USS Ariel (1777)

HMS ''Ariel'' was a 20-gun ''Sphinx''-class sixth-rate post ship of the Royal Navy. The French captured her in 1779, and she served during the American Revolutionary War for them, and later for the Americans, before reverting to French control. Her French crew scuttled ''Ariel'' in 1793 to prevent the British from recapturing her.

British career

The Admiralty on 3 July 1776 ordered ''Ariel'' from John Perry & Co.'s Blackwall Yard. Perry & Co. laid down her keel that month and launched her on 7 July 1777. She was commissioned under Captain John Jackson, and cruised in the North Sea in August 1777. After a brief spell off the Norwegian and Danish coasts, she sailed for North America on 7 November.

In 1778 she captured several American vessels. While ''Ariel'' was under the command of John Becher on 31 March, she shared in the capture of the frigate . (The Royal Navy took ''Virginia'' into service as HMS ''Virginia''.)

On 25 May 1778, under command of Capt. Charles Phipps, she captured the schooner ''General Scott''. On 31 May she pursued a sloop until the sloop ran aground near Currituck, North Carolina. Bad weather prevented boarding.

On 4 June ''Ariel'' captured the sloop ''Fanny''. Then on 27 August 1778 she captured the 16-gun "Congress" brig ''Resistance''. ''Resistance'' had sailed from Boston armed for war and in quest of the French fleet. ''Ariel'' burnt her.

''Ariel'' also shared in the prize money for a number of vessels captured between 2 January and 14 September. These were the sloops ''Betsy'' and ''Polly'', brigs ''MCleary'', ''Reprizal'', ''Argyle'', and ''Postillion'', the schooner ''Chelsea'', and the snow ''David''. On 12 May ''Ariel'' pursued the French polacca ''Gaston'' until her crew ran her aground near Cape Hatteras; her crew scuttled and abandoned ''Gaston''. ''Ariel'' salvaged part of ''Gaston''s cargo before burning her. Next, ''Ariel'' chased two schooners, one named ''Trader's Increase'', ashore and burned them. On the 14th ''Ariel'' chased the schooner ''Two Friends'' ashore, captured her, and refloated her.

Captain Charles Phipps took command of ''Ariel'' . Phipps and ''Ariel'' captured the American privateer ''New Broom'' on 22 October 1778, as well as the schooners ''Lark'' and ''Three Friends''. ''New Broom'' was armed with 16 guns and had sailed from New London when ''Ariel'' and stopped her off Nantucket shoals. The Royal Navy took ''New Broom'' into service as .

The next year, in February, Captain Thomas Mackenzie replaced Phipps.

Capture

On 11 September 1779, whilst ''Ariel'' was cruising off Charleston, South Carolina, she sighted a strange sail and approached to investigate, unaware that the French fleet under Admiral d'Estaing had entered the theatre. As Mackenzie got closer he realized that the stranger was actually a frigate, accompanied by two brigs and a schooner, and that she was not responding to his signals. He therefore decided to sail for the Georgia shore. The frigate gradually overhauled ''Ariel'' and Mackenzie had no choice but to stand and fight. The enemy vessel was the 32-gun , under Lieutenant Lapérouse After a ninety-minute flight in which ''Ariel'' lost her mizzen-mast and all her rigging and sustained casualties of four men dead and another 20 wounded, Mackenzie surrendered ''Ariel''. d'Estaing immediately exchanged the crew of ''Ariel'' and HMS ''Experiment'', which he had captured the year before, for French prisoners. The crews of these two vessels then went on to man a variety of British vessels on the station. The French took the captured ship into service as ''Ariel''.

''Ariel'' underwent repair and refitting at Lorient between March and October 1780. The French then lent her to the American Continental Navy in October, where she served briefly as USS ''Ariel''.

USS ''Ariel''

John Paul Jones assumed command of ''Ariel'' in France. He changed her rigging to improve her sailing qualities, and removed 10 of her 26 guns to make room for more cargo. However, loading the ship and the need to obtain other vessels to carry the surplus cargo which ''Ariel'' could not hold delayed her departure. ''Ariel'' — accompanied by merchantmen ''Luke'' and ''Duke of Leinster'', which Benjamin Franklin had chartered to take care of the surplus supplies — departed L'Orient on 5 September, but contrary winds held them up in Groix Roads for over a month. The trio finally put to sea on 7 October. However, the next day one of the most severe storms in the history of the French coast broke and wreaked great havoc in the area, destroying many ships. ''Ariel'' lost all of her masts, sprang leaks, and suffered much other damage. Only Jones's superb seamanship enabled her to stay afloat and then to limp back into Groix Roads under a jury rig on the morning of 12 October.

''Luke''—faster and less damaged than ''Ariel''—also managed to get back to port, but sailed independently before ''Ariel''s repairs could be completed; a British warship then captured ''Luke''. No record has been found of ''Duke of Leinster'' after her departure on 7 October, so it is quite possible that she foundered during the hurricane.

More than two months passed before ''Ariel'' was again seaworthy. She finally got underway again on 18 October. Jones left much of ''Ariel''s armament in France so he followed a southern route in the hope of avoiding encountering the Royal Navy.

Still, when ''Ariel'' had reached a point some 200 miles north of the Leeward Islands, a lookout reported a large ship that soon began to approach ''Ariel''. Rather than risk his partially-armed only ship and the vital cargo and dispatches that she was carrying, Jones reluctantly fled. Jones hoped that she would shake off her pursuer during the night, but the stranger was in full sight when daylight returned the following morning, closer than she had been when last seen the previous evening.

Jones then decided to try to pass ''Ariel'' off as a British warship. When his pursuer reached hailing distance, Jones demanded that her captain identify himself and his ship. The stranger was the 20-gun British privateer ''Triumph'', commanded by John Pindar. Jones then ordered Pindar to come on board ''Ariel'' with documents to verify his identity. When Pindar refused, Jones opened fire and forced his surprised enemy to surrender following a short and one-sided struggle. However, after ''Triumph'' had struck her colors, Pindar maneuvered his ship to ''Ariel''s weather bow while the latter was lowering a boat for a prize crew, and then quickly escaped.

This engagement was John Paul Jones' last battle in the cause of American freedom, but he soon had to forestall a budding mutiny. He uncovered a plot by the English seamen whom he had enlisted from among British prisoners of war in France to fill out his crew (built around survivors from ), to take over ''Ariel''; Jones put the troublemakers in irons. The rest of her voyage was uneventful; ''Ariel'' finally reached Philadelphia with her badly needed military stores—which included 437 barrels of gunpowder, 146 chests of arms, a large quantity of shot, sheet lead, and much medicine—on 18 February 1781.

At the beginning of March, ''Ariel''—still in port discharging her cargo—fired a salute to celebrate Maryland's ratification of the Articles of Confederation activating the new nation's first central government.

Early in June 1781, Jones turned ''Ariel'' over to Anne-César, Chevalier de la Luzerne-the French minister to the United States—who manned her with a French crew for the voyage back to France.

''Ariel''

In May, Latouche-Tréville manned ''Ariel'' with sailors from the cutter ''Guêpe'', wrecked in February 1781 at Cape Charles. The frigate ''Hermione'' then escorted her to Newport, where the French squadron under Barras was anchored.

In September 1782 ''Ariel'' and captured the merchant vessel ''Grand Duc'' off the coast of Spain. The French navy briefly took ''Grand Duc'' into service before decommissioning, striking off, and selling her for £t 72,489 at Brest in 1783.

Fate

After the French defeat at Neerwinden, her crew scuttled ''Ariel'' on the Scheldt in March 1793. The citizens of Bruges carried off her armament and stores.

Notes, citations, and references

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Ariel (1777)
1777 ships
Sphinx-class post ships
Ships built by the Blackwall Yard
Captured ships
Ships of the Continental Navy
Frigates of the French Navy