Lady Mary Pelham (1811 ship)

Lady Mary Pelham was launched in 1811 as a packet based in Falmouth, Cornwall for the Post Office Packet Service. She repelled attack by privateers in 1812 and 1813, the latter being a notable and controversial engagement with an American privateer. Another American privateer captured her in February 1815 in the West Indies. New owners retained her name and between 1815 and at least 1824 she continued to sail to the Continent and South America.

For other ships with the same name, see Lady Mary Pelham (ship).

History
United Kingdom
Name: Lady Mary Pelham
Builder: Falmouth
Launched: 1800
Captured: 9 February 1815
 United States
Name: Lady Mary Pelham
Acquired: March 1815 by purchase of a prize
Fate: Last press mention 1824
General characteristics
Tons burthen: 180[1] (bm)
Sail plan: Brig
Armament: 10 × 9&6-pounder guns[1]

Packet

Lloyd's Register (LR) started carrying the Falmouth packets in 1812 and that is when Lady Mary Pelham first appeared in it.[1]

James A. Stevens was appointed captain on 4 March 1811.[2] On 14 October 1812 Lady Mary Pelham Packet repelled an attack off Cape Pallas by a privateer of 14 guns and 75 men. The privateer had earlier captured a vessel from Gibraltar returning there from Cagliari and armed with 10 guns.[3] Lady Mary Pelham arrived at Falmouth on 5 December, having sailed from Malta on 7 November and Gibraltar on the 29th.

On 2 November 1813 Lady Mary Pelham, acting commander Perring (or Pering), and Montague, John A. Norway, master, encountered the American privateer Globe, Captain Richard Moon, off Teneriffe.[Note 1] During the engagement, Captain Norway, the surgeon, and two seamen were killed on Montague; 11 seamen were wounded.[6] Lady Mary Pelham had two men wounded, one of them being Perring. There were conflicting accounts of the engagement, one denigrating Perring as a lawyer whose sole experience had been sailing a yacht, and Lady Mary Pelham's contribution to the engagement being too little too late.[5] The matter came up in Parliament where documents were table showing that a second court of inquiry had exonerated Captain Perring and acknowledged that Lady Mary Pelham{'}s intervention had saved Montague from capture and had eventually succeeded in driving Globe off.CITEREFHouse_of_Commons1814pp758–60

After the engagement Globe put into Grand Canary in a highly damaged state. She had had 33 men killed, 19 wounded, and five captured in attempts to board Montague.[7]

Captain James Graham assumed command of Lady Mary Pelham on 21 June 1814.

Capture

Captain Graham sailed from Falmouth on 20 November 1814 and arrived at Suriname in January 1815. Lady Mary Pelham sailed from Suriname to Barbados, and then to Antigua, leaving Antigua on 1 February.

The Baltimore privateer Kemp, Jose Joaquim Almeida, master, captured Lady Mary Pelham on 9 February 1815. Graham and seven of his men had been wounded, and two men killed before she struck.[8] Kemp had one man killed and three wounded in the 40 minute action.[9] Kemp was armed with six guns and had a crew of 135 men;[10] Lady Mary Pelham was armed with 10 guns and had a complement of 42 men, including five passengers.[9] Almeida sold his crew $632.75 worth of clothes taken from Lady Mary Pelham. The sum then became part of the prize account.[11] Kemp sent her into Wilmington, North Carolina where she was libeled on 31 March 1815 and condemned.

American merchantman

Lady Mary Pelham was sold in Wilmington, with new owners retaining the name.

Lady Mary Pelham, Sanders, master, a packet brig from Wilmington, North Carolina, discharged at Gibraltar on 5 June. Captain Sanders also sailed her between the US and Buenos Aires. In 1818, with Gillander, master, she was reported to have come into New York from Havana.

On 14 April 1818 The French frigate Néréide ran down and sank Noma (Numa), of Baltimore, returning there in ballast from Amsterdam. The master and the crew were taken aboard the frigate, which took them to Bordeaux. Lady Mary Pelham, Schouyler, brought the mate and steward into New York from Bordeaux.[12] Néréide's commander was capitaine de vaisseau Boutouillic de La Villegonan and the incident occurred above the Azores. Néréide had been sailing from Martinique to Brest, France via Guadeloupe.

On 14 June at 43°12′N 14°20′W two armed vessels flying Spanish colours, believed to be from Havana on their way to Corruna fired on Lady Mary Pelham. Captain Schoyler, believing that the only way to account for such behavior was that war had been declared between Spain and America, struck. He went aboard one of the vessels and the other sent an officer aboard Lady Mary Pelham. After it was established that no state of war existed, the Spaniards released her. She arrived at New York on 22 July.[13]

On 24 January 1824, Lady Mary Pelham, of New York, Langdon, master, put into Charleston. She was 23 days out of Campechey, on her way to Gibraltar.[14] She resumed her voyage. Later that year she was reported to be at Buenos Aires. That is the last mention of her in the press.

Notes, citations, and references

Notes

  1. Globe, was a schooner of 180 tons burthen. She was armed with eight 9-pounder guns (plus by some accounts an 18-pounder gun on a pivot mount) and had a crew of 80–100 men.[4][5]

Citations

  1. LR (1812), "Falmouth Packets".
  2. Howat (1984), p. 20.
  3. "The Marine List". Lloyd's List (4727). 11 December 1812. Retrieved 8 August 2020.
  4. Kert (2015), App.2.
  5. Norway (1895), pp. 256-263.
  6. "The Marine List". Lloyd's List (4833). 31 December 1813. Retrieved 8 August 2020.
  7. "The Marine List". Lloyd's List (4833). 28 December 1813. Retrieved 8 August 2020.
  8. Cranwell & Crane (1940), p. 222.
  9. Fairburn (1955), p. 897.
  10. Kert (2015), App. 2.
  11. Felknor (1998), p. 43.
  12. "By the brig Lady Mary Pelham, Capt. Schoyler, which arrived yesterday, in 40 days from Bordeaux, we learn that the ship Noma, Sherrington, of and for Baltimore, from Amsterdam, was run down on the 14th of April, at half past 2 o'clock, A. M. by the French Ship Neraide, Marquis de Botelle commander, from Martinique for Brest. Commercial." National Advocate (New York, New York), 23 July 1818.
  13. "Extract from the Logbook of the Bring Lady Mary Pelham, Arrived Yesterday from Bordeaux." National Advocate (New York, New York), 23 July 1818.
  14. "Marine List." Aurora General Advertiser (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania), 9 February 1824.

References

  • Cranwell, John Philips; Crane, William Bowers (1940). Men of marque; a history of private armed vessels out of Baltimore during the War of 1812. New York: W.W. Norton & Co.
  • Fairburn, William Armstrong (1955). Merchant Sail. 2. Fairburn Marine Educational Foundation.
  • Felknor, Bruce L. (1998). The U.S. Merchant Marine at War, 1775-1945. Naval Institute Press. ISBN 9781557502735.
  • Howat, J.N.T. (1984). South American packets : the British packet service to Brazil, the River Plate, the West Coast (via the Straits of Magellan), and the Falkland Islands, 1808-80. York, England: Postal History Society in Association with William Sessions. ISBN 0900657952.
  • House of Commons, Parliament, Great Britain (1814). Parliamentary Debates: Post Office Packets. 28. Cox & Bayliss.CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  • Kert, Faye M. (2015). Privateering: Patriots and Profits in the War of 1812. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. p. 72. ISBN 9781421417479.
  • Norway, Arthur H. (1895). History of the Post-Office Packet Service between the Years 1793-1815. London: Macmillan & Co.
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