, to move up the Penobscot under the command of Captain Robert Barrie of ''Dragon''. The objective was the American frigate , of twenty-six 18 pounders, which had taken refuge some 27 miles up stream at Hampden, Maine. Here ''Adams'' had landed her guns and fortified a position on the bank with fifteen 18-pounders commanding the river. Moving up the river took two days, but eventually, after the Battle of Hampden, the British were able to capture the American defenders at Bangor, though not until after the Americans had burnt the ''Adams''. The British also captured 11 other ships and destroyed six. The British lost only one man killed, a sailor from ''Dragon'', and had several soldiers wounded.

In October 1814 Commander James Kearney White took over command. On 22 December ''Peruvian'' detained the Spanish vessel ''Dolores'', which was condemned as a "''droit'' of Admiralty".

Around 21 January 1815 ''Peruvian'' sent into Bermuda the ''Rufus'', King, master, which had been sailing from Charleston to Bordeaux. On 8 April ''Peruvian'' left Bermuda for home.

The news of Waterloo

By mid-June she was at Ostend. From there she carried Major the Hon. Henry Percy of the 14th Light Dragoons, the only aide to the Duke of Wellington to have survived Waterloo unscathed, into the middle of the Channel, where she was becalmed. White lowered ''Peruvian''s gig, chose four stalwart men from his crew, took an oar himself and handed one to Percy, who had learned how to row at Eton, and with two captured French Eagles lying in the stern, rowed for the Kent coast. Around 3 p.m. on 21 June, they arrived near Broadstairs, where Percy and White immediately took a post-chaise-and-four to deliver the news to London.

Ascension Island

''Peruvian'', still under Captain White, together with her sister ship , under Captain Nicholas Charles Dobree, had been part of the flotilla under Rear Admiral George Cockburn that had taken Napoleon into his final exile at St Helena. (On the way ''Peruvian'' had had to make a detour to Guernsey to pick up a supply of French wine for Napoleon.)

Cockburn was concerned that the French might use Ascension Island, uninhabited at the time, to stage a rescue mission. He therefore decided to claim and garrison the island. On 22 October 1815, at 5pm, ''Peruvian'' and ''Zenobia'' anchored in Clarence Bay. The ships' logs record that at 5.30pm, White and Dobree came ashore, raised the Jack, and took possession of the island in the name of His Britannic Majesty, King George III. ''Zenobia'' left shortly thereafter but ''Peruvian'' stayed until spring.Watson (1912), p.245.

Napoleon died on St Helena in 1821 and the Admiralty wanted to withdraw the garrison. However, Sir George Collier, Commodore of the West Africa Squadron, persuaded the Admiralty to retain it as it had become a victualling station for the vessels of the squadron, which was engaged in anti-slavery patrols. It also provided a sanatorium for the squadron's ships and crew.

Ascension Island was later designated "HMS ''Ascension''", a "Stone sloop of War of the smaller class".

Fate

By July 1816 ''Peruvian'' was laid up in ordinary at Plymouth where she stayed until 1830. She was broken up on 25 February 1830.

Citations and references

Citations

References
* Colledge, J.J. (1987) ''Ships of the Royal Navy: The Complete Record of All Fighting Ships of the Royal Navy From the Fifteenth Century to the Present''. (Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press). .
*Emmons, George Foster (1853) ''The navy of the United States, from the commencement, 1775 to 1853; with a brief history of each vessel’s service and fate ... Comp. by Lieut. George F. Emmons ... under the authority of the Navy Dept. To which is added a list of private armed vessels, fitted out under the American flag ... also a list of the revenue and coast survey vessels, and principal ocean steamers, belonging to citizens of the United States in 1850''. (Washington: Gideon & Co.)
*Watson, George Leo de St M (1912) ''A Polish exile with Napoleon : embodying the letters of Captain Piontkowski to General Sir Robert Wilson and many documents from the Lowe papers, the Colonial office records, the Wilson manuscripts, the Capel Lofft correspondence, and the French and Genevese archives hitherto unpublished''. (London & New York: Harper & Brothers).
* Winfield, Rif (2008) ''British Warships in the Age of Sail 1793-1815: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates''. (Seaforth Publishing), 2nd Edition. .

{{DEFAULTSORT:Peruvian (1808), HMS
1808 ships
Cruizer-class brig-sloops
War of 1812 ships of the United Kingdom