HMS Spitfire (1793)

For other ships of the same name, see HMS Spitfire.
History
United Kingdom
Name: HMS Spitfire
Launched: 1793
Acquired: By capture 1793
Fate: Lost 1794
General characteristics [1]
Type: schooner
Tons burthen: 60 60⁄94 (bm)
Length:
  • 59 ft 4 in (18.1 m) (overall);
  • 53 ft 0 in (16.2 m) (keel)
Beam: 14 ft 8 in (4.5 m)
Depth of hold: 5 ft 4 in (1.6 m)
Complement: 40; later 35
Armament: 4 x  3-pounder guns

HMS Spitfire was the French 6-gun privateer schooner Poulette, launched in 1793, that the Royal Navy captured that same year. Lieutenant John Perkins commissioned her in April.[1] Under Perkins she was part of Commodore John Ford's squadron at Jamaica.

Spitfire was one of five vessels that shared in the proceeds of the capture on 17 July of the Lady Walterstasse, a Droit of Admiralty.[2]

In September 1793 at the request of French Royalists Commodore Ford's squadron attacked Saint-Domingue and Jérémie in the Caribbean.[3] Ford sent the frigates Penelope, Iphigenia, and Hermione, plus Spitfire, to the north side of the island where on 23 September 1793 the British captured four merchant vessels at L'Islet, and on the 29th seven at Flamande Bay. Also on the 23rd, the squadron directly under Ford captured Môle-Saint-Nicolas, where they captured amongst other vessels a schooner belonging to the French Navy named Convention Nationale; the British took her into service under her earlier name as HMS Marie Antoinette; Ford gave command of her to Perkins.[4]

Lieutenant T.W. Rich replaced Perkins.[1] On 12 February 1794 Spitfire capsized off Santo Domingo with the loss of her entire crew.[5]

Sources and references

Sources
  1. 1 2 3 Winfield (2008), p.355.
  2. ↑ The London Gazette: no. 15249. p. 379. 19 April 1800.
  3. ↑ Clowes (1897–1903), Volume 4, p. 214.
  4. ↑ The London Gazette: no. 13600. p. 1096. 10 December 1793.
  5. ↑ Hepper (1994), p.76.
References


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