HMS Skipjack (1808)

HMS Skipjack was the French privateer schooner Confiance, launched in 1800 at Baltimore. The Royal Navy captured her in 1808 and took her into service. She then participated in the capture of Guadeloupe in 1810. She was paid off in 1811 and broken up in 1812.

History
France
Name: Confiance
Builder: U.S.A.
Launched: 1800
Commissioned: October 1806
Captured: 23 August 1808 by the Royal Navy
UK
Name: HMS Skipjack
Acquired: 23 August 1808
Fate: Broken up 1812
General characteristics [1]
Tons burthen: 112 (bm; 81 ​63⁄94 by calc.)
Length:
  • 71 ft 4 in (21.74 m) (overall)
  • 60 ft 5 in (18.4 m) (keel)
Beam: 18 ft 11 in (5.77 m)
Depth of hold: 7 ft 8 in (2.34 m)
Propulsion: Sails
Sail plan: Schooner
Complement: 70 (at capture)
Armament:
  • At capture: 7 guns
  • British service: 12 guns

Confiance

The French armed Confiance at Guadeloupe in October 1806. Though pierced for 16 guns, she carried fewer.

On 12 December 1807, Confiance, of seven guns and 90 men, captured the packet Duke of Montrose after an engagement that lasted three and a half hours. Duke of Montrose did not strike until after having lost her master, Birt Dynely, her mate, and four seamen killed, and two men wounded. Confiance took Duke of Montrose into Guadeloupe.[2][3][Note 1]

Capture

On 23 August 1808 Belette captured the French privateer schooner Confiance, of seven guns (though pierced for 16) and 70 men. She was three days out from Cayenne.[4][Note 2] The Royal Navy took Confiance into service as Skipjack.[1]

British service and fate

Lieutenant Thompson commissioned Skipjack later that year.[1]

In January -February 1810, Skipjack participated in the capture of Guadeloupe, which earned for her crew the clasp "Guadaloupe" to the Naval General Service Medal that the Admiralty issued in 1847 to all surviving claimants, as well as prize money that she shared with 49 other vessels.[6][Note 3]

Skipjack was paid off in 1811 and broken up in the next year.[1]

Notes, citations, and references

Notes

  1. In May 1806 Dynely and Duke of Montrose had captured the French naval schooner Impériale, which the Navy had taken into service as HMS Vigilant.
  2. A first-class share of the prize money was worth £38 7s 6¾d; a sixth-class share was worth 15s 10½d.[5]
  3. A first-class share of the prize money was worth £113 9s 1¾d; a sixth-class share, was worth £1 9s 5½d.[7]

Citations

  1. Winfield (2008), p. 365.
  2. National register (6 March 1808), p. 154.
  3. National Maritime Museum of Cornwall - The Dyneley Vase, - accessed 10 May 2015.
  4. "No. 16217". The London Gazette. 10 January 1809. p. 46.
  5. "No. 17531". The London Gazette. 2 November 1819. p. 1945.
  6. "No. 16794". The London Gazette. 26 October 1813. p. 2122.
  7. "No. 16938". The London Gazette. 24 September 1814. p. 1924.

References

  • Winfield, Rif (2008). British Warships in the Age of Sail 1793–1817: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates. Seaforth. ISBN 1-86176-246-1.
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