Caroline (1804 ship)

History
France
Name: Caroline
Builder: Solidor, Saint-Malo [1]
Laid down: June 1803[1]
Launched: January 1804[1]
Captured: Sunk 14 January 1809[2]
General characteristics [1]
Type: Corvette
Displacement: 130 tons (French)
Sail plan:
Crew:
  • 17 officers and 76 men (February–May 1804)
  • 119 men (July 1804-November 1804 and September 1805 to January 1806)
Armament: 16 × 32-pounder carronades + 2 × 36-pounder obusiers de vaisseau

Caroline was a French privateer commissioned in Saint-Malo in 1804. She served in the Indian Ocean, based at Île de France (now Mauritius). Returning to Saint-Malo, she was captured off Cape Finisterre by a British corvette.

French service

Built at Solidor, near Saint-Malo, Caroline was commissioned by a joint venture between Robert Surcouf and his father-in-law Louis Blaize de Maisonneuve,[3] and captained by Nicolas Surcouf, Robert's brother.[1]

Caroline departed Saint-Malo in February 1804, bound for Île de France (now Mauritius), where she arrived in May 1804. She cruised the Indian Ocean from July to November before returning to Île de France on 21 November. During this cruise she captured the Mornington (14 August; 600 tons and 8 guns), the Fame (13 October; 600 tons), and the Stirling Castle (19 October; 800 tons and 8 guns).[Note 1] HMS Phaeton recaptured Mornington, however, Captain Fallonard of the brig Île de France recaptured Mornington yet again.[6]

There she was refitted and transformed into a brig. She went on a second campaign from September 1805 to January 1806.[1] Caroline captured the ships Waldegrave and Commerce in the Indian Ocean, and Melville and Prince de Galles in the Gulf of Bengal,[7][Note 2] teaming up with Perroud's Bellone and Henry's Henriette.[8] Surcouf appears to have left Caroline after this voyage. When Caroline was paid off, her 117 officers and crew men shared a payment of 46,566.42 piasteres, divided into 241 shares, representing one-third of the net value of the prizes she had taken. Nicholas Surcouf had 12 shares, Lacaze Ranly, her second captain, had 10 shares. The least was a half-share, which was the lot of the cabin boys and a couple of the officers' servants. Each seaman had from three-quarters of a share to 1½ shares.[9]

In September 1808, Caroline departed Île de France, bound for Saint-Malo, under Joseph Guezenec.[1]

Fate

On 28 December 1808, the British sloop HMS Eclair was returning to Britain from Corunna when she encountered and captured Caroline north of Cape Finisterre. She brought Caroline, described as a "French Letter of Marque from the Isles of France to Bordeaux (with a valuable cargo)", to Plymouth,[10] where however, on Saturday 14 January 1809 she was run down in the Catwater and sunk.[2]

Notes, citations, and References

Notes
  1. ↑ Stirling Castle had been launched at Calcutta for Palmer & Co. She was traveling from Calcutta to Columbo when captured. Surcouf took her to Mauritius.[4] There she was sold to the Arabs. She was later lost.[5]
  2. ↑ Gallois lists these ships with French names, probably translating from the English original.[7]
Citations
  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Demerliac, p. 264 (no 2023)
  2. 1 2 Lloyd's List, n° 4319.
  3. ↑ Granier, p.221
  4. ↑ Hackman (2001), p.243.
  5. ↑ Phipps (1840), p.137.
  6. ↑ Austen (1935), p.94).
  7. 1 2 Gallois, vol.2, p.302
  8. ↑ Lloyd's List n° 4051 - accessed 9 October 2015.
  9. ↑ Austen (1935), pp.194-195.
  10. ↑ Lloyd's List n°4317 - accessed 10 October 2015.
References
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