privateer
A privateer is a private person or ship that engages in maritime warfare under a commission of war. Since robbery under arms was a common aspect of seaborne trade, until the early 19th century all merchant ships carried arms. A sovereign or deleg ...
corvette launched in 1793 at
Nantes
Nantes (, , ; Gallo: or ; ) is a city in Loire-Atlantique on the Loire, from the Atlantic coast. The city is the sixth largest in France, with a population of 314,138 in Nantes proper and a metropolitan area of nearly 1 million inhabita ...
. The British captured her in 1793 and named her HMS ''Espion''. The French recaptured her in 1794 and took her into service as ''Espion''. The British recaptured her in 1795, but there being another ''Espion'' in service by then, the British renamed their capture HMS ''Spy''. She served under that name until the Navy sold her in 1801. ''Spy'' then became a
slave ship
Slave ships were large cargo ships specially built or converted from the 17th to the 19th century for transporting slaves. Such ships were also known as "Guineamen" because the trade involved human trafficking to and from the Guinea coast ...
in the
triangular trade
Triangular trade or triangle trade is trade between three ports or regions. Triangular trade usually evolves when a region has export commodities that are not required in the region from which its major imports come. It has been used to offset t ...
in enslaved people, a merchantman to South America, and privateer again. The French captured her in mid-1805 and sent her into Guadeloupe.
''Robert''
Perrotin & Son commissioned ''Robert'' in Nantes in February 1793; on 15 February Captain François-Marie Pied acquired the 8th letter of marque for the war with England issued at Nantes.
She recaptured two French vessels while on her first cruise. One was the
East Indiaman
East Indiaman was a general name for any sailing ship operating under charter or licence to any of the East India trading companies of the major European trading powers of the 17th through the 19th centuries. The term is used to refer to vesse ...
''Trajan'', Captain Joseph Boudel, which was coming from
Pondicherry
Pondicherry (), now known as Puducherry ( French: Pondichéry ʊdʊˈtʃɛɹi(listen), on-dicherry, is the capital and the most populous city of the Union Territory of Puducherry in India. The city is in the Puducherry district on the sout ...
. had captured her. ''Robert'' sent her into Bordeaux. The other vessel was ''Titus'', which an English privateer had captured. ''Robert'' sent her too into Bordeaux, where her cargo was sold.
Captain Jacques Moreau replaced Boudel. ''Robert'' sailed from Bordeaux on 3 June. It was on this cruise that the British captured her.
The frigate , Captain John Manley, captured ''Robert'' on 13 June 1793 in the
Bay of Biscay
The Bay of Biscay (), known in Spain as the Gulf of Biscay ( es, Golfo de Vizcaya, eu, Bizkaiko Golkoa), and in France and some border regions as the Gulf of Gascony (french: Golfe de Gascogne, oc, Golf de Gasconha, br, Pleg-mor Gwaskogn), ...
after a chase of 28 hours.''Britannic magazine; or entertaining repository of heroic adventures''. Vol. 1-8, p.96. One report gave ''Robert'' 22 guns and a complement of 200 men, but all other reports trimmed this to 16 carriage and eight swivel guns, and 170 men. ''Robert'' had been out three days from Bordeaux, had captured nothing.
HMS ''Espion''
The Royal Navy commissioned HMS ''Espion'' in March 1794 under the command of Commander William Hugh Kittoe, for the Channel. On 22 July 1794 '' Tamise'' and two other French frigates captured ''Espion'' south of the
Isles of Scilly
The Isles of Scilly (; kw, Syllan, ', or ) is an archipelago off the southwestern tip of Cornwall, England. One of the islands, St Agnes, is the most southerly point in Britain, being over further south than the most southerly point of the ...
. Kittoe was so outnumbered and outgunned that he struck without resistance. The French Navy took her into service as the corvette ''Espion''.
''Espion''
On 23 August 1794, , Captain
Sir John Borlase Warren
Admiral Sir John Borlase Warren, 1st Baronet (2 September 1753 – 27 February 1822) was a British Royal Navy officer, diplomat and politician who sat in the House of Commons between 1774 and 1807.
Naval career
Born in Stapleford, Nottinghamsh ...
, and , Captain
Sir Edward Pellew
Admiral Edward Pellew, 1st Viscount Exmouth, GCB (19 April 1757 – 23 January 1833) was a British naval officer. He fought during the American War of Independence, the French Revolutionary Wars, and the Napoleonic Wars. His younger brother Is ...
, chased two French corvettes, '' Alerte'' and ''Espion'' into
Audierne
Audierne (; br, Gwaien) is a commune in the Finistère department of Brittany in northwestern France. On 1 January 2016 the former commune of Esquibien merged into Audierne.Magendie. She then spent time in the
Brest
Brest may refer to:
Places
*Brest, Belarus
**Brest Region
**Brest Airport
**Brest Fortress
*Brest, Kyustendil Province, Bulgaria
*Břest, Czech Republic
*Brest, France
**Arrondissement of Brest
**Brest Bretagne Airport
** Château de Brest
*Brest, ...
roadstead
A roadstead (or ''roads'' – the earlier form) is a body of water sheltered from rip currents, spring tides, or ocean swell where ships can lie reasonably safely at anchor without dragging or snatching.United States Army technical manual, TM 5- ...
before cruising in the Atlantic and returning to Brest.
On 4 March 1795, the British frigate captured ''Espion'' about 13 leagues off Ushant. ''Espion'' was armed with eighteen 6-pounder guns and had a crew of 140 men. She was five days out of Brest on a cruise. ''Lively'' was under the command of Captain
George Burlton
Rear-Admiral Sir George Burlton Order of the Bath, KCB (died 21 September 1815) was an officer of the Royal Navy during the Napoleonic Wars.
Naval career
Burlton was commissioned as a Lieutenant (Royal Navy), Lieutenant on 15 September 1777Dav ...
, acting in the absence of Captain Viscount
Lord Garlies
Lord is an appellation for a person or deity who has authority, control, or power over others, acting as a master, chief, or ruler. The appellation can also denote certain persons who hold a title of the peerage in the United Kingdom, or are ...
, who was sick on shore, commanded ''Lively''.
Nine days later, ''Lively'' captured the French corvette ''Tourterelle'', and two vessels that ''Tourterelle'' had been escorting, which had been prizes to ''Espion''.
HMS ''Spy''
As the Royal Navy by this time had another HMS ''Espion'', the Navy took ''Espion'' into service on 20 May 1795 and renamed her ''Spy''. She then was at Portsmouth fitting out until November. She was recommissioned under J. Walton. In January 1796 Commander James Young assumed command for The Downs station. A year later Commander William Grosvenor replaced Young, and remained in command until December 1799. In August 1797 ''Spy'' recaptured four vessels. She appears to have spent her time escorting convoys in the Channel. For instance, on 5 March 1799 ''Spy'' passed Plymouth, escorting a convoy of coasters westward.
Commander Charles Hay replaced Grosvenor. On 14 August 1800, ''Spy'' left Plymouth with the London trader ''George and Francis'', Hoskins, master, under convoy for London.
The Principal Officers and Commissioners of His Majesty's Navy offered the "Spy 275 tons burthen" for sale at Plymouth on 7 September 1801. She sold that day for £710.
Mercantile service
The supplement to ''Lloyd's Register'' for 1802 showed ''Spy'', with Vaughn, master, and "Swansea", as owner, having undergone a refit in 1802. Her trade was London-Africa. A database of enslaving voyages from London showed ''Spy'', Robert Vaughn, master, and James Swanzy, owner, made one voyage in 1803 carrying captives from the
Gold Coast
Gold Coast may refer to:
Places Africa
* Gold Coast (region), in West Africa, which was made up of the following colonies, before being established as the independent nation of Ghana:
** Portuguese Gold Coast (Portuguese, 1482–1642)
** Dutch G ...
to
British Guiana
British Guiana was a British colony, part of the mainland British West Indies, which resides on the northern coast of South America. Since 1966 it has been known as the independent nation of Guyana.
The first European to encounter Guiana was S ...
. ''Spy'' sailed from London on 8 August 1802. She acquired captives first at
Cape Coast Castle
Cape Coast Castle ( sv, Carolusborg) is one of about forty "slave castles", or large commercial forts, built on the Gold Coast of West Africa (now Ghana) by European traders. It was originally a Portuguese "feitoria" or trading post, established ...
and then at
Anomabu
Anomabu, also spelled Anomabo and formerly as Annamaboe, is a town on the coast of the Mfantsiman Municipal District of the Central Region (Ghana), Central Region of South Ghana. Anomabu has a Human settlements, settlement population of 14,389 pe ...
, which was 16 kilometres away. She left Africa on 18 January 1802 and arrived at
Demerara
Demerara ( nl, Demerary, ) is a historical region in the Guianas, on the north coast of South America, now part of the country of Guyana. It was a colony of the Dutch West India Company between 1745 and 1792 and a colony of the Dutch state fro ...
in March with some 300 captives. She arrived back at London on 13 May.Trans Atlantic Slave Trade Database – ''Spy'' voyage #83603. /ref>
The entry in ''Lloyd's Register'' for 1802 carried over to 1803, but an addendum to the entry in the 1803 ''Lloyd's Register'' noted that ''Spy'' had a new master, Clarke, and new owner, Hurry & Co. Her trade became the South Seas. Captain Welham Clarke acquired a letter of marque for ''Spy'' on 26 July 1803. ''Spy'' sailed for the South Seas on 11 September.British Southern Whale Fishery - Voyages: ''Spy''. /ref> On 21 December ''Spy'' was at Rio de Janeiro with destination "S° Seas". However, she sailed as a merchantman, not a
whaler
A whaler or whaling ship is a specialized vessel, designed or adapted for whaling: the catching or processing of whales.
Terminology
The term ''whaler'' is mostly historic. A handful of nations continue with industrial whaling, and one, Japa ...
.
On 30 January 1804 she encountered ''Pacific'', Thomas Hopper, master, at . Clarke noted in his log that ''Pacific'' had 1300 barrels of
sperm oil
Sperm oil is a waxy liquid obtained from sperm whales. It is a clear, yellowish liquid with a very faint odor. Sperm oil has a different composition from common whale oil, obtained from rendered blubber. Although it is traditionally called an " ...
.
''Spy'', Clarke, master returned to England on 14 October 1804. At Portsmouth she landed several tons of gold and silver belonging to Mr. Hurry, of Gosport. These were the proceeds of her cargo of manufactures that she had sold to the inhabitants of South America. The bullion was deposited in the Gosport Bank. The next day the bullion, in 100 casks and boxes, traveled in three wagons under strong guard to the Bank of England. The bullion weighed about 10 tons and its value was estimated at £100,000. It included £47,000 in new dollars. She arrived at Gravesend on 26 October with Burrowes, master.
Captain Edward Dyer (or Dwyer), acquired a letter of marque on 14 March 1805. The scale of her armament and the size of her crew signal that she was now a privateer.
On 14 April there arrived at Plymouth ''Zes Gesusters'', DeVries (or DeVrees), master. She had been coming from Lisbon when ''Spy'', Dwyer, master, had detained her.
Fate
''Lloyd's List'' of 2 August 1805 reported that the privateer ''Spy'', of London, Dwyer, master, had been captured and taken into Guadeloupe.''Lloyd's List'' №4239. /ref>
''Lloyd's Register'' continued the entry from the 1803 addendum, including Clarke as master, unchanged until at least 1811. Some sources have ''Spy'' engaging in whaling between 1810 and 1813, though the whaling voyages database does not show that. The ''Register of Shipping'' for 1805 had an entry for ''Spy'' that still showed Clarke as master, and Hurry & Co. as owner. It gave ''Spy''s trade as London-Madeira.''Register of Shipping'' (1805), Seq.№S560. /ref>